Drop Dead Legs question

[jds22]

There are so many great players here I hope somebody can answer this for me.

During the verses Ed keeps doing this bend or slide thing on the A string 3rd fret. I'm sure all of you know the part I'm talking about. The problem I have is to my ears it doesn't sound like he is just doing a full step bend. I'm hearing either a slide or a bend and then a slide, or something else but I can't quite put my finger on it.

I've seen tons of vids of some great players doing this song but I've yet to find one that, to my ears at least, gets that part right.

Any ideas on what Ed's doing there?

[donnyboiler]

I never noticed this before! I'd been doing it as two bends.

Here's what I think is going on:

1.Open D
2. pluck C at 3rd fret of "A" string, full tone bend to D without re-picking
3. Dip bar *from this D* without re-picking. Dip is one tone, hence mimicking the bend we just heard
4. Allow dip to return to pitch, simultaneously sliding up to the D at the 5th fret - hence the "slide out of nowhere" effect
5. Slide off to the C again, start the next part of the lick.

A lot of words to explain something that feels relatively natural on the guitar. Just gotta eat my dinner and I'll make a Youtube vid explaining this better.

[mr.twistyneck]

thank you donnyboiler, i've had the same question for years, and been too lazy to bother figuring it out.

Stealing Now.

[jds22]

I never noticed this before! I'd been doing it as two bends.

Here's what I think is going on:

1.Open D
2. pluck C at 3rd fret of "A" string, full tone bend to D without re-picking
3. Dip bar *from this D* without re-picking. Dip is one tone, hence mimicking the bend we just heard
4. Allow dip to return to pitch, simultaneously sliding up to the D at the 5th fret - hence the "slide out of nowhere" effect
5. Slide off to the C again, start the next part of the lick.

A lot of words to explain something that feels relatively natural on the guitar. Just gotta eat my dinner and I'll make a Youtube vid explaining this better.

Will try this when I get home.
It's good to know that I'm not the only one hearing this. Ed's definitely doing something pretty slippery here.

[garbeaj]

There is no Floyd Rose or any other tremolo bar used on the main riff to "Drop Dead Legs". The Flying V was the main guitar on the song...the lead guitar overdubs were likely the Frankenstein.

I discussed the man riff to this song at length with others on the Classic Van Halen forum a few years ago and I have figured it out..mostly with the help of jimi22812 on this forum who also posted there back then. I basically copied his fingerings which were similar to fingerings that were posted in an interview with Ed and he completely changed my opinion on how to play this riff properly.

The main thing to remember is that the vintage Korina '58 Gibson Flying V (probably with original P.A.F.'s-same guitar that was used for "Hot For Teacher" and "Girl Gone Bad") was used for the main guitar on the recording. Later, lead guitar overdubs were done with a Floyd Rose equipped guitar, most likely the Frankenstein if we go by the pictures taken at 5150 around the time of the recording of 1984.

Here is a fingering that I think sounds pretty close to, if not identical to the record and it involves no bar use:

1. Play the two-note hammer-on part on the sixth string.
2. Play the open D string.
3. (This is all one continuous legato motion picking only the first note once) Hit the C note at the 3rd fret of the 5th string and bend it up do D then quickly release back down to C, then with the string still ringing slide up to the D note at the 5th fret of the 5th string, then pull off to the C note at the 3rd fret.
4. Play the C power chord (3rd fret, 5th string and the open G string).


Here is a clip that I made by using this method that I think confirms what Ed actually did. I recorded this using my old Kramer Striker, but I did not use the bar on this at all...I just played it exactly as I have described in the above instructions.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZq-hl9DCV0[/youtube]

Alot of the confusion about this riff is because the official Cherry Lane transcription showed this "slippery" part as being played using a Floyd Rose for tremolo bar "dips". One of these days I'll make a clip with my own Flying V and it should sound even better.

[donnyboiler]

I'm inclined to agree actually. While my video was uploading it occurred to me you could do the whole thing without the bar. Releasing the C bend has exactly the same effect.

I'm gonna make a new instructional video with this new info, hope it helps.

[garbeaj]

I'm inclined to agree actually. While my video was uploading it occurred to me you could do the whole thing without the bar. Releasing the C bend has exactly the same effect.

I'm gonna make a new instructional video with this new info, hope it helps.

Yeah...it takes some practice to get the riff flowing right in the same way that it flows on the record. It really helps to play it on a '58 styled Flying V to truly appreciate how it felt in Ed's hands. It just "sits right" on that guitar...I loved the sounds and feel of "Hot For Teacher", "Girl Gone Bad", "5150" and "Drop Dead Legs" so much that I can honestly say Ed was the primary motivating factor that led to me getting my '58 reissue Flying V. I love Albert King and Scorpions/Schenker brothers and all the other great Flying V players, but it was Ed that made me go out and get mine!

[garbeaj]

Of course the other thing I neglected to mention is that the song is "Drop-D" tuning...

[mr.twistyneck]

Ah, sweet - bonus coolness!

[fivecoyote]

Yes, no trem on that tune. Ed's sick hands -- what control to make it sound like a bar but really it's digits. The man!

[Leotis]

This is the way I hear it... see what ya think. Drop D, of course...

[Santino]

I don't think Ed plays that open D string. I think he plays it on the A string fifth fret, then pulls off to the third fret for the big bends. I don't understand people who interview him. Especially the 1984 album interview he just did. How do you play DDL would be on my list of ten questions for him. I guess we already know how he does it. Just a matter of getting it to sound like him.

[garbeaj]

I think I did figure out how he plays it and I think the clip I made sounds pretty much exactly like the record to me. Maybe I need to just post a TAB that shows what I have already written in words...that might be easier to understand.

[rgorke]

I don't understand people who interview him. Especially the 1984 album interview he just did. How do you play DDL would be on my list of ten questions for him. I guess we already know how he does it. Just a matter of getting it to sound like him.

Totally agree. I listen to that Steve Rosen interview of Ed in '79 or 80 at least once a week. There should be a ton of interviews like this where Ed talks what he likes to talk about, playing guitar. He says that in that interview, " Sorry to ask so much about this, I know you live, breath and drink guitar." Ed, "I'd rather do this than have you interview me."

Other quotes, "Ah it so simple." "It's just a chord" "That's all you do" " I can't play it slow" and many more.

[garbeaj]

+1 to Roger and Santino...