Has anyone seen that Van Halen backstage/interview tape during the early Hagar
era where Eddie shows how he does a horse whinny and an elephant sound? I taped
it off of MTV 15+ years ago--I think that footage was shown in one of their concert
videos. If I remember right, his volume pots are all the way down and he hits 3(?)
different harmonics, each on a different string. This produces a dissonant chord--
then, he turns the volume knob up (amp is cranked with distortion and some echo)
and (I think) he has the bar down--turning up the volume and releasing the bar to
sharpen the chord produces the whinnying sounds. I might actually have this tape
in storage--I'll have to dig it out.
Also, Doug Marks, the guy who did the Metal Method series of instruction tapes,
used to have a cassette called "Metal Tricks," which was all about making odd
sounds with your guitar. IIRC, some of it was pretty basic (pick scrapes on the
wound strings with echo, the "bees" sound like the introduction to Hendrix's
"Foxy Lady"--done with echo effect, vibrato, then fading in with the volume knob
with the amp cranked, bending behind the nut, "faking" a wang bar being pulled
up by trilling on a string with your fretting hand and pulling the string sharp with
your picking hand (above the fretting hand).
I actually have this tape (again, in storage)--I'll see if I can find it to refresh my
memory.