The VH Trade Site Forums Archives

[unclehomey1]

Hey did anybody on this site ever figure out how to do Edward's elephant call. It used to be posted on an early version of the official VH site (back when it actually had some useful content). I think it came from the vid of the MTV 86 special - the backstage part where the band is warming up. Ed goes "wanna hear my elephant call" and then does it twice using I think: harmonics on the 5th and 7th fret and volume swell w a bunch of sustain and delay. PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG ON THIS.

He also does the horsey thang that he used to do live a lot in the 90s - especially on There's Only One Way to Rock.

[Iron Mike]

You talking about the sounds he makes during "Intruder"?

[ekru]

"harmonics on the 5th and 7th fret and volume swell w a bunch of sustain and delay. PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG ON THIS"

... add 12th-fret 1st string harmonic to your 5th & 7th fret harms, while bringing the vibrato-bar up and simultaneously raising the volume. And, no delay needed; just plenty of overdrive on the amp to get the harmonics wailin'. that's it. (yes, the backstage footage you speak of is from MTV's 1986 "VH Unleashed" Special )

[Chris UK]

unclehomey1 wrote:
He also does the horsey thang that he used to do live a lot in the 90s - especially on There's Only One Way to Rock.

You gotta get a pinch harmonic with your thumb and pleck on your right hand on the G string with the wang bar already depressed. You need to be fretting a note on the G string with your left hand somewhere around the 7th fret, but its not an exact science. As you raise the bar, also bend the G string and put a lot of LH vibrato into it and then release the bend. Its one of those things thats actually quite easy to show someone, but a bugger to put into words.

Uli Roth does a few good hourse 'neighs' on the live version of Fly To The Rainbow (Tokyo Tapes 1978). Listen to the mad feeback fest wig-out at the end of the track to hear them..... any fan of Ed's extreme wang bar work will like this too...... if you listen closely to one of the blubber-land divebombs, you can actually hear the speakers crapping out with the volume!!

An alternative approach to immitating elephants was pioneered by Adrian Belew back in 1981 on the King Crimson song Elephant Talk. He uses a maxed out Electro Harmonix Flanger in conjunction with wang bar and neck slides to get a similar sound. The solo is pretty damn mind blowing sick mutant stuff too. Every broadminded axe-fanatic should own Discipline (1981) which is the album it comes from.

Chris.

[Dirq Van]

Edward's elephant call is on this dvd
I actually have a screencap of him doing it



Band - Artist: Eddie Van Halen

Venue: Jumping Over Mt. Fuji
Location: Various, Japan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Year: 2006
Show Date: 2006-00-00
Show Notes: Menu - Chapter Points
Various TV Specials From Japanese TV

Video Attribute :
Video compression mode : MPEG-2
TV system : 525/60 (NTSC)
Aspect Ratio : 4:3
Display Mode : reserved
Source picture resolution : 720x480 (525/60)
Frame Rate : 29.97
Source picture letterboxed : Not letterboxed
Bitrate : 8.70Mbps

Audio Attribute :
Audio Coding mode : Dolby Digital
Sampling Rate : 48kHz
Audio application mode : Not specified
Number of Audio channels : 2
Bitrate : 224 Kbps
Number of Audio streams : 1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Media: 1DVD
Source: Pro Shot
Running time: 61 Minutes
Generation:
Authored: Yes
Authored by: CATO Productions

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tracklist: 01. 1978 Ginza Now

Van Halen Lip Syncs "You Really Got Me"
Short Interview With Band (Japanese Translated)

02. 1986 Evening Hit Studio

Van Halen Interview In Studio (Japanese Translated)
Why Can't This Be Love (Videoclip)

03. 1988 Best Hit USA

Van Halen Interview (Japanese Subs)
Pre Show Footage Portland, OR 1988-11-24
Building The Stage
Light At Show (Technician Interview)
Al's Drumkit (Technician Interview)
Van Halen Interview Before The Show
When It's Love (Videoclip)
Finish What Ya Started (Videoclip)
Eddie & Sammy's Guitars (Technician Interview)
Keyboards (Technician Interview)

04. 1996 The Beat File

Eddie & Alex Interview (Japanese Subs)
The DLR Reunion & Recording The Songs

05. 1998 Break Down

Van Halen Interview (Japanese Subs)
Talk About Gary Joining VH

06. 1998 MFTV

Eddie Interview By Tak Matsumoto
Eddie Plays A Little Bit Of Guitar On A Table
(Japanese Translated)

07. 1998 News Station

Eddie & Gary Interview In Studio (Japanese Translated)
Eddie & Gary Perform "Josephina" (Live)

[vhrob]

this is EXACTLY how Edward does it.

I am a guitar player and I do it all the time.

First off use a channel on your amp with a lot of gain and crunch.

Turn the volume off on your guitar. Hit a nice clean, loud harmonic on the 5th (G string), 7th (B string) and 12th (high E string) frets allowing each one to ring out real loud. Then quickly push the bar down about half way (depending on how you have your floyd hooked up) and as you raise the bar swell your volume on and if the harmonics are hit crisp and hard enough you will get the Elephant call.

I will tell you I have been doing this for 11 years now and it takes some getting used to and you have to get the right touch on all ends to get it to sound like Ed. But once you get it, it sounds SWEET....

worth the effort for sure.

[vhrob]

oh yeah one other thing.....

once you raise the bar and swell the volume on.... you will let it "ROUR" like an elephant and then you will have to lower the volume again and at the same time drop the bar down again to get the fade away effect.

just practice it and you will see what I mean if you dont already.

fun little trick to do.

Its so obvious that Ed spent hours upon hours of messing with the guitar because that is the only way ANYONE could think up these things.

:thumb:

[unclehomey1]

Thanks for the info on the Elephant thang and the Horsey thang - I knew how to do them just was wondering if anyone else figured out a different way to get the same sound. As far as the Intruder thang that Iron Mike asked about - I remember seeing Ed do it (more than once) w a 16 oz can of Schiltz Malt Liquor back on the Diver Down tour.

MZ

[Macdon22shippTWO]

My kids call it the Horsey noise. Hey Dad did you hear that horse noise in the song?????

[Mike Wick]

Thanks for posting how to do these. :thumb:
Breaking out the giutar right now to try them :D

[Mike Wick]

Got the elephant thing down.Still working on the horse noise.
Thanks again for the instructions

[radikal]

I think Ed's elephant call was heard :eek:

[Ford Fairlane]

It's not Van Halen, but anyone remember Brad Gillis of Night Ranger using the same idea in the early 80s with harmonics at the 7th fret of the low E and A string and getting a pretty good motorcycle? He'd use the bar to "shift" by pressing it back down quickly...oh where have the days of guitar heroes gone? :confused: