A VAN HALEN 1 TONE SECRET! Hint... IT'S NOT THE GEAR! GUITAR LESSON 

"Runnin' With The Devil" tuning 1st string: Eb +12.7 cents 2nd string: Bb +26.9 cents 3rd string: F# +34.6 cents 4th string: C# +35.0 cents 5th string: Ab +35.0 cents 6th string: Eb +26.7 cents

Christ. I thought I was an EVH fan. You really get right in there brother.

Very cool. EVH essentially figured out how to get around the flaws of equal temperament without even knowing what that is. Just another testament to the godlike level of musicality and intuition he had.

It never ceases to amaze me how RU-vid is the best "university" for learning. You can't even learn this stuff at a music school. Meanwhile, there are the best free master classes up here teaching all the insider tricks previously you could only get from working in the biz. Thank you, Pete, for sharing this tip.

I remember as a kid hearing Runnin With The Devil and thinking it sounded so in-tune. Wasn't until much later that I found that guitars (being equal tempered tuning) really didn't work great in every situation for tuning. Ed just trusted his ears...and we trust him! And Pete :-). Fantastic one Pete. And the delay is hilarious. One size fits all for VH.

Safe to say Eddie was a genius.

Hey Pete have you seen the Tom Weber vids? He was Ed’s guitar tech later on, up til 2015 I believe. He talks about his interview for the job and tuning the guitars. Might even be cool to have him on a Sunday live.

On the first album version of “Runnin’ With The Devil” and on the demo versions, Eddie used the following offsets: 1st string: Eb +12.7 cents 2nd string: Bb +26.9 cents 3rd string: F# +34.6 cents 4th string: C# +35.0 cents 5th string: Ab +35.0 cents 6th string: Eb +26.7 cents I theorize that he arrived at this particular tuning for just this song by not only detuning the B string for a pleasing beatless major third, but he also tuned other strings so that the natural harmonic runs on the G, B and high E strings would be pleasing. So it’s really a combination of him tuning for pleasing intervals using chords AND natural harmonics. He never used this tuning for any other song, though most of the other offsets he used were repeated on different recordings of different songs across several albums and live tours.

This is a must when playing those chords, makes it sound so much tighter. I’m still waiting for the VH pickup comparison but I appreciate it must take a hell of a lot of editing. Stay cool Pete.

Paul Davids did a great vid about RHCP and tuning the B string to intervals and chords. Its absolutely fascinating how it just...rings so much better. Great vid Pete! Keep up the amazing work. Luis

Ed was so amazing, all the billions of people alive now on this planet & none can seem to compare his musical gift!

Dude, these tips are great. Thank you. I’ve performed Runnin’ with the Devil with my band numerous times and always wondered why it sounded slightly off when I played the riff.

Interesting! I never knew that detail about EVH. Like the old saying goes: Ya learn something new every day. Years ago, I used to agonize over lots of songs from many of the greats "just not sounding like the original studio version", and finally learned (the hard way ) about all those open & alternate tunings. Those open/alternate tunings actually made the songs easier to play and those open strings sound so much fuller vs trying to play the songs in standard tuning. I had to re-learn many songs. That was all long ago, of course. Thanks to the information age, students of guitar nowadays have it so much easier than we did back in the day. Shit, it took me years to figure out things that guys today learn in weeks, lol.

Other super important trick: do not use vibrato on the chords in the “Runnin with the Devil” chorus. Thank you, Pete, for just holding those chords static and strong, like Eddie did. Watch just about anyone else playing/teaching “Runnin with the Devil” and they’ll either absent mindedly, or out of habit, apply some really wanky vibrato to those chords after letting them ring for a moment. I really think that diminishes the power of the chorus part. Let them ring in the air with that ferocious tone, clear, strong, and wanky vibrato free. Thanks, Pete! You’re awesome.

Holy crap!.. I’ve tuned wobbly 3rds out of chords on certain songs for no other reason than what you just described for years!.. I thought I was just being insane and in constant battle with intonation!.. Thank you Pete and Ed!!!

Greetings from Jersey my friend. I wanted to make more of a general comment here - I couldn't think of a better way of honoring Eddie's memory than videos and insights like this. Truly passing on his brilliance and keeping him alive through ongoing discussions as a community about all of the magical things he experimented with, or "putzed around with" as he would say, and just flat out enjoying and immersing ourselves in all things Edward, beyond the albums alone. I really, really enjoy these just because they are enjoyable. Long live The King.

this is the truth. I remember reading about EVH doing this years ago and it was a lightbulb moment., The guitar is an imperfect instrument and we are always making tuning compromises depending on how we voice the harmony

Adding the echo makes it sound like you’re adding an extra “grace” D chord into the Runnin’ With The Devil chord riff, which is how I typically play it without the echo.

Took me years to figure out why major chords and certain extensions sounded bad in the studio, and what was the best way around it. Always great to bring this concept up so people are more aware. I think it helps explain why with more gain, keeping the chords to more simple intervals works well - flattening notes can make one layer sound good but it makes harmonies and layering a little more complex. And jazz players using a cleaner tone so the clashy harmonics don’t stick out as much. There’s also the bluesy technique of bending into the major 3rd and toying with where the note sings best.

I got my Ibanez mint unmolested for $500 in the early 90s and even thought about sawing it up to make a Shark. Man am I glad I didn't go through with it.....

Exactly, sometimes I dont trust my tuner, because standard frets doesn't perfectly give you an accurate intonation in particular places, I fixed by my ears slightly at the end

I thought a lot about how to get chords in tune as much as possible. One thing I do is tune only the D string with a tuner, then tune everything to that as long as none of the strings are way out. I tune the B string by fretting it at the third fret (a D) and tuning that to the open D string. Tuners often put that D note a little sharp when tuning the open B.

Wow, thanks! I continue to chomp away, learning new tricks of Eddie's genius. Simply amazing master of guitar.

I figured this out waaaay back, and it was like discovering gold for me. I always thought something was wrong with my guitar because of that "slightly off" sound and vibe that he describes here. Then I started putzing around with the strings and ah-HA! There are so many ingredients to the EVH secret sauce. For a seemingly "simple" set-up, the components and variables that produce "the tone" can make your head spin. Pete deserves an award for his deep dive into this tone.

I love your videos, i am constantly looking on your account for the evh pickup video. PLS UPLOAD SOON!!!!!!

I discovered this last year, learning about Eddie's tricks after his death. . Now I tune the B string slightly flat on most of my guitars, it helps a lot.

Just more icing on the cake to Eddie’s creative ingenuity. I am so glad I experienced this era of music first hand.

I had that Ibanez explorer back in 79' 80' I also bought the matching flying V - they were stolen but insured but you never get them back. Loved that explorer - perfectly balanced.

this makes sense now, thank you pete, its so great that you care about us who tune in, and the fact that your ego doesnt get the better of you...its what makes your awesome!!!

There was a post on the Van Halen news desk just the other day about this. It was from at tech who worked with Eddie in 2007. You tune the D string with a tuner then barre the D,G,B strings at the 9th fret and tune the other 2 strings until the oscillation goes away!

I’m a film composer and do a lot of guitar playing and recording and I’m constantly adjusting the 3rd of my chords , usually on the G or B string. I have to record sections at a time on certain chords, then adjust the tuning on the 3rd for other chords then do the next section. I hate when I can hear the 3rd out a little. It always drove me crazy even when I was a teenager, and always wondered if the more expensive guitars solved that problem.

Great video! I've been doing this for a long time, and never feeling "right" about it. The more distortion used, the more intermodulation products formed by the two main frequencies, and therefore the more the unwanted intermods dominate the final sound. I shall now feel "right" about doing this...

Great tip indeed! I should’ve probably mentioned this on the several EVH videos I’ve done but it’s so obvious (to me) that I forgot it 😁. I do this all the time when I’m playing live & in the studio 😎.

You know, even just by seeing you playing this riff runnin with the devil, played with extreme accuracy and feeling, can teach how to really play a riff correctly. Also the tone was spot on as always. Cheers ;)

The first time I heard this song was in 1978 and it blew my mind. I was 5 and had just started playing violin the year before. When I switched to guitar in 1982 I simply gave up learning Running with the devil after 20 or 30 attempts. I got the notes right, I was fretting it right but it just didn't SOUND right. Every time I heard those same chord shapes used by other players I could tell there was something different. When you listen to it after having acquired a mental archive of what those chord shapes ''normally sound like'' you instinctively FEEL that something about it is magical and wonder if it was how precisely he played, maybe something about the amp or a pedal. Nope, it's the tuning. Eddie was so deep down into how the instrument sounded that he didn't care if he had to break some unspoken ''rules'' to make it sound RIGHT. By the way, I never went back to play this song live with anyone. By 1987 or so I was into Maiden and Ozzy and once I learned that Randy did similar stuff and the live Tribute album with him was tuned flat I just got turned off by it because I couldn't find a band that GOT IT, everybody was into their pedal tuners and thought I was a jerk for demanding things be covered in their original tunings. By 1990 I had discovered Lee Ritenour and then Brazilian jazz and later went back to my classical roots, having given up on finding players in the USA that had even the slightest clue, then began teaching. Hats off to Eddie for doing the right thing, it sounds RELATIVELY like trash when done ''on the money''.

I learnt to tune the guitar ‘to itself’ when I started back in the 80s. Tuners never seemed ‘in tune’ to me - I still to this day go back and retune the B and E by ear. I hear SO many RU-vid videos where the guitars sound out of tune (even by some channels with a lot of subscribers).

Nailed it Pete.... I definitely heard that in 78-79...I was lucky that my ear heard it and I always tuned that way with my Eddie's when we did VH songs, and left my '72 Firebird V for all the other songs lol

My friend Andre Amato love's running with the devil!!!! Cheers Pete!!

Wow...your video brought back a memory for me. I can remember pulling my hair out thinking it was the intonation of my guitar all along. I did the same thing to compensate LOL!!

Ive been tuning my guitar this way since your eruption lesson all those years ago. Cheers man

Whenever I watch this guy I have to grab my guitar and start whaling. Thank you Pete for the inspiration.

The Tone debate. People often forget that "tone" refers to both equipment, and yes, the hands. And now, the tuning. Thanks Pete, as always, awesome lesson.

that is pretty interesting. definitely sweetens that tune right up! what a difference a couple of cents can make!

So true!!! I thought I was the only freak that did that.. I was 17 thinking that is in tune but didn't sound right so I would always do the same detune. Who knew ED did as well????? 😂

I read about the flat b string tuning about a year ago. I was convinced the instant I tried it, this really an important aspect of the sound.

Excellent!!! I've told people the same thing and they just can't believe it! They try to adjust the intonation to get it to sound right. Thank you for explaining it better than I could! Maybe they'll listen to you!!!!!

I love the runnin with the devil trick!! I always wondered how it sounded so perfectly in tune!!..because it wasn't!!....makes so much sense...

I am grinning ear to ear..... I would never have thought that just a wee bit out of tune makes the sound. I just thought bending the note slightly to get that tension was how to do it. I am tossing my tuners now!! Thanks much, very impressive, Eddie your trick is out of the bag!

I've been tuning the 3rd & 4th string exactly like that since the 70's even before I knew about this video. If it sounds good, then that's all that matters .. no rules in Music 😁🤟

Mind blow...it works! And that slap back subtle echo is a great trick. I use that all the time but tap tempo it with the song. The audience doesn't necessarily "hear" the echo but it makes rock chords "bloom" and really can give them some sustain and life...

I'm 54 years old ... and now I get to learn the fantastic tip on flattening the B string, to get those triads on the 2nd / 3rd and 4 th string sounding killer!

Just started playing this song and that struck me too, but I thought I was doing it wrong and doublechecked it with a tab. This is the solution! Thx!

Yes!! I've being flattening B since the mid 80s🔥John Frusciante does it and you can really hear it on the intro to Under The Bridge 🎸

Due to spending the last 6 months listening to vh 1 , 2 , fair warning, 1984 and women and children first I’ve ended up just tuning my guitar with the B slightly flat and pressing down harder on it for certain chords to bring it back up to pitch !

I've experimented with leaving some strings flat, others sharp. Add pinch harmonics, false notes, palm muting and such too, I'm deep into the rabbit hole.

Yes! Yes! I have been saying this to my buddies for a long time! Makes a HUGE difference! Thanks Pete!

There’s a great how to sound good all over the neck tuning that Andy at Shutup & Play shares with all new subscribers. It’s basically a compromise where if you could imagine the sweetened third is not fully sweetened but enough to improve it, you know, enough to notice, and so you wind up with a sort of split the difference but still not a tuner tuning.

Little tweaks that definitely make the sound resonate to it's potential! Thanks

Good ol' Pete always cruhsing it with the tone, the solo, the music!

That's interesting, I tune my guitar to itself too and intonate it by open string vs 19th and 20th fret on the next string and it plays way more in tune across the neck, especially things like 1st postition D chord.

Early on as a kid I would just tune my a string to Eddie's a or some note on the fretboard and then I could play with the recording. Great video!

Eddie's set up was an old 50watt Marshall through a 1960A cab. No frills. Just cranked up all the way! The sound was always pure Eddie!

Literally was playing this last night when I noticed it doesn’t sound right. Thanks Pete!

Thanks for another great piece of info Pete! I love VH and Eddie's tone and playing, but rarely play it - I'm more of a listener, but this tip, this lesson REALLY makes it all make sense now. I always thought the intonation was off on various guitars when I would play this tune, or just the same chords. Drove me nuts. Especially on my high-end guitars. I was thinking "there's no possible way this guitar was built wrong (like fret placement), but I would fiddle with the g and d strings to eliminate that dissonance, but would often go too far and lose my tuning elsewhere on the neck. Now I know!

well THAT was VERY enlightening, the inherent issues with the tuning of guitars and the effect musically could stand alot more detailed examination its one of those mysterious subtleties its similar to the weird subtleties of sting bending and vibrato the effect of the drummers playing ahead of or behind the beat is another one of those kind of things people should discuses more often tiny things that have big results

Fascinating analysis. Vai mentioned how Running sounded very intonated when he 1st heard it too. Creative & so young.

Yeah Pete, I agree he probably had several guitars at the ready for the altered tuning. Thanks for this tip.

One of the things Vai noticed when he first head VH was how in tune it sounded

Thank you so much for keeping this EVH geeking out going! You've nailed this stuff for years & yet you continue to share & educate for all of our pleasure & delight.

This is awesome Pete! I remember reading years ago about Ed de-tuning his strings. Makes a huge difference. Brilliant.

I've been doing all that for years on the tuning...now all I need is to be able to play like Pete and I'm all set.

This is a cool tip for sure! I've noticed myself over the years playing certain EVH tunes doing that. I'd flatten the b string slightly so it sounded right playing EVH. I remember years ago always getting "annoyed" that my guitar would be "out of tune" when I played a different "normal" song. I never put that much thought into it. I'm not even sure that I'd "recommend" that to someone who was playing Running with the Devil. I didn't really put 2 and 2 together. I'd just play the chord and it sounded off to me so I'd just "tune" my guitar and that b string was always sharp LOL. Anyways, great tip and video!

Wow...I never knew that. It's always been a frustration to my ears but this makes total sense. Many thanks Pete

Thanks for that Pete. I always tune my G string a touch flat so chords will sound “in” the down side is when playing single note lines on this string things can be a tad flat. It’s all about working around this stuff. The great players have good ears and work with these anomalies. I quickly evaluate players by how well they do this stuff... if their not across this I don’t enjoy playing with them. It’s critically important in my view!!!

Great video Pete. This made me think back to when I was a kid I had an old Vantage guitar with pretty nasty intonation and I always had to tune my B string back and forth like that depending on the chords that were in a given song. I was very self conscious about my "crappy guitar" and never thought it was a "proper" thing to do. Little did I know Eddie was boldly doing the same thing and conquering the world!! I can remember hearing Eddie quickly tuning his E and B strings on old bootlegs before songs. Could very well have been for this reason.

I remember this being discussed somewhere quite a while back, whish I remember where. A great knowledge drop Pete, chasing tone (and spending hours discussing Ed's tone) has become quite the hobby for so many of us!

I found this out as a kid when I really didn’t know how to tune my guitar and couldn’t afford a tuner. My mom would take me to drop my guitar off at a local shop and they’d re-string and tune my guitar (a sweet Harmony LP copy). I would try and play to VH songs and it never sounded quite right. An older kid showed me how to tune to the record using the low e as a starting point (I was 11 at the time). I’d just tune to the record whether it be VH, Kiss, or whatever. I really didn’t know it was off-set tuning until way later as an adult player. I certainly didn’t understand the extent to which EVH actually utilized this technique. However, pianos and many other string instruments use this method often. And since EVH started as a piano player many have speculated that he may have gained the knowledge of off-set tuning as result of this or just perhaps picking this knowledge up along the way but who knows for sure? IMO, I feel like Ed was learning and inventing as he went and many of his techniques were happy accidents that we as players love to dissect and sometimes over think. However, the off-set tunings are perhaps the most overlooked of the EVH playing hacks. They’ve come into focus more over the past several years and if you experiment w/these tunings you can find yourself re-discovering the joys of playing (or attempting) EVH material. Great video and playing as always! 🤘🏻

Howdy Pete, love the content and all the 'juicy' way out cool tone tips/advice/applications that you bring forth for the guitar community. Cheers! 😊

Pete, here's a quicky secret of mine: all my Strats are stock Fender fulcrum. When I need that B flatted, I bend it and I don't touch the trem bar, which would bring the pitch back to B-432 (yeah, we play in 432). Then when I need the note back to proper, I just hit the bar, and voila. Not bragging … it's just another trick. Too, the other guitarist (in our band) and I are big fans of your videos. Thanx for the wonderful stuff 🤓👍🏼

Microtonal fretted guitars compensate for this somewhat. Fretless is even better if you can get on with a fretless. As I understand that it's a phenomenon of our 12 note system and it also shows up on the piano.

Been doing that for years. With a Floyd Rose, it's between a third and half turn on the fine tuner, easy to do it on the fly 😉

Funny! When I would play along with Eddie I'd tune to him, too!🤣

Pete, this wins the Internet today and perhaps this year. Amazing.

Interesting! And funny as well. I think I got my first tuner when I was 36 years old. I didn't even bother to buy one. I just asked the keyboard player to play a bunch of notes and that's what I tuned my guitar to. When I was 36 I joined a band and these guys had lots of band gear, including a couple of tuners. I started using them and now I can't live without them. But especially when I play my acoustics I feel I can't rely on the tuner. I retune every song before going to the next, unless the next song is in the same key. It's just minor changes on one or two strings, mostly the B and G strings. I never knew why this is, but I did know I wasn't the only one doing it.

This explains all my tuning issues. I thought I was crazy. Thank you!

Well done 👍

hmmm crafty ... much appreciated as the "concept" cascades with larger applications. thank you.

Pretty sneaky Eddie. Awesome tips as always Pete

Try playing full chords in Open G -- you get the same issue. I discovered this equal tempered tuning trick the hard way -- after getting so frustrated I almost broke my favorite guitar by slamming it into the carpet because no matter how accurately I tuned it and intonated it certain chords sounded off. Reading a book on piano tuning, which discussed the nature of equal temperament and stringed instruments, helped me figure out how to 'fix' the problem. Another trick is balancing your pickup for chords, which cuts some of the bite during soloing, but it can help a bit, if you're primarily a rhythm player. It makes certain strings more dominant, and the discordant ones less dominant, but the chord still sounds full. Great video. I hope it helps a lot of guitarists out there to figure out how to get the massive chords Eddie got.

I have always done this with all of my guitars it is what sounds right to my ear...

Ibanez #2459. I love it. That is THE guitar. You are closest anyone has ever gotten to the recorded sound of that "brown sound". Pretty much spot on.

Man that sounds good!!! I never would have figured that out. Thank you!

hoping editing is going well so all of us can enjoy the pickup comparison, it would be totally gang busters to get the pup vid on Saturday and the Sunday live on Sunday!! Pete we do appreciate your efforts!!!

I was doing this for years.... completely on my own before I learned how to do it professionally. The funny thing is, that is was a crash course in ear training and I didn't even know I signed up for it, I was just making my guitar sound pleasing. Fast forward and now I can tune polyphonic style. Just mash the strings in one shot and see if you can fix it. Note, this only works if you're pretty close to start with.

Yah I play with a backing track or with the song and I noticed it wasn't really the same !! Close but not the same , I just figured it was some eddie magic lol , thanks

Remember watching the old Curt Mitchell videos talking about this and EVH. I only ever tune by ear anymore. Another great example is scar tissue by RHCP. John just tuned 2nd string to what sounded good with the riff and intonation on that guitar.

Great lesson Pete you nailed it. I long suspected that is what he did from countless hours spent listening to those classic VH records. As a guitar player for over 40 years there is no substitute to developing your ear than by locking yourself in a room playing guitar and listening to the records. I wish Eddie would have done video interviews and spoke and played of his classic songs and recording techniques. We lost a legend and prophets like yourself are what we the fans have to hold on to his secrets and techniques. Thank you for doing so. By the way have you heard anything about the Van Halen tribute concert/show planned sometime this year?

It may not be the gear, but I still can't get over that gear. Pete could dial an air freshener to sound amazing.

and I thought my intonation was messed up all this time : ) I think he did that same tuning trick on Jamie's Crying as well? Thanks brotha!!

Wow! A lifelong mistery (for me), it's finally revealed! Thanx a LOT! 😀