We’re going back a few years. The idea of a Eddie Van Halen tribute tour was floating in the air. According to Joe Satriani, David Lee Roth and even Alex Van Halen reached out to him directly about making something happen—a tour that would honor Eddie and bring the music back to life.
Well, David Lee Roth had once asked Joe Satriani to do the impossible, not to play like Eddie Van Halen.
Satriani touched upon his approach to emulating Eddie Van Halen’s tone, which also wasn’t a straightforward task. He said: “Ed had a million sounds. ‘Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love’ to ‘Panama’ is a huge jump, then to ‘Summer Nights’ is a crazy jump. He went from mono to mono with a little bit of stereo from the Eventide to widen the pitch, and then full stereo. He used Marshall, Soldano, Peavey, and EVH. Those are huge changes in terms of preamp gain and compression. He went from a lot of midrange to quite scooped. So I asked Dylana Scott at 3rd Power Amplification to solve it for me. We went for the 1986 La-ive Without a Net tone, because it was all Marshalls but with the extra stereo-ness.”
Satriani’s efforts with 3rd Power birthed DRGN 100, which was the result of the “deep search into Ed’s tone.” Reflecting on that particular quest, Satch offered:
“Going back some years, when David Lee Roth and Alex Van Halen first called me about a tribute, I started this deep search into Ed’s tone. His sound was lighter and thinner than my JVM, which was designed to make all my high notes super fat.”
“That’s what I usually do for two hours on stage. I’m not playing many chords. But when I play with Sammy, it’s 95 percent rhythm and then eight or 16 bars of solo. A quick rip before coming back.”
Ever since Sammy Hagar’s “Best of All Worlds” tour was announced, it was almost unanimously agreed upon that if anyone were to step in Eddie Van Halen’s shoes, then the celebrated virtuoso and The Red Rocker’s longtime collaborator Joe Satriani was the man for the job.
The extensive tour proved that Satch’s decision to pay homage to the material without directly copying it was the right one. Backed by Michael Anthony on bass and Jason Bonham on drums, Satch performed the late guitar great’s iconic licks with elegant ease, even though he intentionally kept away from Eddie’s playing style for decades so as not to subconsciously copy him.
