EVH’s Two and a Half Men Riff, Extended Version

September 28, 2009 | By | 4 Replies More

EVH_TwoandaHalfMen_0909
Did you see Edward Van Halen on the Two and a Half Men TV show last week? Naturally they left him until the last part of the show, but for Ed fans the wait was worth it – because Ed had a guitar in his hands and proceeded to whip off 10 or so seconds of smokin’ riffage, bum thumb and all.

I don’t know what I expected, but judging from my reaction it was something slower. Easier, maybe. Why, I don’t know. Whatever the case, I re-played the riff about 8x with the TiVo, grabbed one of the guitar lyings around (literally!) the living room and tried to figure some of it out.

It’s a cool riff, but to get an appreciation of just how cool it is you need to go back a few years – six, to be exact. A couple of the EVH sleuths at the MetroAmp forum remembered that riff from a semi-obscure series of videos titled “Ed behaving badly” at the 2003 NAMM show.

I watched/listened to those vids years ago, and forgot about that particular riff until I was reminded. Even though Ed seems a little “odd” (booze?) in those vids, his playing as usual is killer and that “wicked F-ing boogie,” as he calls it, (the Two and a Half Men riff) is sweet!

In the vid you can see how his strange pick grip works for him, and how rhythm means everything to him. You’ll see what I mean.

Could use of that riff on Two and a Half Men mean Ed has it teed up for Dave? Hope so!

(You may notice that in the Two and a Half Men skit, Ed is using his D2H tailpiece to drop the low E down to an even-lower A, I believe.)

The Two and a Half Men riff

Extended version of same riff (first 1:18), NAMM 2003

Category: Edward Van Halen

Comments (4)

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  1. Kyle says:

    Damn, I watch alot of that show and somehow missed the one with Eddie! Well now I've seen the best part so it's all good

  2. APE says:

    Hopefully this'll be on the new album!!

  3. heshi says:

    meanwhile Chickenfoot is doing album #2…

    get with it VH before we all fade away and die…

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