Have you tried it with the displaced downstroke on the 3rd note, after down & hammer for the first two?
I think there’s some logic to the idea that it creates an attack that’s somewhere between just doing the hammer, and actually picking the lower string.
As an exercise to get the motions down, you could move the L & R hands to separate string groups. For example, pick the open 2nd & 1st strings b-e-e-e-e (D, D-U-D-U) while also playing 3-5-7, 3-5-7 on the low E & A entirely with LH hammer-ons.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get the hang of doing a deliberately displaced pickstroke. This is why I’ve settled on D-Hammer-Down on the lower string and Up-Down-Up on the next string. It’s seems like it’s the only logical way to consistently play these parts.
I can’t wrap my head around “deliberately making a mistake” which is what this “displaced pickstroke” thing seems to be as far as I can understand.
I think one thing that I feel is important to remember is Eddie most likely did all this stuff without much analysis, so he built up an ability to just do this stuff without being precise about it. Just like how we learn to talk, none of us ever really thought about how to say words and how to combine them all together, we just went with the flow at a Young age. And that also gives us our various accents.
I heard wolf say that his dad was a bad teacher, and that implies he never thought hard about this, it just worked and he went for it. I think that kinda thing is incredibly hard to replicate.
I personally play it: DHH UDU DUDS UDU DUDS UDU etc…
S being swipe. And I am happy with the sound and feel. The initial double hammers give it the legato flow.
It’s also important imo to understand how different holding the pick for that run with just the middle and thumb is. It gives it that floppy loose flow. I’m pretty convinced from practice and seeing him play it in many different vids this is how he did it. But If I’m wrong oh well. I have really experienced paralysis by analysis by my initial obsessions with Eddie, and then Jason Becker. So I’m trying my best to just play with that feels right now.
Can you post a clip? This is a clip I made in 1997 of me trying to do it with D-H-H, and God knows what on the high E. It was before I knew that the one almost constant in the pattern is the U-D-U on the high E.
I think we all agree with Troy in thinking that Eddie intended to pick all six notes, but he was incapable of doing that, so he just went for it with randomness and unrepeatable mistakes. I’m just trying to settle on a repeatable pattern that comes closer to sounding like Eddie’s accidents.
I will give it a go mate, but you are a way more advanced player than me. So Don’t laugh 
I’ll edit this later. Look forward to your reply as it will no doubt help my understanding.
Here:
I think the main thing I’m missing is that hard hit on the b sting in every repeat. Giving it a galloping sound, I think it comes across the first two sets, but second two are a bit too uniform.
I think it’s all picked apart from the start hammers with a real quick snap from each up E string and down B string, and swiping included. In all the videos I’ve seen of him playing this, it’s how his hands seem to move. But I’m still very new to guitar relatively so better ears than mine might “see” better.
I also believe due to Ed’s hand construction, that I’ve posted about in past gave him a real direct grip with middle and thumb grip, and I think this is where that snappyness came from. I have an awkward time getting a proper grip with middle n thumb, and I’ve seen your hands garbeaj I think we have similar range of motion with our thumb compared to Ed who hand near 90 degree angles in both thumb joints.
Re listening to the track I actually hear some serious legato on the first set, it might be DHH UHU DUDS UDU DUDS etc… I can really hear that listening to it now. I’ve not heard it in awhile.
This is a reason I said forget it! lol Different every time 
After playing with it for a bit I can feel how Ed might of missed that first full alternate pick. DHH UHU.
I think he might of missed that middle pick due to the way he legatos into the run. It lifts your hand up in a way that you might miss a proper alternate pick motion. And ed used his forarm rotation a LOT in his picking, just like his tremolo. I think this excessive use of forearm rotation might of prevented him from making that middle upward stroke. A forearm rotation doesn’t make contact with the strings unless you bring the hand down towards them, and the initial lift of the hand might of made his forearm rotation miss the middle pick.
But saying that… In the video I posted of his run up there ^ his hand is doing more elbow and wrist combined back n forth alternate picking. LOL ultimately idk. I say just do you, what are we trying to do anyway? Be evh? He even told his own son don’t copy me! Be you. 
The thing to bear in mind is that Troy has already basically transcribed what is going on if you’ve read through his responses earlier in this thread. That’s not really debatable…we know what Eddie did because Troy has already illustrated that perfectly. The truth has already been revealed earlier in this thread.
What I’m trying to do is to find a way to play a repeatable pattern for this section of sextuplets. Troy has basically proven that it is impossible to play it as Eddie played it…too many mistakes and mistakes don’t really have a repeatable pattern. We’ve all pretty much agreed that Eddie was attempting to pick all six notes, but it came out loaded with whacky, random mistakes that sound cool.
I’m trying to find a compromise between actually picking all six notes as Ed intended and executing all the mistakes that he made when he actually attempted to pick all six of the notes, but failed spectacularly! My goal is to come up with a repeatable method for perform the sextuplets that captures most of the sound and feel that Ed achieved on the recording.
Again, just read Troy’s responses in this very thread about the “Spanish Fly” sextuplets to learn exactly how Eddie actually played them.
I think it’s quite possible to replicate whats in that slowed down version troy posted.
To me he misses two notes and soft picks a few others.
And it’s prob due to him not thinking about it about just going for it. Idk if there’s more to be said then tbh 
just practice what Troy posted. A technique I’d try is squeezeing on the pick for the last up and first down for the snap, loosen up for the rest and basicly miss those two notes Eddie doesn’t hit.
I think he is likely focusing on the last upstroke and first down. Everything else is whatever, so much so he literally doesn’t play/misses two notes of it.
You’re really close on the one you did before, you have the galloping effect going, it just needs a hard last upstroke on each rep
I don’t think it is possible to play it as it was played on the album. I follow what Troy posted, but it’s clear to me that nothing repeats exactly the same on any of it…therefore it is really unplayable and unrepeatable.
I had experimented with picking all six notes and using a light attack and palm muting on the B string and then releasing the palm mute and increasing the attack with the U-D-U on the high E (as I’d mentioned earlier in this thread) and that seemed to get close to the feel and sound, but still not quite right to my ear.
I might continue with my current D-H-D on the B string and U-D-U on the high E, while trying to to add the soft attack and palm mute on the B string and release of the palm mute and digging in on the U-D-U on the high E. That’s one thing I haven’t tried yet. Again. I know that’s not what is happening on the recording as Troy has pointed out, but it’s still me taking a stab at finding a repeatable, intentional way to play these parts.
Tbh, idk why you say that, the recording Troy posted has the pitchs and sound levels, if you’re really wanting to get it like the recording play what you hear on that and make it a point to hit the last upstoke and first downstroke hard…
But I know you’ve been working on this lick a long time so I respect You may have done this before.
If I was going to do this I’d copy that videos sound n work it up to speed.
I am really confidant that his grip played a big part in his attack. He had a lot of surface area to work with and the angles of force to let up on the pick a load without losing his grip. And could clamp down hard if needed. It’s also a reason he could do so much tapping and not get worn out. His angles were just more efficient than most peoples due to his hands.
Same reason jason Becker had such an easy time with arpeggios, superflexible and big hands.
I don’t really know anything about other people’s hands giving them any extra ability. I think that if any human being played something, there’s no reason that I can’t play it myself.
I just know that there is no repeated pattern in the sextuplets in “Spanish Fly” and I’m just trying to find a consistent repeatable pattern that gives a general impression of the many random accidents and “air balls” as Troy calls them. The whole idea of “trying” to accidentally-on-purpose “sort’ve” hammer-on a note while accidentally-on-purpose hitting the string with your pick at the same time as the aforementioned “accidental-on-purpose” as you sort’ve swipe to get to the intended U-D-U on the high E string which you deliberately don’t execute the same way each time. That’s madness, especially when you consider that Eddie was almost certainly trying to pick all six notes to begin with.
This is why I’m doing what I’m doing, which is, again, to try to come up with a repeatable pattern that captures the flavor of the album’s random mistakes.
It’s a big reason on guitar there are so many ways to pick and hold the pick, everyone has different angles, lengths of bone, muscle n tendons attachments. It all gives different people different ability and expression on the guitar. If we were talking about piano then it wouldn’t matter as much as you just press down a key for the most part. Where as guitar we got direct contact with the strings so any little difference in our body’s comes across in the sound.
I will have a go at practicing it myself like in that recording as I can’t talk if I don’t put the work in.
I’m pretty sure eddies hands gave him quite an advantage over us on his style of playing tho.
Do you have video of your current progress? I’d love to hear.
Here is another view of the run. And to me it looks like he is pretty much doing what he does in the more recent video posted before. Just raking the pick across the two strings and doing most the work with left hand.
I don’t see him playing the sextuplets in that live video. I just don’t buy that any guitar player has some kind of genetic advantage over another. If a human played it, I can play it as well. I think it’s just an excuse to not work hard.
I haven’t made a clip of me trying my latest D-H-D on the B string and U-D-U on the high E compromise yet.
It’s there I even timestamped it. 1:36
And I think if someone else can do it we can too is not at all true.
Hard work won’t change the way your body naturally works really. Thats why in sports the elite players are often of one race or body type.
But I agree we can play similar with work. But it will never be the same because he was playing in a way that naturally worked for him, not forcing it.
From my perspective to play it similar to him the last e string and first b are snapped hard, the rest is then played really letting up on the force.
I see the part you are referring to, but it’s not a very good example. He plays the sequence twice at most, unlike the other common footage of his solo segments like LWAN and the ‘82 and ‘83 footage.
I can’t believe you actually brought race into this, but let’s just leave that genetics thing as something that we fundamentally disagree on.
Here’s a clip of me playing the “Girl Gone Bad” drum/guitar synch riff using my compromise “Down-Hammer-Down on the lower string and Up-Down-Up on the next string.
It’s just another good look at what hes doing with the pick. And one from quite a bit earlier from the HD 2015 version. So I think it adds to the evidence that he picked it that way all the time. And that only leaves his left hand muting/not fully fretting certain parts to work on.
There is nothing wrong with talking about race and genetic differences. It’s a fact of life. I use it to point out that how your body is constructed most certainly effects what you are capable of preforming at a high level. And Eddie was an elite player.
The clip sounds really good. Nice playing, it’s very close to the Spanish fly sound
I disagree with everything you are saying about race and genetics. There are those that put in the work and those that don’t in my opinion and in my experience. What you are saying is an excuse and there is no excuse for not working hard to learn anything you want to learn. My life as a player is an example of the truth of what I say. I am no better or worse than you, Jimi Hendrix or Van Halen. It’s just that two of those guys worked harder than anyone else…and those two guys aren’t me and you.
I like how my compromise picking patterns work with the “Girl Gone Bad” synch riff, but not as much on the “Spanish Fly” sextuplets just yet, but I’ll keep working on those. I transcribed and played the LWAN solo many decades ago and I played those sequences quite differently. But I need to re-examine how to approach those parts again…
I’ll also work on it too and post another vid sometime.
I do hear what you are driving at as far as the quick attack/link from the high E back down to B string to begin each second repeat of the sextuplets as they climb up the neck.
My impression is that he is not doing that link with an Upstroke sweep from the last note on the high E and to the B string to begin the sequence again. Which is why I’m going with the Down-Hammer-Down on the B string and Up-Down-Up on the high E. I can play it up to speed on an electric, but I’m killing myself trying to play it on my non-cutaway Ovation classical. I think I’m getting closer to my goal of having something repeatable that is a compromise between his mistakes and his intentions. It’s such a grey area!
