Hina technique question - What's Vai doing here?

[Ekim]

I was listening to the intro to Hina (DLR – Skyscraper) this morning. *I turned it up pretty loud to hear what he's doing and made a guess. *Is Steve strumming a chord muted and un-muting each string one at a time every few strums?

I'm still a beginner, just curious.

[jem7vwh]

hmm... it's a bunch of stuff.

First thing to remember is that this is Steve at the height of Rack Mania! *He was using two full racks of gear. *This song has 2 separate delays plus harmonizer and chorusing. *The very beginning is tapped harmonics, the main riff is an E triad. *

[Thomas M]

I think I read once where Steve said on that song he was playing harmony with the notes that are repeating in delay, a long delay. *

[Ekim]

Actually, I'm just asking about the very first few seconds of the song. *It sounds like he's picking muted strings. *Like I said, just the VERY start!! *Not even 15 seconds in. *You have to crank your stereo to hear cuz the level is really low.

[Thomas M]

From the "Steve Vai Guitar Extravaganza" book, tab with comments on setup by Steve
himself, I think: * He says "the guitar effect on this song is a stereo delay set at 360ms. The direct guitar is being played and heard on the left side of the stereo and the effect is coming back at the right side, 1/8th of a note after the original." *One assumes this is the case at the start which he describes by: "very softly, tap the string, causing a light pop. The echo will take care of the rest." *

Which sounds right to me. *Kind of like that effect on "Romeo Delight" by *Van Halen, after the break and "feel my heartbeat..".. *The chord shape the notation shows is a D2, first position with a C at the third fret fifth string, D and G strings muted, D at the third fret on the B string, G at the third fret on the high E string. *He alternates which string he's tapping on. I love that whole record! *