Eddie made me pick up the guitar.

Ive spent 30 years trying to play guitar like Eddie. Im a damn good guitar player, but I still get stumped by his style. I think any serious guitar player would say the same thing.

Eddie had a signature sound that really brought out his skill. I didn't know he was an inventor as well. Its a little creepy when the folks your age bracket are dropping. Who was it that said "everyone moves up one in line"?
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There were Gypsy and Jazz guys in the 20s and 30s using double hand techniques, its even dated back to the original shredder, Paganini.

I said EVH was the most influential and important rock guitar player after Hendrix. I meant from a guitar player's POV. Jimi Hendrix turned electric guitar on its head in the late 60s and defined the guitar for that most wonderful era, the 70s. In 1978, EVH put a bomb under the electric guitar and quite literally set the tone for rock guitar for the next several decades.

Ed isnt my favorite player btw, sentimentally Jimmy Page is.

Its just my opinion. YMMV.

This whole bootleg is great. They recorded it at the Pasadena Civic Center just after the first album was done, but not yet released. They have a few tunes from the second album on here in different form. Every second of this show oozes four guys about to take over the world. The fire and tone from Ed are just beyond. Check out Somebody Get Me a Doctor at 18:54. That solo is so awesome.

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Found my concert shirt from 1984...
The shirt seems much smaller than I remember it being for some reason.
Wore it under my button down but did show my students. One wise guy said that shirt is twice as old as I am.

Enough about the tapping... Who cares?

Even Eddie said he didnt invent it.

As for swing and groove..... This is super hard to play well.. Everybody talks about Eddie's lead playing... He was also one of the greatest rhythm players that ever lived....

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That song is insane. That's got a lot of swing from Al too. No one else, absolutely no one, can nail that song. Ed dances all over the pocket, falls down the stairs and lands on his feet. You can spend years working on that one and still not nail it.

I just heard this. RIP.

He was. There is so much unbridled joy on VH1. From the very first notes, that flick behind the nut opening Running with the Devil.....Ed announces his intentions.

I so clearly remember first hearing that record. A friend of mine, a drummer, handed me a cassette at school and smirked "You need to listen to this." Even drummers knew.

I fully recognize Eddies greatness. However as a dude whose all time favorite guitar solo is that by Al Anderson in No Women No Cry with Bob Marley at the Lyceum concert 1975, the Van Halen stile is not really up my alley. :D

You have a few fun guitar solos on YouTube as I remember. :cool:

I can´t remember. :D

Yup. Huge respect... one of those people who was lucky enough to figure out what he was born to do and actually do it. Malmstein, Vai, Satriani, Johnson... even Page. I think EVH outdid them all. Hendrix might’ve been better in the sense of foraying into uncharted waters but that’s just opinion. Can’t really compare to Clapton or BB King because the styles are so different, but he’s in that league. Incredible talent.

Any one of his songs humbles me every time I attempt it for myself. The guy was an animal.

From another board

19 year old Eddie Van Halen in Elizabeth Wiley's garage, Altadena 1974. Photo taken by Liz herself. Rest in peace Eddie.
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^^ So much for Eddie not being able to afford a decent guitar.
Nice Les Paul in 74'!

He had a bunch of nice guitars in the early days. I saw him with 1/2 dozen but he often dissected them, cut them down, or turned them into science projects. It's just that FrankenStrat was his main axe when their album hit and it became part of his image.

The LP in that pic looks like a LP Special from the late 60s. They cost about $300 used in 1974.

I imagine he was good enough by 74 to have a few guitars given to him...

For the songs on the first album with no whammy bar, he used the Ibanez Destroyer, which he had just made into the Shark guitar, later seen on the cover of the third album. It's in the video for You Really Got Me. The Frankenstrat was used mostly on the second album, was painted red before the tour, and had a Floyd Rose on it by the third album. And there are some outtake photos of him with a tobacco burst Les Paul Junior for the photo shoot for the first album. I guess they decided the Frankenstrat looked cooler for the final cut.

BTW, of all his great feats, the one I find most amazing is Hot For Teacher. He used a '59 Korina wood Flying V, the whole song is done in one take with no overdubs and that solo and tone are just to die for. Those guitars are north of $400k now.

Eddie was the GREATEST , and I will go to my grave stating that Van Halen is the greatest American rock band. RIP

Did Eddie design the red/black/white graphics on his guitars?