Eddie Van Halen impact

[Xanadoood]

Was Eddie’s impact on rock guitar as immediate and explosive as people claim it to be? You will read articles about how after the debut everyone was looking to play like that , but is that true? Any forum members who were around then care to share their experiences from that time period?

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

The year was 1978. I'd been playing guitar for only a few years, and I was having fun trying to learn tunes by Ted Nugent, Boston, Aerosmith and Lynyrd Skynyrd. I was a big fan of Led Zep and Kansas (Leftoverture was the album that opened the prog door for me) but guitar-wise I wasn't ready to tackle that kind of music yet.

 

I was at my cousin's house one day, and he pulled out an album and said, "Wait till you hear this." He knew I'd been playing guitar for a bit and was anxious to see my reaction. The album was Van Halen I. Right off the bat the album cover got my attention, especially the guy holding the striped guitar. Naturally the first song he played was Eruption. The tone, the speed, the precision, the note choices, the tapping, the attitude -- I'd never heard anything like that before. "How the hell is he doing that?" was probably what I said after the first listen, followed by "Play that again."

 

That year, I was one of many people who had someone tell them "Wait till you hear this" as they put that album on their turntable. It was a watershed moment for guitar. Was Eddie’s impact on rock guitar as immediate and explosive as people claim it to be? Absolutely, yes.

[grep]

Was Eddie’s impact on rock guitar as immediate and explosive as people claim it to be? You will read articles about how after the debut everyone was looking to play like that , but is that true? Any forum members who were around then care to share their experiences from that time period?

 

 

Yeah. Everyone was playing that record. Everyone. Nothing sounded like it at the time.

 

Many of them of them picked up the guitar themselves, with varying levels of seeing it through.

 

From there, you get some that kept going into a band, got signed and then that path.

Edited February 19, 2022 by grep

[IbanezJem]

Hearing Eddie first when I was 12, it raised the bar for what I expected guitar players to be able to do. There are a lot of rock bands that I literally laughed at come solo time, as they sounded like a sad rip-off that missed all the feeling, tastefulness and warmth of EVH. And they were the guitarists who were at least technically proficient enough to try.

[ozzy85]

EVH pretty much ended the whole late '60's 1970's Hendrix/Page era. What made it stick was that the songs were so good. It wasn't just a showcase of guitar pyrotechnics.

[ReRushed]

It's true. Everything was different after Eddie Van Halen.

[treeduck]

One interesting aspect of Eddie's impact is how his influence got other guitarists to copy his style and/or his techniques. So my question is who is the best of the Eddie imitators? Who is the best of the Eddie acolytes? Who is the king of the Van Halen disciples??

[custom55]

Eddie is mentioned with Stairway to Heaven solo.

 

[chemistry1973]

I’d say an exponential reach and influence compared to Hendrix. Plate shift in music and guitar playing. I don’t think you can overstate EVH’s impact.

[Turbine Freight]

Was Eddie’s impact on rock guitar as immediate and explosive as people claim it to be? You will read articles about how after the debut everyone was looking to play like that , but is that true? Any forum members who were around then care to share their experiences from that time period?

 

I've played guitar since I was 6 & in all that time absolutely nothing had the impact of EVH coming on to the scene. Complete game-changer that can't be overemphasised.

[Alex’s Amazing Arpeggios]

One interesting aspect of Eddie's impact is how his influence got other guitarists to copy his style and/or his techniques. So my question is who is the best of the Eddie imitators? Who is the best of the Eddie acolytes? Who is the king of the Van Halen disciples??

 

Even though I knew that the very gifted Steve Vai was playing with Zappa circa

‘79 ... I remember when the 1st Full DLR album was released in ‘86

( Eat ‘Em & Smile )

that Kerrang magazine said of the opener ‘ Yankee Rose ‘ ( when Vai makes

his guitar talk by trading lines with DLR’s vocals )

something along the lines of ‘ close your eyes and listen and then

can you honestly say Eddie could have played it any better ‘

[Alex’s Amazing Arpeggios]

On a slightly different subject I often

wonder why Lerxst went out of his way to

avoid tapping !?

 

After all Lerxst took inspiration and expanded

on ideas by Page, Townsend , Gallagher ,

Andy Summers , The Edge and latterly grunge ... why not EVH ?

 

I always thought he could have thrown in, if he’d chosen

at the time ( but he sadly refrained LOL ! )

a bit of tapping on both the SOR

and YYZ solos.

 

It seems a bit odd to me that Lerxst with his love of ...

Wah Wah , Delay & Chorus pedal effects ,

natural & artificial harmonics & lots of yummy whammy dive bombs

resisted adding this easy technic to his arsenal ( the hardest part as any

guitarist will tell you to the Beat It solo and Hot for Teacher intro

isn’t the actual tapping , but the killer wide stretches with your left hand

( assuming you play ‘ right handed ‘ )

 

Any thoughts ?

Edited February 22, 2022 by Alex’s Amazing Arpeggios

[chemistry1973]

Alex’s solo on La Villa on ESL seems influenced by EVH.

 

He also used 5150 gear in the 90s.

 

[IbanezJem]

On a slightly different subject I often

wonder why Lerxst went out of his way to

avoid tapping !?

 

After all Lerxst took inspiration and expanded

on ideas by Page, Townsend , Gallagher ,

Andy Summers , The Edge and latterly grunge ... why not EVH ?

 

I always thought he could have thrown in, if he’d chosen

at the time ( but he sadly refrained LOL ! )

a bit of tapping on both the SOR

and YYZ solos.

 

It seems a bit odd to me that Lerxst with his love of ...

Wah Wah , Delay & Chorus pedal effects ,

natural & artificial harmonics & lots of yummy whammy dive bombs

resisted adding this easy technic to his arsenal ( the hardest part as any

guitarist will tell you to the Beat It solo and Hot for Teacher intro

isn’t the actual tapping , but the killer wide stretches with your left hand

( assuming you play ‘ right handed ‘ )

 

Any thoughts ?

Yep. You might even call those stretches impossible. Tapping is one of the easiest things to do, but boy, it sounds great when done right in the service of a song. Of course it`s hard to reimagine a Rush song now with tapping in, but I can see how it might have boosted some of the later songs, that needed some ooomph. Edited February 22, 2022 by IbanezJem

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

On a slightly different subject I often

wonder why Lerxst went out of his way to

avoid tapping !?

 

After all Lerxst took inspiration and expanded

on ideas by Page, Townsend , Gallagher ,

Andy Summers , The Edge and latterly grunge ... why not EVH ?

 

I always thought he could have thrown in, if he’d chosen

at the time ( but he sadly refrained LOL ! )

a bit of tapping on both the SOR

and YYZ solos.

 

It seems a bit odd to me that Lerxst with his love of ...

Wah Wah , Delay & Chorus pedal effects ,

natural & artificial harmonics & lots of yummy whammy dive bombs

resisted adding this easy technic to his arsenal ( the hardest part as any

guitarist will tell you to the Beat It solo and Hot for Teacher intro

isn’t the actual tapping , but the killer wide stretches with your left hand

( assuming you play ‘ right handed ‘ )

 

Any thoughts ?

Yep. You might even call those stretches impossible. Tapping is one of the easiest things to do, but boy, it sounds great when done right in the service of a song. Of course it`s hard to reimagine a Rush song now with tapping in, but I can see how it might have boosted some of the later songs, that needed some ooomph.

 

One of Eddie's favorite guitarists was Allan Holdsworth. Holdsworth had very big hands and could do stretches that very few players were capable of. Eddie once said that he needed two hands on the freboard to do some of the things that Holdsworth could do with one.

[Maverick]

On a slightly different subject I often

wonder why Lerxst went out of his way to

avoid tapping !?

 

After all Lerxst took inspiration and expanded

on ideas by Page, Townsend , Gallagher ,

Andy Summers , The Edge and latterly grunge ... why not EVH ?

 

I always thought he could have thrown in, if he’d chosen

at the time ( but he sadly refrained LOL ! )

a bit of tapping on both the SOR

and YYZ solos.

 

It seems a bit odd to me that Lerxst with his love of ...

Wah Wah , Delay & Chorus pedal effects ,

natural & artificial harmonics & lots of yummy whammy dive bombs

resisted adding this easy technic to his arsenal ( the hardest part as any

guitarist will tell you to the Beat It solo and Hot for Teacher intro

isn’t the actual tapping , but the killer wide stretches with your left hand

( assuming you play ‘ right handed ‘ )

 

Any thoughts ?

 

Maybe Alex just didn't like it as a stylistic choice. They were never afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves, and give them the Rush treatment, as it were. So maybe Alex not doing any tapping was just an indication that he wasn't that influenced by it.

 

The closest he got to that sound was in the YYZ solo doing the HoPo's on the B string. It definitely has the legato sound, but without the right hand tapping. Or maybe he recognized that the sound of that technique was so distinctive, it really only belonged to EVH (in his mind) and didn't even want to broach it even once.

[Alex’s Amazing Arpeggios]

Alex’s solo on La Villa on ESL seems influenced by EVH.

 

He also used 5150 gear in the 90s.

 

 

I’ll give that another listen now :-)

Yeah I forgot that Lerxst used 5150 gear

[Alex’s Amazing Arpeggios]

On a slightly different subject I often

wonder why Lerxst went out of his way to

avoid tapping !?

 

After all Lerxst took inspiration and expanded

on ideas by Page, Townsend , Gallagher ,

Andy Summers , The Edge and latterly grunge ... why not EVH ?

 

I always thought he could have thrown in, if he’d chosen

at the time ( but he sadly refrained LOL ! )

a bit of tapping on both the SOR

and YYZ solos.

 

It seems a bit odd to me that Lerxst with his love of ...

Wah Wah , Delay & Chorus pedal effects ,

natural & artificial harmonics & lots of yummy whammy dive bombs

resisted adding this easy technic to his arsenal ( the hardest part as any

guitarist will tell you to the Beat It solo and Hot for Teacher intro

isn’t the actual tapping , but the killer wide stretches with your left hand

( assuming you play ‘ right handed ‘ )

 

Any thoughts ?

Yep. You might even call those stretches impossible. Tapping is one of the easiest things to do, but boy, it sounds great when done right in the service of a song. Of course it`s hard to reimagine a Rush song now with tapping in, but I can see how it might have boosted some of the later songs, that needed some ooomph.

 

One of Eddie's favorite guitarists was Allan Holdsworth. Holdsworth had very big hands and could do stretches that very few players were capable of. Eddie once said that he needed two hands on the freboard to do some of the things that Holdsworth could do with one.

 

Yeah , I remember now that you’ve reminded me that Holdsworth was a major influence on Eddie

[Alex’s Amazing Arpeggios]

On a slightly different subject I often

wonder why Lerxst went out of his way to

avoid tapping !?

 

After all Lerxst took inspiration and expanded

on ideas by Page, Townsend , Gallagher ,

Andy Summers , The Edge and latterly grunge ... why not EVH ?

 

I always thought he could have thrown in, if he’d chosen

at the time ( but he sadly refrained LOL ! )

a bit of tapping on both the SOR

and YYZ solos.

 

It seems a bit odd to me that Lerxst with his love of ...

Wah Wah , Delay & Chorus pedal effects ,

natural & artificial harmonics & lots of yummy whammy dive bombs

resisted adding this easy technic to his arsenal ( the hardest part as any

guitarist will tell you to the Beat It solo and Hot for Teacher intro

isn’t the actual tapping , but the killer wide stretches with your left hand

( assuming you play ‘ right handed ‘ )

 

Any thoughts ?

 

Maybe Alex just didn't like it as a stylistic choice. They were never afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves, and give them the Rush treatment, as it were. So maybe Alex not doing any tapping was just an indication that he wasn't that influenced by it.

 

The closest he got to that sound was in the YYZ solo doing the HoPo's on the B string. It definitely has the legato sound, but without the right hand tapping. Or maybe he recognized that the sound of that technique was so distinctive, it really only belonged to EVH (in his mind) and didn't even want to broach it even once.

On a slightly different subject I often

wonder why Lerxst went out of his way to

avoid tapping !?

 

After all Lerxst took inspiration and expanded

on ideas by Page, Townsend , Gallagher ,

Andy Summers , The Edge and latterly grunge ... why not EVH ?

 

I always thought he could have thrown in, if he’d chosen

at the time ( but he sadly refrained LOL ! )

a bit of tapping on both the SOR

and YYZ solos.

 

It seems a bit odd to me that Lerxst with his love of ...

Wah Wah , Delay & Chorus pedal effects ,

natural & artificial harmonics & lots of yummy whammy dive bombs

resisted adding this easy technic to his arsenal ( the hardest part as any

guitarist will tell you to the Beat It solo and Hot for Teacher intro

isn’t the actual tapping , but the killer wide stretches with your left hand

( assuming you play ‘ right handed ‘ )

 

Any thoughts ?

 

Maybe Alex just didn't like it as a stylistic choice. They were never afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves, and give them the Rush treatment, as it were. So maybe Alex not doing any tapping was just an indication that he wasn't that influenced by it.

 

The closest he got to that sound was in the YYZ solo doing the HoPo's on the B string. It definitely has the legato sound, but without the right hand tapping. Or maybe he recognized that the sound of that technique was so distinctive, it really only belonged to EVH (in his mind) and didn't even want to broach it even once.

 

Yeah , thinking about it .... I reckon your analysis

is pretty much spot on ⭐️

[BigMontanaSKY]

My brother played guitar in the 1980s and the behemoth that was Van Halen was unavoidable. Eddie was more influential than he probably ever intended to be.

 

I used to own a guitar designed by him, actually. Those were some nice memories....

[Syrinx]

I am a drummer but I clearly remember buying this album the week it was released and playing it for the first time. It blew my mind like almost no other album before or since. It was so unique sounding and like mentioned above, the songs were freaking great! Yes all of my music friends were talking about it, and more specifically Eddie's playing.

[Fridge]

I was 12 years old when I saw VH supporting Black Sabbath.....Totally unbelievable, had never seen anything like that before......My uncle, who took mw to the concert tolod me I had just seen the new Hendrix, and I think he was right...his influence was THAT massive.

[Malignant Narcissist]

I've heard the Sabbath support story from many people who saw that tour - that VH pretty much blew Sabbath away. 

To move away slightly from Eddie's impact, you can't discount the fact that they had Dave Lee Roth (presumably) jump kicking and prancing around the stage with his Jim Dandy-to-the-max style as well as having paid their dues playing clubs/gigs in the US (Sunset strip?) for quite a while. 

Basically, with those songs, Roth's larger than life personality and Eddie's playing I think they would have blown pretty much most bands off the stage at that point. 

 

But has anyone really got close to playing like Eddie since? I think Steve Vai (or someone similar) got his hands on one of Eddie's early guitars and basically said that it's not the guitar that makes Eddie's playing, it's all in Eddie's fingers.

[IbanezJem]

4 hours ago, Malignant Narcissist said:

I've heard the Sabbath support story from many people who saw that tour - that VH pretty much blew Sabbath away. 

To move away slightly from Eddie's impact, you can't discount the fact that they had Dave Lee Roth (presumably) jump kicking and prancing around the stage with his Jim Dandy-to-the-max style as well as having paid their dues playing clubs/gigs in the US (Sunset strip?) for quite a while. 

Basically, with those songs, Roth's larger than life personality and Eddie's playing I think they would have blown pretty much most bands off the stage at that point. 

 

But has anyone really got close to playing like Eddie since? I think Steve Vai (or someone similar) got his hands on one of Eddie's early guitars and basically said that it's not the guitar that makes Eddie's playing, it's all in Eddie's fingers.

I certainly remember reading Ted Nugent played Eddie`s guitar and vice versa, and Eddie sounded like Eddie and Ted still sounded like Ted.

 

I`m unsure how I feel about the mooted tribute tour, with Alex on skins, Satch on guitar, and who knows who on vocals and bass. I`m not totally against it; I just don`t think Dave should sing.

[Malignant Narcissist]

20 hours ago, IbanezJem said:

I certainly remember reading Ted Nugent played Eddie`s guitar and vice versa, and Eddie sounded like Eddie and Ted still sounded like Ted.

 

I`m unsure how I feel about the mooted tribute tour, with Alex on skins, Satch on guitar, and who knows who on vocals and bass. I`m not totally against it; I just don`t think Dave should sing.

Part of me thinks that all the members including Sammy, Dave, Gary Cherone, Wolfgang and Micheal A etc should all join in with whomever on guitar (or maybe a few git players). That would be cool for me but highly unlikely I believe.