Originally Posted by :
After graduating from PHS, Eddie and Alex attended Pasadena City College, where Eddie met David Lee Roth, who graduated from John Muir High School. The two started a group called Broken Comb before adopting the name Mammoth. Mammoth performed in the early 1970s on the Sexson Auditorium stage at PCC
.
Those two high schools are were like the popular kids in school. Their annual football game around Thanksgiving called the Turkey Tussle.
I went to lowly Marshall high school lol. Eddie went there in he high. Marshall was 2 blocks from the Van Halen Home.
Marshall was almost axed this year , by the city. It somehow made the cut and they axed Wilson. [Reply]
Originally Posted by alpha_omega: Eddie Van Halen Memorial in the Offing? City Council to Discuss the Possibility on Monday
Plans for a memorial honoring guitar great and former Pasadena resident Eddie Van Halen will go before the City Council on Monday.
City Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian confirmed the item would appear on Monday’s agenda, but said additional information was not yet available.
Van Halen died Oct. 6 after a battle with cancer.
Pasadena residents Randa Schmalfeld and Julie Kimura have raised $5,200 through the online fundraising platform gofundme.com in hopes of having a street or alley named in honor of the rock star, who they call “Pasadena’s own guitar hero.”
The donations have exceeded their $3,000 goal.
“We are delighted that the City Council is moving so quickly to consider a dedicated public space here in Van Halen’s hometown,” said Schmalfeld. “We envision a place where fans can forever honor and celebrate the brilliance of Eddie Van Halen and the phenomenal success of Pasadena’s Hometown Band. The overwhelmingly positive response to our campaign demonstrates the desire of our community to honor Eddie and his bandmates. We are hopeful that the council will decide in our favor and we are looking forward to next steps in forever honoring Pasadena’s favorite Rock Stars!”
Last week, Shmalfled said the surplus money raised in the campaign will be donated to music programs at Pasadena High School.
City Councilmember-elect Felicia Williams, who will join the council in December, has also talked to staff about naming an alley after Van Halen.
“This is not just a tribute to an amazing musician. It is also a chance to hear the cultural story about the Van Halen brothers and their experience in the U.S. and PUSD. It is an inspiration for us to embrace our differences and encourage success in all of us,” Williams told Pasadena Now.
Van Halen was born in 1955 to Jan Van Halen, a jazz pianist, clarinetist, and saxophonist, and Eugenia Van Halen, who was from Indonesia, formerly known as the Dutch East Indies. The Van Halen family moved to Pasadena in 1962. But when they arrived in Pasadena, Eddie and his brother Alex faced racism because they were mixed-race children and spoke little English.
In a 2017 interview with Smithsonian Magazine, Eddie Van Halen remembered his first friends in America were Black and protected him from white kids who would tear up his homework and make him eat playground sand.
Despite those experiences, he said he was grateful for his experience as an immigrant.
After graduating from PHS, Eddie and Alex attended Pasadena City College, where Eddie met David Lee Roth, who graduated from John Muir High School. The two started a group called Broken Comb before adopting the name Mammoth. Mammoth performed in the early 1970s on the Sexson Auditorium stage at PCC.
According to a 2018 Pasadena Now article written by Michelle Nati, the Van Halen brothers honed their sound at backyard parties and high school dances in the Crown City before making their way to the Sunset Strip, and later being signed by Warner Bros.
After the band hit the big time, Eddie Van Halen would play with his back to the audience to deal with his stage fright, and because he was worried other guitarists would steal his techniques.
This one is pretty long, so i'll just post the beginning and an image. It has some pics i hadn't seen before....
Eddie Van Halen's Michigan family opens up about the real rock god
The late legendary rocker Eddie Van Halen had strong ties to Michigan right up to his death.
For one thing, his first wife, TV star Valerie Bertinelli, grew up in Clarkston. Van Halen's former brother-in-law, David Bertinelli, has lived in Charlevoix for years. Just last fall, Van Halen donated one of his autographed guitars to Bertinelli's son's school fundraiser in Charlevoix..........THE REST
OZZY OSBOURNE: EDDIE VAN HALEN Once Called Me While Drunk And Asked Me To Sing For VAN HALEN
Ozzy Osbourne sat down with co-host Billy Morrison for another episode of "Ozzy Speaks" on SiriusXM's Ozzy's Boneyard. During the episode, Ozzy and Billy remembered Eddie Van Halen and played some of their favorite VAN HALEN songs.
Speaking about Eddie's guitar-playing skills, Ozzy said: "You think you've seen it all. Then out of the blue, somebody comes out with such a revolutionized way of playing. To watch Eddie play was, like — his hands would turn into a spider. It was remarkable. He always made it look like it was so easy."
Asked if he and Eddie ever had a chance to work together beyond just sharing the stage on various tours and festivals, Ozzy said: "No, no, no. He phoned me up one time and asked me if I wanted to sing in his band — way after Sammy [Hagar had left the band]. I think he was a bit drunk. We've all done one of them — calling at four o'clock in the morning, going, [makes unintelligible sound]."
The "Ozzy Speaks" episode, which premiered on SiriusXM's Ozzy’s Boneyard on Thursday, October 22, is available On Demand on the SiriusXM app and will rebroadcast on Ozzy's Boneyard throughout the weekend.
Eddie died on October 6 at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California. His wife, Janie, was by his side, along with his son, Wolfgang, and Alex, Eddie's brother and VAN HALEN drummer.
The day after Eddie's death, Ozzy paid tribute to the iconic axeman, telling Rolling Stone: "The last time I spent any serious time with Eddie was on the last official BLACK SABBATH tour I did in '79, when they opened up for us. They were such good guys to be around. We had such fun. Every time I ever saw Eddie Van Halen, it was fun.
"I remember seeing Eddie do that finger-tapping thing, and that was the first time I'd ever seen anyone do that. Just when you think nobody can make guitar playing exciting, somebody like that comes out. He was one of them.
"That thing with finger-tapping in the 80s, with the hair bands, everybody was doing that finger tapping. Once you've seen the master do it, everyone else comes second. Anybody after Eddie Van Halen was in second, as far as I'm concerned."
Osbourne went on to say that the "one thing I loved about Eddie was he always had a big grin on his face, and he looked like he was enjoying every second he was up there. Whether it was showbiz bullshit or not — I don't think it was — he always looked like he was having the best time of his life up there."
Describing the late guitarist "a force to be reckoned with," Ozzy recalled one show they played with VAN HALEN in San Antonio where "they went on and blew the roof off. And we had to follow them. I mean, it was such a hard gig for us. To follow VAN HALEN, you'd go, 'Oh, fuck. No.' And after that tour, they took off."
Osbourne said that he "could sit and watch Eddie Van Halen play guitar all day. He's so entertaining as a guitar player. He made it look like it was not difficult. He made it look like it was a natural thing. Everybody else was trying to be Eddie Van Halen, but there is only one Eddie Van Halen. I thought he was brilliant. God only knows, what you have to do to get that good."
Wolfgang Van Halen Says Rumors Are ‘Hurting Me and My Family’
Wolfgang Van Halen does not appreciate any speculation about him taking over as the new guitarist for Van Halen less than a month after his father Eddie's death.
The elder Van Halen died on Oct. 6 after a long battle with cancer. In recent days, unfounded online speculation has suggested that "the VH camp" has been discussing a new lineup that would include the returns of longtime bassist Michael Anthony and former singer Sammy Hagar, with Alex Van Halen on drums and Wolfgang serving as the band's new guitarist.
"This is just a shitty lie attempting to capitalize on these awful times," Wolfgang wrote on Twitter. "Please stop with this. Anyone peddling this shit is not only hurting the fans, but hurting me and my family."
Born March 16, 1991 to Eddie Van Halen and his then-wife, One Day at a Time actress Valerie Bertinelli, Wolfgang joined his father and uncle Alex as a member of Van Halen in 2007, replacing founding bassist Michael Anthony.
According to Bertinelli, Eddie never would have returned to the road or recorded 2012's A Different Kind of Truth, the group's first album in nearly 30 years to feature original singer David Lee Roth, if it weren't for Wolfgang. "This brings joy to Ed, and that's what he wants to do now, just have fun playing," she said in 2012. "As great as Mike [Anthony] is, this wouldn't be happening if Mike was still in the band."
Wolfgang has been working for years on his first-ever solo album, on which he handles all instrumental and vocal duties. Earlier this year, he said he's prepared for harsh reactions from longtime fans of Van Halen the band.
"Being who I am, I think people at the least will be interested in what my work will sound like, which is very nice. But on the other hand, if it's not exactly what they want to hear or if I don't try to sound 'Van Halen-y' enough for them they'll hate me and won't give me the time of day. I'm fully prepared for a wave of hate when my music releases because it won't be what people think it'll be. I'm not trying to be my father, I'm trying to be me."
This is just a shitty lie attempting to capitalize on these awful times. Please stop with this.
Anyone peddling this shit is not only hurting the fans, but hurting me and my family. https://t.co/YqJKBaqpjy
HOW EDDIE VAN HALEN’S “ENDLESS PURSUIT” OF PERFECTION CHANGED THE GUITAR INDUSTRY FOREVER
EVH’s playing was boundary-pushing, but his unique approach to gear was equally revolutionary in the 1970s, but his “endless pursuit” of perfection kept him refining and pushing the envelope for the next 40 years, changing the industry along with it.
Eddie Van Halen didn’t just amaze his fellow guitarists with the remarkable work he did using a rare combination of playing techniques. Ed’s attitude to his guitars and his amplification also influenced a multitude of musicians, instrument makers, and amp builders.
“I hate store-bought, off-the-rack guitars,” he told Jas Obrecht at Guitar Player back in the late 70s, a few months after the first Van Halen album appeared. “They don’t do what I want them to do.” This summed up the approach Ed took to more or less all the gear he used during the years of his growing success.
He’d started out on a cheap Teisco electric, and some of his mates in early pre-VH bands considered that a Strat he moved to sounded too thin and a 335 looked too un-rock. So he decided to take matters into his own hands and combine some of the qualities of Fender and Gibson into one home-assembled instrument. Enter Frankenstrat, Ed’s generic name for several lashed-up guitars that he put together from assorted parts.
As with many things Ed, the stories have varied through the years, but it seems likely that the first Frankenstrat, the one with the black-and-white finish seen on the front of that first Van Halen album cover, consisted of a Strat-style body and neck he got from Charvel, in turn supplied to Charvel by Boogie Bodies. He took the PAF humbucker from his 335 and fitted that to the body, slanted at the bridge. He glued in some jumbo Gibson frets, and he screwed on his Strat’s vibrato and fitted a single control for volume.
Then there was that distinctive black-and-white finish, which Ed achieved using acrylic bicycle paints, spraying on a white base, sticking down apparently random strips of masking tape—spraying black over everything, removing the masking tape, and revealing a fancy striped effect. A later reworking resulted in a red, black, and white look.
The Frankenstrat served him well. In 2011, when Ed donated Frankenstrat 2 to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, he told the museum’s magazine what became of Frankenstrat 1. “I retired it from regular use,” he said. “It took so much abuse from endless touring and recording—I wanted to pay some respect to it and let it survive and not let it get destroyed completely. At the same time it became something so well-known beyond my wildest dreams that its value made it a target for theft, and I wanted to protect it. I still play it every now and then. It’s priceless to me.”
The next step in the story of Ed’s individually styled guitars came with an endorsement deal that he made with Kramer in 1983. His tie-up would help propel Kramer to become the biggest-selling electric guitar brand in the States during the mid 80s—although in its original form, the company would burn out and barely survive into the following decade.
As well as the production models that he promoted, Ed’s most famous Kramer was a new take on the Frankenstrat, usually called the 5150 thanks to some taped numbers on its body (and named to match Ed’s 5150 recording studio). The guitar centred on a Kramer Pacer Special body and a custom maple neck with hockey-stick head, like the one on a modified Ibanez Destroyer that Ed owned. It had the familiar set of relatively straightforward appointments: single bridge humbucker (straight rather than angled this time), single volume control, Ed’s now favoured Floyd Rose vibrato system, and of course a red, white, and black striped finish.
Ed’s do-it-yourself attitude was hardly new, and players had chopped and changed guitars to suit their requirements for years. But his choices paralleled a growing affection among some makers for mixing Fender and Gibson attributes, and also the rise of the ‘SuperStrat’ – the extreme rocker’s tool of choice that was developed through the 80s thanks not only to Kramer but also to makers such as Electra/Westone, Jackson, Ibanez, and more.
If you find Ed’s early guitar history confusing, wait till you get to the amps. If you’re after some facts, then you’d best look away now. About all we can say with a hint of certainty is that for those crucial early recordings he used a 60s Marshall Super Lead JTM100 Plexi, with one or two Marshall cabs. Live, he used more Marshalls. There is debate about whether or not the Marshalls were modified, and the short answer is that it depends what you call modified.
At first, Ed used the services of a tech called Jose Arredondo, so if mods were done at that time—maybe a cascading gain here, or an external dummy load there—it was Arredondo who did the modding. Some techs who serviced later amps swear they were stock and un-modded. The legend shows no signs of becoming clearer, and it wasn’t helped by Ed’s own mischievous muddling when discussing his gear history.
It seems safer to consider his earliest comments on the subject, in that interview with Jas Obrecht just after the first album in 1978. He spoke then about Arredondo, about the four “very old” Marshalls he had originally, and about the way Arredondo would “beef them up”. Ed reckoned Arredondo “put bigger transformers” in his Marshalls and that he used a Variac box to change the voltage going into his amps. Variac is a brandname that’s been applied generically to a transformer that will adjust the level of mains voltage going into an amplifier—and some have since noted the potential dangers of this practice.
“The amp’s only supposed to take 100 volts,” Ed said of the American mains feed, “but you crank the thing above that, like to 130, 140 volts, and the tubes really glow.” In the ’78 interview, he said he’d lost those original Marshalls, reporting that on stage he used three 100-watt tops “of whatever make—right now I’m using Music Man, a couple of Laney amps, which are English, and a couple of new Marshalls,” along with two similar sets of backups.
FYI, Eddie lied about his amps, the Variac, etc. be sure he didn’t want people to know how he got his “sound”.
The Variac didn’t increase the voltage, it decreased the voltage. “Starving” the tubes of current made the amp distort much earlier.
Jose didn’t increase the size of the transformer, he made some simple changes to the gain structure and tone stack. There are plenty of guys that worked with Jose over the years that can still perform those exact mods on late 60’s and early 70’s 4 Input Marshall Super Lead heads.
Although one thing EVH never bothered to mention in any interview is that the fact that his 1968 Super Lead (1968 is the model number, not the year) had the tube rectifier replaced with a Silicon rectifier, which tightens up the sound considerably over a tube.
Eddie didn’t use a Jose modified head until Van Halen II. On Van Halen I and Women and Children First, he used an MXR Distortion Plus in front of the Marshall. He went back to the Jose modded amps for Mean Streets through 1984.
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Although one thing EVH never bothered to mention in any interview is that the fact that his 1968 Super Lead (1968 is the model number, not the year) had the tube rectifier replaced with a Silicon rectifier, which tightens up the sound considerably over a tube.
EVH also lied about his age to Jas Obrecht, who wrote a cover feature for Guitar Player magazine back in 1978.
Eddie said he was 21 years old, which at the time, which made him the youngest guitarist to ever grace the cover of Guitar Player magazine and was actually mentioned in the article.
In reality, he was 23 years old, making it a weird thing to lie about, IMO. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
I actually heard this once.
Yeah, all of the early Marshall amps were based off of the Fender Bassman, which also had/has a Tube Rectifier.
Jim and Terry Marshall based the early Marshall head on the Bassman, giving the JTM 45, Bluesbreaker Combo and Super Lead heads more "sag", which made them more "chewy" and not optimal for a player like EVH who needed his amps to be tight and "glassy". [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Yeah, all of the early Marshall amps were based off of the Fender Bassman, which also had/has a Tube Rectifier.
Jim and Terry Marshall based the early Marshall head on the Bassman, giving the JTM 45, Bluesbreaker Combo and Super Lead heads more "sag", which made them more "chewy" and not optimal for a player like EVH who needed his amps to be tight and "glassy".
Love that "sag" sound.
Of course, I play Orange heads with a homemade cab now. I really wish I could find (and afford) an old Sunn Beta Lead.
It's not a some much a "sag" I'm looking for as a "sink". :-) [Reply]
This one is super long so i'll just post the headline and the link....
Eddie Van Halen The Joy and Pain of Rock's Last Guitar Superhero
In 1983, when Eddie Van Halen first built his beloved 5150 home studio in the hills near Hollywood, he decorated its kitchen with a photograph of a squat old apartment building in a city more than 5,000 miles away. Every time he’d head to the fridge for a beer during his all-night recording sessions, which was often, he’d see the home where he spent most of his first seven years, at 59 Rozemarijnstraat in the city of Nijmegen, in the Gelderland province of the Netherlands, near the German border.
