Originally Posted by Halfcan:
Eddie had an amazing keyboard sound as well. Jump is the most iconic keyboard riff of that decade. It is the Smoke on the Water riff for keyboards.
His music became more rounded in his later years. I prefer his early Untamed musical style, but he really grew as a musician and composer.
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
Eddie Van Halen changed absolutely everything about the electric guitar.
He was the first guitarist or even guitar designer to put a Humbucking Pickup in a Stratocaster body, which he wax potted to eliminate feedback, which was a brand new concept. He was the first to use a Variac to decrease the voltage to his modified Marshall model number 1968, in which the tube rectifier had been replace with a silicon rectifier for a "tigther" tone and less mushy bottom end.
He not only revolutionized guitar equipment over the years, with his very own line of guitars and amplifiers but he dabbled in pedals, legitimized the use of Stainless Steel frets and strings (many people, me including, find both to be "plinky" but Eddie made it work) and of course, his signature two-handed-tapping technique that was copied the world over for more than 43 years.
He also popularized the Floyd Rose Locking Tremelo system, which has been standard on many guitar models since the early 80's. Nearly every serious guitarist has at least one "Super Strat" with a humbucker and a Floyd Rose.
The dude literally changed the music world.
Not taking away from any of that but I always heard there were a few people "tapping" on the Strip back then including Lynch and that Eddie would even ask them not too because it was "his thing". Don't know how true or false that is but I've heard that for decades.
Granted what he did with tapping was way beyond what most others ever did and many of those others were just copying. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BlackOp:
How anyone could like Hagar better than prime DLR is alarming...always loved this track.
Captured early 80s disenfranchised youth perfectly...like a time stamp. DLR creates the swarmy attitude vibe...Hagar was a watered-down pop singer.
It's truly amazing how many memories a song can bring back instantly, the minute you hear it again. This is one of those songs. I can almost taste the beer and hear my best friends voice. [Reply]
Originally Posted by petegz28:
Not taking away from any of that but I always heard there were a few people "tapping" on the Strip back then including Lynch and that Eddie would even ask them not too because it was "his thing". Don't know how true or false that is but I've heard that for decades.
Granted what he did with tapping was way beyond what most others ever did and many of those others were just copying.
There were guys back in the early 60's that were finger-tapping. Even Billy Gibbons can be heard doing a simple tap on one of the earliest ZZ Top records.
Eddie found out about finger tapping through his neighbor, Terry Kilgore, who was really the master of tapping at that point but since he didn't look or sound like a Rock Star, his career failed to take off, although he did appear on one of David Lee Roth's early 90's solo albums.
Anyway, Alex was the one worried that people would "rip off" Eddie, so in their Sunset Strip days, he turned around and faced his amp when it came time to solo, because of Alex's paranoia.
Ted Templeman is the first outside person to encourage EVH to open up and do his thing. There's no tapping on early Gene Simmons produced Van Halen demos, in which eveyrone passed on because they just sound neutered.
Of course, it didn't help that he had to play through Ace Frehley's rig, which was quite a bit different than Eddie's modified head and they had to abide by Simmons' rules. [Reply]
Originally Posted by backinblack:
one keyboard riff he did come up with was the one that ended up being used on the cover of "Dancing in the Streets". Pretty interesting story:
DLR was right...the band's chemistry was a kind of gnarly street rock sound. Fair Warning was the last record they made that I connected to.
EVH should have had a solo project for his "Jump" type of crap...I dont like 1984 at all. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BlackOp:
DLR was right...the band's chemistry was a kind of gnarly street rock sound. Fair Warning was the last record they made that I connected to.
EVH should have had a solo project for his "Jump" type of crap...I dont like 1984 at all.
There's actually some decent tracks on 1984. They just aren't the ones everybody hears. [Reply]
