Eddie Van Halen: News, History & Updates

Eddie Van Halen Biography by Greg Prato

Excerpts from Greg’s books exclusively for Alternative Nation

STEVE VAI [Frank Zappa, Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth, Whitesnake guitarist; solo artist]: When I look back at it, there’s really a few guitar players that just came and created a paradigm shift on the instrument. And in my life, it was Jimi Hendrix and Edward Van Halen. I was in college when I heard Edward, and it was a revelation. He had definitely raised the bar with innovation and sound and tone—that was unprecedented at the time. And it was a form of ‘shredding,’ so to speak.

MARTY FRIEDMAN [Cacophony, Megadeth guitarist; solo artist]: I fell in love with Eddie Van Halen’s guitar tone, and believe it or not, I think the best thing about his playing is the stuff that he does when he’s not doing that finger tapping stuff. That never appealed to me, although it probably influenced more young guitarists than any other thing in the history of guitar. I would suggest listening to what he does between all that finger tapping and you’ll find some fantastic, juicy-ass phrasing. Man, that guy is a natural. Love it.

PAUL GILBERT [Racer X, Mr. Big guitarist; solo artist]: I was lucky enough to hear Eddie Van Halen after I played guitar for a couple of years—with Jimmy Page as my idol, and with The Beatles as some of my musical foundation. Eddie Van Halen is 100 percent great, and he unintentionally really messed up a lot of guitar players— because everybody was so enamored with the flashy parts that it knocked a lot of people off balance. It’s funny to see the repercussions of it. The ‘Eddie Van Halen bomb’ went off and it destroyed a lot of people’s rhythm. [Laughs] Which is funny, because he has such good rhythm. But it’s not his fault—it’s the listener’s fault for just listening to ‘Eruption’ and nothing else.

TY TABOR [King’s X guitarist]: When I first heard it [two-hand tapping, popularized by Eddie], I was absolutely amazed by it. The first person I heard do some tapping was actually Allan Holdsworth, who I think maybe is who Van Halen got it from. But not used in a way that Van Halen did—Holdsworth would just do an occasional note, and it would have a weird sound of its own when you tap, and then shake the string. It just has a weird vibe, compared to picking a string. So I recognized right away the hand-tapping stuff was unique- sounding, just by doing it that way. But I had never heard anybody even think of doing what Van Halen did with it. And when I heard that, that’s one of the things that made me think, ‘Man, I might as well just quit playing!’ I knew that it was phenomenal.

It affected all of us—even I went through some hand-tapping. Believe it or not, there is a lick in ‘Over My Head’ that is hand-tapping—and I took it straight from Holdsworth and Van Halen. And I almost got into it too, myself. Everybody did, because it sounded so cool—everybody wanted to know how to do it. It’s just like when a pedal or an amp becomes real popular, and then everybody has the sound. It’s just the way of things.

JAS OBRECHT [ex-Guitar Player magazine editor]: Eddie showed that you could spend fifty bucks on a guitar body, eighty bucks on a neck, and as he put it, ‘Slap it together’—rout the body, stick in a pickup, paint it, and have a beautiful, unique-sounding instrument. Eddie Van Halen opened the door to that whole industry. And all of a sudden, it wasn’t that essential to have a ’59 Les Paul, pre-CBS Fender Stratocaster, or some other spectacular vintage guitar—you could play something you made yourself and sound good. That’s an extraordinary leap, and I think Eddie was largely responsible for the success of those companies. He brought in a whole new spirit of inventiveness.

BRAD TOLINSKI [co-author of Eruption: Conversations With Eddie Van Halen]: So, what’s interesting about Ed – and this is what makes him such a brilliant, intuitive genius – is that he didn’t have guitar magazines, the internet, and all the kinds of information that we have these days. But even when he was at the age of thirteen or fourteen, he just would play guitars and knew he wasn’t getting what he wanted out of them. He would play guitars and say, “Why doesn’t it sound like my heroes?” or “Why can’t my guitar sound this way?” And he also asked a very crucial question to guitarists of the ‘80s, which was, “Why does there have to be a Gibson and a Fender guitar? Why can’t I have both in one instrument?” So, the young Eddie Van Halen – not really knowing anything about corporate buyouts or quality control about Fender or Gibson or anything – just said, “Fuck it. I can’t find what I want. I guess if I want to get the sound that I’m hearing in my head, I’m just going to have to do it myself.”

The Frankenstrat was built out of this weird necessity of A, not being able to find a guitar that sounded or played the way he wanted to and said, “Screw it, I’ll just make it myself.” And B, the guitar industry not really offering anything for him as an alternative. Anyways, he just went about the business of building his own guitars. And as he’ll say, he destroyed as many on the way as he ended up making – just experimenting. The first thing that he wanted was he wanted a whammy bar, but he didn’t like the way Stratocasters sounded – single coil pickups were too thin for him. His hero was Eric Clapton in the Cream era – he wanted the humbucking kind of sound, or “PAF sound.” So, he had the brilliant idea of taking the pickup off of a Gibson guitar and putting it on a Fender style guitar.

GEORGE LYNCH [Dokken, Lynch Mob guitarist]: Eddie was just … I think when a person like that big of a talent and you have the responsibility and having that giant ‘voice,’ I think sometimes it can do bad things to the rest of your life. You’re going to be a slave to the weight of this gift you have. He never seemed to be particularly happy for some reason … I think now he’s probably happier. Difficult to talk to, but probably had things on his mind—like being the world’s most famous guitar player!

JOE SATRIANI [Chickenfoot guitarist, solo artist]: The first time I heard him, I thought, ‘That’s exactly what I want to be doing. And that sounds like what I’ve been doing with my friends for a couple of years, but no one let us do it.’ [Laughs] I was so happy when the world accepted Van Halen’s guitar sound as a new paradigm.

QUOTE SOURCES (CLICK LINKS FOR ORDER INFO):
All quotes from Shredders! The Oral History of Speed Guitar (and More), except for
Brad Tolinski quote from Iconic Guitar Gear