Eddie was definitely great but his legacy may be that he spawned thousands of inferior imitators. Almost every dope around my age just can't stop himself from playing with both hands on the neck.

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The Court will accord substantial deference to the government's immigration policies, particularly those that implicate matters of national security.

Yeah heard a quote from someone on the news this morning during a tribute thing. He said every band from him on in that era "wished" they had a EVH. You can easily extrapolate to many guitarists wished they were him or better.

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Elections have consequences.

Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, and Joe Satriani have collectively released 3 decades worth of guitar elevator music as a result of EVH's invention/evolution of finger-tapping.

Would have loved to see Slash and EVH share a stage.

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We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

I have not yet head from the second wife Janie. Fairly sure she gets along with Wolfgang but if he was not smart she is now going to be preposterously rich and I hope he isn't screwed. Read something the other day on Julian Lennon completely fucked out of boat loads of cash.

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Elections have consequences.

His legacy is that of a rock god.

Like Neil Peart.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Big difference is Wolfie is his only child.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

I've actually built an exact replica of Eddie's single infamous Marshall SuperLead (serial number 12301). To be very clear, Eddie said he turned UP the variac to get his sound which was an intentional lie. Turning up a variac (increasing) the voltage acutally makes the amp BRIGHTER, not browner.

Ed did in fact use a variac but he turned the voltage DOWN to about 92 volts. THIS actually darken or browns the sound. The story goes he did once turn up the voltage and it blew up the power tubes....which is exactly what you'd expect it to do

The bomb was just a display thing that looked cool to hold some of his stuff.

The Ed brown sound was the stock super lead with lowered voltage. He also had an old echoplex tape delay, MXR phase 90 in front of it. The lowered voltage was a trick originally intended to try and tame the volume. He did that, but ran the amp into dummy load and then used another Marshall as a power amp to control volume. This was just crazy experimenting back in the day. That guitar tone on VH1 and on was just off the planet different.

For all you guitar players....playing in front of a cranked marshall super lead is just an amazing experience. I highly recommend it.

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Guitar music will be dead and forgotten in the next 30 years if things don't change soon. All the rock stars from the 60-80's will be dead and the 90's bands will be in their 80's.

the guitar will come back. it always does.

There are a few players that "invent" something both via their sound and style. Ed was one of the few.

I want to see and hear that Marshall WD! I don't think I can make it out Saturday to see you guys, but I will be trying for the next show for sure.

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@audioidkid

I was never a fan of Pearl Jam but this is still sad.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Pearl Jam is a massively overrated band. It's weird how they became very uncool after Cobain died and then in the mid 00's they started selling tickets like crazy again and haven't looked back.

Oh, Brick...

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@audioidkid

Agreed, he was pretty good.

There would have been no Eddie Van Halen as a great guitarist, if not for Jimmy Page. Eddie saw Zeppelin perform at the L.A. Forum in '77 and got the idea for his hammer technique from Page's hammer playing during the solo in Heartbreaker. Then he would go on to call Page sloppy. I think EVH went on to be sloppier.

EVH's music was good, but not timeless. It's sort of trapped in the synthesizer era. Amazingly, they found a better vocalist in Sammy Haggar and would go on to make their best albums with him. In college I used to play "Dreams" over and over.

Sweet dreams to EVH for his gift of music to the world.

This is with my Ed SuperLead clone....straight in, zero effects. All cranked up and recorded with an SM57 direct. No Frankenstrat guitar...this was my Korina Explorer...
https://soundcloud.com/total-recall-ban ... -go-my-way

Playing live I use a different amp as I need 2 channels (yeah, the pink one LOL). For recording....the cranked super lead was easily the winner.

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This is correct. I can't tell you exactly what it is that makes Eddie different than those guys but it's definitely there. And I don't mean the fact that he invented the style either. There's a feel and soul to his playing that the imitators obviously lack.

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The Court will accord substantial deference to the government's immigration policies, particularly those that implicate matters of national security.

EVH didn't invent finger tapping. Page did probably in Heartbreaker.

In other geek trivia nuggets of useless knowledge....EVH actually recorded most of VH1 with his Ibanez Destroyer...NOT the Frankenstrat. The Ibanez destroyer was a ripoff of the Gibson Explorer which is also known as the lawsuit era of Ibanez guitars....yeah, Gibson sued the hell out of them. Those lawsuit guitars are incredibly valuable, as they were made very well.

After VH1, Ed cut up the destroyer to look different, hence the Shark guitar on the cover of Women and Children first. It may have looked cool but Ed acknowledged later it lost of it's tone after being butchered.

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Van Halen's original producer was trying to talk Eddie into firing David Lee Roth and replacing him with Sammy for their first album!

I know you're a big Zeppelin fan, but Eddie is a much more influential guitarist than Page. I love Zeppelin too, but Page is the poor man's Jeff Beck.

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The Court will accord substantial deference to the government's immigration policies, particularly those that implicate matters of national security.

Rube's EVH thoughts are almost as terrible as his ACL thoughts.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

It's 4 decades. And if there was no audience for their material, you wouldn't know their names.

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@audioidkid

Who's Jeff Beck? The guy has to be the most overrated guitarist ever. Never would I say to myself, "Man, I'd really like to hear some Jeff Beck today." I did listen to him once with his song, "Beck's Bolero." A pretty forgettable song. I don't need to hear it again. Beck didn't even survive long enough to make a dent in the Yardbirds. He was a Yardbird's reject. But he sure liked to bust amps with his guitar in the movie, "Blowout."

Page excelled in all facets of guitar from rock to blues to acoustic/folk to even country with Hot Dog. What you hear with the studio works doesn't even compare to how brilliant he was live. There has never been nor ever will be a better guitarist at improvisation. You might say Hendrix, but he was playing a lot of noise, using pedals for effects, that really wasn't music. There is not much music in Machine Gun. Voodoo Child is very repetitive. After Page, there is a drop-off in improvisation until Blackmore. Listen to a guy like Alex Lifeson talk about Page and how he thought differently about guitar. And look how great Lifeson is with songs like "the Trees."

EVH's solo in Beat It wasn't exactly good, but somehow it works in the song. There was nothing extraordinary about his riffs on Panama and Hot For Teacher in 1984. Was he an exciting and innovative guitarist? Sure. But tapping has nothing to do with composing well. I do think EVH did know how to compose, however.

There are a lot of elements to unpack in determining "best" or "most influential" or even "favorite."

I think the EVH - Peart comparison is apt. There were others who were more technically accomplished, but the inspiration from their songs and playing pale in comparison to Van Halen and Peart (who of course also benefitted from the contributions of other band mates).

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Indeed.

True, JawBreaker. Hendrix and EVH both revolutionalized the electric guitar....no one else comes close. Doesn't mean there aren't other greats...they're are plenty.

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Zeppelin was an imitation of Jeff Beck Group. If anything, JBG didn't work as well because Beck was simply too overpowering. Rod Stewart may be the greatest rock vocalist but Beck's guitar made him seem small.

Anyway, I think the first one to fingertap on record was the guy from Genesis. I'm not sure Eddie listened to much Genesis.

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The Court will accord substantial deference to the government's immigration policies, particularly those that implicate matters of national security.

Oh, and "Hot Dog" sucks.

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The Court will accord substantial deference to the government's immigration policies, particularly those that implicate matters of national security.

IDK about that. I think it could be argued EVH influenced a higher number guitarists, but they were mostly metal-heads through the 80's & that's not necessarily a good thing. I think Page would would be cited by more of the (widely considered) premier guitarists over the last 4 decades.

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“How do you get to be president and you’re stupid?” Donald J Trump - 4/10/25
When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus. - Turkish Proverb

I actually like Page better. I just don't think he's more important.

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The Court will accord substantial deference to the government's immigration policies, particularly those that implicate matters of national security.