EVH live guitar solo 1976 (pre tapping days)

[Diamondjimi]

[ThrillsNSpills]

What do you think he's combining there Jimi?
echoplex and phase would be my guess.

plus a Marshall on eleven.

[VAiN]

The club stuff is so amazing, he really brought the heat... so cool to hear him play before the right hand got involved.

[indeedido]

What do you think he's combining there Jimi?
echoplex and phase would be my guess.

plus a Marshall on eleven.

The echoplex, even bypassed, adds some gain to the tone. Many suspect that is why he lugged two of them around in those days. Running one right into the other adding a little more color.

[Diamondjimi]

What do you think he's combining there Jimi?
echoplex and phase would be my guess.

plus a Marshall on eleven.

For sure. He's playing some stuff in counter synch with the delay time (ala Cathedral ping ponging).
It's such a shame that the tapping became such a crutch for him over the years. His picking/shredding was astounding. So fucking clean....

[Etienne]

...skidl-di-didl-di-bop

[Heater]

Tapping as a crutch? Actually, it sorta is. It just starts sounding sterile, like Yngwie's arpeggios. Some say it is gimmicky. Wheedlewheedlewheedleweeeebawwwwwwwwwwheedlewheedl e and repeat....

[jhale667]

Think it was less crutch, more "obligatory" once "Eruption" stunned the world...

For sure. He's playing some stuff in counter synch with the delay time (ala Cathedral ping ponging).
It's such a shame that the tapping became such a crutch for him over the years. His picking/shredding was astounding. So fucking clean....

I don't think it became a "crutch" so much as the one arrow in his (well-stocked, for sure) guitar-quiver that everyone latched onto; I mean, it kind of became essentially required of him if you think about it. I mean, that was what you always heard about most regarding his chops back in the day, "his revolutionary two-handed tapping technique". One imagines there was probably outside pressure to do more of it too (from the label, guitar mags, whatevs). Sure, maybe he got comfortable with it, but you can't really say those of us that were guitarhead fans in the day even as kids weren't begging to hear more of it...

His pick technique didn't seem to suffer until the last few years, and now we know part of that was arthritic issues, which hopefully has been helped by the recent surgery. By all accounts he's ripping again...

[Seshmeister]

Tapping as a crutch? Actually, it sorta is. It just starts sounding sterile, like Yngwie's arpeggios. Some say it is gimmicky. Wheedlewheedlewheedleweeeebawwwwwwwwwwheedlewheedl e and repeat....

It's also a hell of a lot easier to do than most of the rest of his stuff.

[Diamondjimi]

I don't think it became a "crutch" so much as the one arrow in his (well-stocked, for sure) guitar-quiver that everyone latched onto; I mean, it kind of became essentially required of him if you think about it. I mean, that was what you always heard about most regarding his chops back in the day, "his revolutionary two-handed tapping technique". One imagines there was probably outside pressure to do more of it too (from the label, guitar mags, whatevs). Sure, maybe he got comfortable with it, but you can't really say those of us that were guitarhead fans in the day even as kids weren't begging to hear more of it...

His pick technique didn't seem to suffer until the last few years, and now we know part of that was arthritic issues, which hopefully has been helped by the recent surgery. By all accounts he's ripping again...

True, many people have adopted that technique. Be only Ed sounds like Ed when it comes to doing it, no matter how fancy and over the top some guys have taken it. Hell, I've even found myself dusting off the old hammer on/ tapping thing and bringing it back into my playing over the last couple of years.

Guilty as charged. But, damn I sure miss the shredding in Ed's playing...

I believe we've touched on this before. I think one of Ed's greatest "natural" gifts, is his vibrato. Kirk Hammet could learn from it. ( Cobain had better vibrato than Hammett, ffs!!!)

[VAiN]

I think one of Ed's greatest "natural" gifts, is his vibrato. Kirk Hammet could learn from it. ( Cobain had better vibrato than Hammett, ffs!!!)

No shit man, Hammet is sooo flat and cold sounding!