Tapping

[78/84 guy]

I think he said he good the idea of tapping from seeing Page do a little of it on the Heartbreaker solo live or something to that effect.

[flappo]

page is the biggest rip off artist of all fucking time

google led zeppelin plagiarism

i wouldn't take any note of what that cunt has to say

[78/84 guy]

Whats your point ? All I said is in an interview Ed said he got the idea too tap from seeing Page do it. It's no secret Page ripped people's riff's off. So has everyone else. Including Ed.

[Seshmeister]

fuck van halen

It's an amazing coincidence that May started doing tapping all over the place when he returned from recording the Star Fleet album with Eddie Van Halen...

[ZahZoo]

Ed invented the EVH Style™... which boils down to a package of tricks not the components. It's a combination of power chords, minor 5th and augmented chord structures, tapping fills, whammy bar manipulations, harmonics, ghost harmonics, with an intermixing of non-traditional rock and classical scales used on primarily guitar, piano and certain wind/reed instruments.

Ed didn't invent any of the components... he invented the soup with all those ingredients.

[atomicpnk47]

Ed invented the EVH Style™... which boils down to a package of tricks not the components. It's a combination of power chords, minor 5th and augmented chord structures, tapping fills, whammy bar manipulations, harmonics, ghost harmonics, with an intermixing of non-traditional rock and classical scales used on primarily guitar, piano and certain wind/reed instruments.

Ed didn't invent any of the components... he invented the soup with all those ingredients.

Amen....

[chuckjitsu]

Ed didn't invent any of the components... he invented the soup with all those ingredients.

Exactly. He incorporated the elements you mentioned in to his own unique style, which to me, separates him from the "Ed clones" that came after him. Meaning, that was just part of his technique, vs. the dudes who threw it in to show that they were cool and flashy. Maybe that's not entirely fair, but back in the day I remember seeing videos for whatever the Sunset Strip flavor of the week was and rolling my eyes when the guitarist would launch in to a tapping run during a solo. Thanks, bro. You can tap like Ed. Good for you.

[Terry]

Exactly. He incorporated the elements you mentioned in to his own unique style, which to me, separates him from the "Ed clones" that came after him. Meaning, that was just part of his technique, vs. the dudes who threw it in to show that they were cool and flashy. Maybe that's not entirely fair, but back in the day I remember seeing videos for whatever the Sunset Strip flavor of the week was and rolling my eyes when the guitarist would launch in to a tapping run during a solo. Thanks, bro. You can tap like Ed. Good for you.

Ed did have a cool and flashy technique, but he was really in a class of one if only in the sense that it sounded so natural for him to do the things he was doing. Not just the tapping, but the pinched harmonics combined with the tremolo bar, the open low E string tremolo bar bomb dive, the speedy runs, tapped harmonics, volume knob swells...all of which had been done before but never synthesized to such a degree.

But Eddie knew exactly where to use it exactly because it was all natural to him, unlike (as you mentioned) the scores of people trying to mimic him. The Eddie clones really came to fore post-1983, but it sounded like gimmicks in their hands. And it wasn't just guitarists in LA hard rock bands doing it. You began hearing guitarists on top 40 pop tunes copping his licks to the point where that whole style was just overplayed to fucking DEATH.

And the thing so many of the Eddie wannabes in those LA hard rock bands missed was that Ed also had the ability to write great fucking tunes, and that not every single solo needed to be a 30 second burst of showing off. I mean, I couldn't even attempt to count the number of hard rock groups who emerged in the wake of Van Halen's success where the songs were substandard and little more than a vehicle for the guitarist to demonstrate every single trick he had. It's the songs that carry it in the end. Shit, you don't even need to look beyond Van Halen post-Roth to confirm that: plenty of those tunes had great guitar solos that were the only high point in a mundane song.

[Seshmeister]

And the thing so many of the Eddie wannabes in those LA hard rock bands missed was that Ed also had the ability to write great fucking tunes, and that not every single solo needed to be a 30 second burst of showing off.

That, Roth, luck and timing is the difference between selling 50 thousand albums on Blue Note and 50 million on Warners...

[DLR Bridge]

"It is only the most elite of elite musicians whose unconventional approach becomes convention."

- Steve Vai from Neil Zlozower's first Van Halen book.

[Terry]

That, Roth, luck and timing is the difference between selling 50 thousand albums on Blue Note and 50 million on Warners...

Bottom line: Ed was a pretty good hard rock guitarist. No Jake E. Lee, but...

[chuckjitsu]

And the thing so many of the Eddie wannabes in those LA hard rock bands missed was that Ed also had the ability to write great fucking tunes

That's a great point Terry. The fancy technique stuff in and of itself ain't gonna make it a good tune. If the song sucks, then your fancy tapping and 100 note run don't really add much if anything and are basically just a vehicle to show off. So you're absolutely correct- virtuosity + great song writing ability = Ed. And that's why decades and hundreds of listens later the 6 pack still kicks ass!

[Monkeeman]

I only posted this as someone posted it on my Facebook page knowing I am a huge Van Halen fan. I replied that I know Eddie never invented tapping and has never said he did. I said he perfected it, took it to the nth degree and used it, along with other techniques, to redefine rock guitar playing. I apologise to anyone who does not 'like' this tread.

[DLR Bridge]

There are so many other things that Ed has done besides tapping that melt my brain. For example, the left handed pull-offs with the side of the right hand being slid down the neck (used in SGMAD). I mean, how did he even figure out that doing that would produce such a great sound?

The club days recordings are laced with special mind blowing moments that don't even involve tapping. Any time I hear someone downplay Ed as just some one trick pony, I immediately regard them as someone who also probably thinks Dave is a dolt like Vince Neil. The 'just don't get it' crowd.

[VHscraps]

The intro to Mean Street on the album. Before anyone saw him doing it, all I remember were guitar