Neapolitan

Like him, or lump him, Eddie Van Halen furthered the evolution of guitar playing, and the design of the guitar itself. Not only with two hand tapping, but with dive bombing with the vibrator aka "tremolo" in Fender circles. Something (I assume) he picked up from Jimi Hendrix. Which created a need for a locking tremolo system. Before he switch to the Floyd Rose he used a American Standard Fender Tremolo. The first guitar he made he used a Gibson PAF hum-bucker he acquired from an ES-335. He help further the design of the guitar with his "Frankenstein" guitar. A Strat-like body with a locking tremolo/vibrato, and humbuckers is pretty much standard today.

Like you said already Steve Hackett didn't invent tapping. I think what Hackett did was all hammer-ons. Steve Howe did pull-offs on one string, with hammer-ons on other, still different than hammer-on/pull-offs on one string, but similar in sound. Before EVH Rock guitar players did hammer-on/pulls but further up the neck and did the hammer-ons with a pick. Eddie did it sans pick and further down the neck. Eddie Van Halen was a pianist before learning guitar. He says he wanted to approach the guitar like a piano and use two hands to play. But from what I heard he got the idea from Stanley Jordon, who used a much more advance form of two hand tapping - citing Paul Smeenus as me source.

All I have to say is give props where they're due.

__________________

The Batlord

You know what sustained punk in the 80s? Yngwie.

__________________

Neapolitan

Is that VH1 aka Van Halen mach I or VH1 aka Video Hits One?

__________________

Frownland

You don't have to be more abrasive to be doing something new. Not to mention how important it is that both bands have hugely different sounds.

__________________

Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Neapolitan

I think people misunderstand VU. I think the more import thing about the band was ideas John Cale brought into the band which come from drone and experimental music. (That's just my personal opinion.)

__________________

Frownland

I'm inclined to take you under my wing and educate you so that you can more accurately insult classic rock bands.

__________________

Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Neapolitan

Know what's even more outrageous? Yngwie Malmsteen is note for playing on a scalloped neck. When really it was Ritchie Blackmore who played on a scalloped neck first - way, way before Malmsteen did. So why doesn't Blackmore get the credit? That's what I like to know.

__________________

Chula Vista

Give your dog some water.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Chula Vista

NEO:



Someone truly gets it.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Chula Vista

I hate when you pull out the dense card. VH and their hits allowed FM radio stations all over the country to keep playing guitar centric, raunchy music. Why do you think The Clash broke so big back then?

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”