Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:Aside from all the fast stuff, the tapping, the solos, and everything else, one of the things I really appreciate about him is the memorable riffs. Unchained, Panama, Mean Streets, Best of Both Worlds, and Summer Nights all have riffs that make you want to run through a brick wall.
Or jump a canyon.
P3PPY said:When will we start taking about the electric guitar's cousin and get to Cliff Burton? I'm all ears for that one
“Bass solo, take one.”
In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :
Hot For Teacher is pretty much a solo from right after the intro to the finish, so OK.
Was a big fan of EVH a long time ago, (I'm old). My tribute to Ed and Frankenstrat.
I'm firmly in the "there is no best" camp, but figured I'd post another favorite example of guitaristical virtuosity... Toyman mentioned Ewan Dobson earlier, and I've always attempted to describe him as sort of if someone had hired J.S. Bach to write guitar music for Nintendo, but it works for me...
Also, I love that folks like EVH and Keith Richards, for all the "just rockers" image have been quite the technical thinkers and tinkerers...
Audio of 19 year old Eddie jamming at his house in 1974:
Beer Baron 🍺 said:Duke said:As far as lead-plus-rhythm-in-one-track playing goes, Chet Atkins and a whole bunch of jazz guitarists would like a word.
Andres Segovia has entered the ring...
I was just watching Rick Beato's interview with Skunk Baxter this evening and he name drops Andres Segovia at about 3:40. Odd coincidence.
Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:
I would argue the solo for Hot For Teacher absolutely fits the song.
Isn't there an extra beat or two in that solo and the drums have to adjust? It literally doesn't fit :)
But it's a great solo.
1984 is the last VH album that I purchased. Just couldn’t get on the Van Hagar bus.
Motojunky said:I was just watching Rick Beato's interview with Skunk Baxter this evening and he name drops Andres Segovia at about 3:40. Odd coincidence.
It's no coincidence if I was already thinking of him because I watched that interview earlier in the day...
And seriously people talking about the absurd virtuosity of skilled bass players need to check out that Victor Wooten track I posted earlier.
SRV? Guitar and vocals! My choice.
In reply to carbidetooth :
Are those the C-notes? Nice work! I really like how you chamfered the edges.
Put me in the "EVH definitely one of the greats" camp.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I went to Van Halen's 1984 concert tour when it came through Columbia, SC in Febuary of 1984. Four 16-year-old kids made the two-hour drive from Charleston in an old Volvo 240. What an awesome show. It was the first concert I ever went to and everything after was tame by comparison. I'm pretty sure I still have hearing loss from it.
I never could get into Hagar. While he is a good musician, he just isn't Van Halen to me.
I don't thnk so.
PW was a massive VH fan, and when we met our musical interests clashed, me being very much a jazz fusion guy. But I did develop a respect for VH, and even liked a few songs.
But I also believe that for every best guitarist out there there are thousands of others, or more, that are just as good or better that you will never hear. Some get lucky, some don't and some just don't care that much. My room mate and best friend in my teens and 20's was one of those guys. He was also the single laziest person I've ever met, didn't care, and never went anywhere.
I'm going to throw in a curveball that EVH is one of the most influential guitarists...
...BECAUSE he isn't the best.
He is not so good that other people can't meet or better him. You go online, and can find endless videos of 14y.o. kids who are able to play like EVH.
Now... look at BB King, David Gilmore, Mark Knopfler, or Jeff Beck. They are effectively uncopyable. Especially Knopfler and Beck are TOO good to be as influential. They can't be copied.
Go on YouTube and search "Eruption Guitar Cover" and "Money for Nothing" cover. You can scroll through endless videos of teenage kids covering the former. The later... there are two guys making respectable attempts and a bunch of videos teaching people about how the riff is played, and nearly as many talking about why/how everyone messes it up.
As for Jeff Beck, I'll let Alice Cooper explain...
Beer Baron 🍺 said:I'm going to throw in a curveball that EVH is one of the most influential guitarists...
...BECAUSE he isn't the best.
He is not so good that other people can't meet or better him. You go online, and can find endless videos of 14y.o. kids who are able to play like EVH.
Now... look at BB King, David Gilmore, Mark Knopfler, or Jeff Beck. They are effectively uncopyable. Especially Knopfler and Beck are TOO good to be as influential. They can't be copied.
Go on YouTube and search "Eruption Guitar Cover" and "Money for Nothing" cover. You can scroll through endless videos of teenage kids covering the former. The later... there are two guys making respectable attempts and a bunch of videos teaching people about how the riff is played, and nearly as many talking about why/how everyone messes it up.
An interesting point for sure! I have no comment, other than that you made me think of this kid. This is an old video and his skills have continued to improve. It's been fun to watch him grow as a player over the years. Some of his collaborations are fantastic.
I'm not a musician, so take this with the appropriate grain of salt, but it seems to me there's a difference between being able to play something amazing that someone else did, and coming up with something amazing and being able to play it. There are probably millions of guitar players in the world at any given time, it stands to reason that some of them are probably more technically proficient than Eddie. What sets him apart in my mind is the ability to not just play that stuff, but also come up with the memorable hooks and riffs that I mentioned before, as well as the songwriting, the arranging, the on-stage persona, and everything else he brought to the table.
But at the end of the day, this is all subjective. It's art. By definition, nobody can be the "best". The one thing I can say definitively is that EVH is/was MY personal favorite guitar player.
Funny timing on all this though is that I just bought my first guitar last week. I probably have the time and talent to be as good as an an average Labrador Retriever by this time next year
He was certainly great. As a non musician I am not qualified to say who is the best but I would think he has to be in the conversation.
The DLR vs SH convo is interesting. Of course they aren't the "same" but the DNA is there. The band and it's members evolved. Do you have friends that are the exact same person at 40 as 20? It gets old.
In reply to P3PPY :
It's fun! Just keep working at it. I've been playing for decades and now I'm as good as a truly exceptional Labrador Retriever.
Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:I'm not a musician, so take this with the appropriate grain of salt, but it seems to me there's a difference between being able to play something amazing that someone else did, and coming up with something amazing and being able to play it. There are probably millions of guitar players in the world at any given time, it stands to reason that some of them are probably more technically proficient than Eddie. What sets him apart in my mind is the ability to not just play that stuff, but also come up with the memorable hooks and riffs that I mentioned before, as well as the songwriting, the arranging, the on-stage persona, and everything else he brought to the table.
Sure. And this is why EVH is one of the greats. But I wouldn't put him at the top by this measure either.
By that measure, I'm pretty sure I'd peg the winner as...
With one of the greatest guitar solos ever...
Jesse Ransom said:In reply to P3PPY :
It's fun! Just keep working at it. I've been playing for decades and now I'm as good as a truly exceptional Labrador Retriever.
This. I'm pretty good for a guy who's been playing for six months.
The problem is that I've been playing for 12 years.
NY Nick said:He was certainly great. As a non musician I am not qualified to say who is the best but I would think he has to be in the conversation.
The DLR vs SH convo is interesting. Of course they aren't the "same" but the DNA is there. The band and it's members evolved. Do you have friends that are the exact same person at 40 as 20? It gets old.
I can dig it.
1984 clearly demonstrates EVH's desire to move in a direction that included more keyboards and an evolving sound. There's some really good stuff on that record, and then there's "Jump." That was a source of much of the discord between EVH and DLR. That's part of why they were so good IMO - DLR was yin to EVH's yang.
There is no shortage of bands that lose their appeal to me as they evolve. I assume that there are other fans that click with the changing sound and that's great. Other bands have gotten continuously better to me as they grow & change. It's impossible to quantify, and to me, it falls in the same idea as nobody being "the best." Music is very personal and it would be awful if we all liked the same thing.
In reply to Motojunky :
Welcome. My line is I own guitars, saying that I play would be a big stretch but it's fun to mess around.
lotusseven7 (Forum Supporter) said:SRV? Guitar and vocals! My choice.
SRV can move between rhythm and soloing so effortlessly. It's amazing. But when I started to study him, I realized his weakness is phrasing. His solos don't flow the way they could, there's no space. The exact opposite of Gilmour, who is nothing but space.
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