THIS MONTH’S player needs no introduction. EVH is a bona fide rock guitar legend, right up there with the likes of Clapton, Page and Hendrix as far as iconic status is concerned. Having seen Jimmy Page incorporate open strings for some legato phrases, Eddie realised that he could use both hands on the neck to get a similar effect, but move anywhere he wanted to on the guitar in order to open up limitless options.
EVH also helped redefine how guitars were made and played. Unable to find the sound he required from a Fender Stratocaster, but liking the way the guitar felt, Ed made his own guitar from a Strat style body and neck bought from Wayne Charvel in the 1970s, and set about putting a hum bucking pickup from a Gibson ES335 into it (which was unheard of at that lime), to beef the sound up. This was followed by the earliest version of Floyd Rose’s new vibrato system, and suddenly the humble Strat became a Monster Of Rock in the hands of the young guitar hero, paving the way for the hundreds of variations of the Stratocaster theme we know and love today.
Then of course there’s Eruption: more than just a ‘tap-athon’, the short solo guitar track that found its way onto the first Van Halen album took everything rock guitar players had been doing up to that point, and turbocharged
it more than anyone knew was possible. It’s fair to say that whilst without Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix there would be no Van Halen, without EVH there would probably be no Steve Vai or Joe dSatriani.
There hasn’t been a new Van Halen album since 1998, but with Dave Lee Roth back in the camp, and a sold-out tour of the US under their belts in 2007, rumours persist of a new VH album in 2010. Let’s hope so!
On this month’s track we’ve tried to cover many of the ideas and techniques that Eddie uses – in the space of a minute! We’ve written the chart in the key of A major because it uses the IIV and V chords from that key (A, D and E major), but in reality there are many different scales and ideas happening. It also has a strong shuffle feel throughout.
More than just tricks and pyrotechnics, Eddie always has one foot planted firmly in the blues, and at various times we’re using the notes from the blues}’A Dorian mode (А В С D E F# G) as well as the C# blues scale (C# E F# G G# B). It’s a fast paced rock boogie tune and uses techniques such as tapped harmonics, whammy bar dive bombs, open string licks and, of course, a good deal of two-handed tapping. You should use whichever fingering is most comfortable but there are a lot of fairly wide stretches, so first and fourth fingers will probably be used quite often, and picking hand tapping is best done with either your first (as Eddie does) or second finger (which allows you to still hold the pick). Check out the playing tips for specific information – there’s quite a lotto mention this month!