EDDIE VAN HALEN
The Tapmaster General HISTORY
A smiling kid from Pasadena, California via Holland, Eddie Van Halen embodied everything about late ‘70s LA: hot rod cars, backyard parties and Sunset Strip excess.
Van Halen was already a local legend long before his namesake band was signed to Warner Bros, and while the band still exists at least on paper (and released a cracking comeback album, ADifferentKindOf
Truth, in 2012), much of Van Halen’s legacy and influence was forged in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS
Other players had experimented with some variation on two-handed tapping on record, including Frank Zappa, Steve Hackett of Genesis and even KISS’s Ace Frehley, but Van Halen brought a whole new dexterity to the technique, incorporating influences from his time as a piano prodigy.
Van Halen changed a lot of things, from guitar construction to effects use, all the way to whammy bar techniques (he had the first ever Floyd Rose). And tapping isn’t just a trick to him: it’s an organically integrated part of his natural style. WHERE TO START Eruption The tapped section – it ain’t easy, but nothing EVH is. BOSS LEVEL Mean Streets
The intro to “Mean Streets”, with its percussive slaps, tapped harmonics and controlled feedback, is very hard to master.