In the hIstory
of guitar playing there have been some extremely notable and groundbreaking players – and there’s no doubt that Eddie Van Halen is one of them. When he burst onto the global music scene in 1978 with the release of Van Halen, he sent thousands of guitarists (including yours truly) scurrying away to try and work out what on earth he was doing! And that was no mean feat. That classic album was full of fantastic playing techniques such as two-hand tapping, inventive harmonics approaches (natural and tapped), tremolo arm ideas, inventive rhythm playing, fast ‘hummingbird’ tremolo picking and far more.
Also, we can’t forget his variax-ed Marshall amps, homemade guitars, effects usage and overall rig setup – all of which are elements that helped him achieve what is now the undoubted benchmark for classic rock guitar tone, the ‘Brown Sound’. Here is a breakdown of the examples that make up this issue’s demonstration track/video. www.philhilborne.com