Eddie did not learn the tapping technique from his dad Jan Van Halen. His dad played brass instruments. Check out the video Kar did about Eddie and other guitarists who did tapping before Eddie ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-odiaaGLxQok.htmlsi=lHYcz76vK3PmpUlR
Wow, Kilgore admitted Eddie without the tapping was the best he ever heard . Just goes to show that the people who view Eddie as just a tapper don't have a clue .
Check out Jimmy Bates of Stormer! IMHO i think this is the guy that EVH copped a lot of his style from. Jimmy did all those stretch licks like EVH did in "ice cream man" and "im the one" .
Why don't you do a live interview with Terry Kilgore, so you can hear some great stories from him, I took guitar lessons from him as a kid, he taught me a lot.... He's a Great Guitarist, I got a lot of respect for him...
Just goes to show how guitarists from the same area snag tips and riffs from each other. It ain`t stealing, it is just how to get more things under your belt.
@@MrWilkat1 I guess if you want to . I never tap a single note cuz I suck at it. I have 40 yrs under my belt and many looooong hrs playing and I never felt comfortable tapping. But , hey, if it works for you....👍
Exactly! When I started playing guitar, the first thing I'd do when I figured something out was to go show it to my other guitar playing buddies, and they'd do the same. Unfortunately, Eddie felt like he had to lie about where he got the tapping technique from because at his core he was very insecure and competitive.
Don`t give a crap about how Ed found tapping. Ed was tapping and making triads and music, not just being cheeky and flashy. It just became a part of his style. Ed was a percussionist on the guitar. Ed was a drummer and a pianist on a 6 string.
I totally agree. Besides I’m Shure Mandel did it, but Nobody had done it the way EVH did it like you said. Besides I’m so tired of all this BS of people always trying to downplay what Eddie was and did. To me he changed the world I live in. I’m a Bass player. Thank you for pointing out the truth.
That's right and in a 2020 interview he says it himself. He never claimed to have invented tapping, pull-offs etc but that he knew when and how to craft it into actual pieces of music. Arent we all glad he did because there hasnt been anyone like him and I doubt there ever will be.
Guys , we talked about Roy Smeck, Vittorio Camardese, Steve Hackett and other guitarists who used tapping before Eddie in our previous video. In this video we are talking about Eddie Van Halen and his life-long friend Terry Kilgore from Pasadena. Terry learned it from Harvey Mandel who used the technique throughout his 1973 record - ' Shangrenade'. Terry used it as one of the lessons and Eddie was hanging out with Terry and saw that. A bit later Eddie started doing it as well. And in LA, the technique came from Harvey Mandel which was eventually perfected and popularised by Eddie Van Halen.
George Lynch and EVH both saw Mandel / Canned Heat at the Starwood, Dec 1976. EVH started tapping (meaning the full blown eruption tapping) in the summer of 77. But Terry had shown it to Ed prior to that
all owe thanks to mary ford. she invented tapping in 1940's-50's working with les paul. know real history. first ever notice of a human doing right hand tapping was mary ford. give credit where it is due or be thieves like led zep. only thing page invented was copyright theft.
I just found the book "Van Halen Rising" by Greg Renoff and read that part about Eddie and Terry Kilgore and it cofirms that Eddie learned the tapping technique from Terry Kilgore. It says that after learning tapping from Harvey Mandel, Terry showed it to his bandmates and his soundman - Kevin Gallagher. Kevin says that Mandel shared a lot of his tapping stuff with Terry. Gallagher also says, "I can recall at least one time when I was doing sound in Jon Laidig's basement that Eddie was sitting on the basement stairs learning that stuff from Terry." Kilgore recalls how he showed Eddie two-handed tapping, he said to Eddie, "Check this out" and started playing tapping. And Eddie said, "Wow" and started doing it. Kilgore says, "I had a lot of ideas that ended up in Edward's hands. He had a few that ended up in mine for sure."
mary ford invented tapping while working with les paul in 1940's-50's. every guitarist since owes mary ford a big thank you. a thank you as big as heavy metal.
I grew up in Alhambra, a city just south of Pasadena where all these guys were from and I 100% agree with everything on this video.. I remember Terri Killore, Nick Panicci, EVH, and a few others excellent guitarists from this era, ( I was about 6-10 years younger) and I even saw Chris Holmes jam with his band Buster Savage at Store More studios in Rosemead, and learned some of the EVH tricks from Chris.. so, this all speaks to truth... I never bought that story of EVH learning the tapping from JP's "Heartbreaker " solo break. All these guys knew each other and copped from each other..it was EVH that got to the finish line first and it appears to be that simple.. Regardless, nothing should be taken away from any of these guys. They are all excellent players.. - EVH just got the lion's share of the recognition.. - Maybe he was just too embarrassed to admit it.. who knows.. - If anyone wants to hear the influence similarities of Terri and EVH, check out Terri on the his track Reddi Killowat on the Mike Varney's US Metal Vol 1 completion. Kudos to Kar's Guitar Channel on this excellent video. - Mark Caro - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-upt4EaKiNGM.html
Yes sure but on the LA rock guitar scene, the technique comes from Harvey Mandel. Harvey used it throughout his 1973 'Shangrenade' album but several years later Eddie perfected the technique and made it mainstream.
Yes, exactly! Thanks for setting the record straight. All of us who listened to rock, blues and jazz in the early 1970s remember Mandel doing that back then. Many of us know that Mandel got the technique from fellow guitarist in Pure Food & Drug Act, Randy Resnick, who'd employed it on some of Sugarcane Harris' albums. As you pointed out, they just did not have the huge following that the band Van Halen had.
Harvey Mandel uses tapping throughout his 1973 album 'Shangrenade' - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zAnE99QFO5I.html ! Check it out folks, awesome stuff
Let’s just ignore everything else he invented like the Mean Streets intro, Cathedral, Spanish Fly, Women in Love, Hot For Teacher, I’m the One, Dirty Movies, and countless other tracks and live solos. Eddie made guitar an instrument that was bigger and more versatile than anyone had ever imagined, that’s why it inspired so many people to want to play. He had so many ideas, amazing hooks in his melody, sophisticated rhythms, and a godly tone that nobody has ever been able to come close to. He deserves every bit of praise for gifting us with so many genius ideas to inspire musicians to think outside of the box, engineer your own vision, and remind people to invent and innovate for their own sake. All performed with a smile, a positive voice, and a love for his art form.
Dude, from Eddie's own mouth, that means streets intro is borrowed from the funk players like Larry Graham, I love Eddie and I think he's great but come on dude
You're right..Ed was a genius, but the very thing he claimed was his own that everyone copied for years was super dishonest him...He claimed everyone ripped him off, and he actually ripped off someone's style completely to get where he was at.
Let's also not ignore the fact that Eddie was extremely insecure and competitive, which is what led him to lie about where he got his tapping technique from in the first place.
Regardless of who was the first person to tap on the fretboard, Eddie made music out of tapping. Eddie also made it a part of his unique style. That's the difference.
@@These_go_to_eleven_1959 Right? Like when that opening riff on You Really Got Me kicked in and my older brother had it BLASTING on his Clarion car stereo and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. It brought me a LOT of joy. Still does.
Eddie didn't have to finger tap to be the greatest. He had the complete package right out the chute. Rhythm, lead, songwriting, technique, timing, innovation and impeccable swing. Fa get about it! RIP Meastro.
Obviously people love Van Halen music because of the music, not the tapping. In fact, even Eruption sounds so great because it builds to that tapping triad melody. Eddie was a brilliant producer and visionary, much more than his peers or anyone who copied his techniques. Beyond the finger tapping (which he did the best, accompanied by his amazing tone) he added something new and inventive on almost every track. He was an innovator.
Yes absolutely. Musically Eruption is perfect! It's a complete musical composition not just a bunch of fast licks. Eddie did so many amazing things besides tapping.
Excellent! Take a bow for this insightful investigation of rock guitar technique. Edward galvanized finger tapping but he didn't have a monopoly on its origin.
Resnick was mentioned by Lee Ritenour in the January 1980 Guitar Player Magazine, who saw Resnick use the tapping technique in 1973 at the Whisky a Go Go with the Richard Greene Group.
Frank Zappa tapped with the side of his pick, which he called "Bulgarian Bagpipe Technique" and said he learned the technique from his drummer Jim Gordon, who used a drumstick to tap. I think Frank deserves honorable mention in the tapping discussion, but that takes nothing away from what EVH did with tapping. EVH revolutionized the technique
Very interesting deep dive! The only suggestion I might have would be to include some comments on Genesis's Steve Hackett, who not only was doing two-handed tapping before EVH, but I've seen a video of Hackett doing a tapping segment that sounds strikingly like Eddie's later Eruption. None of this is meant to take anything away from Edward, who I regard as one of the greatest virtuosos to ever pick up the guitar, and probably my favorite electric guitarist of all-time.
If you want to see the true master on the guitar playing this way it’s Stanley Jordan. I’ve seen him a couple times: once at Jazz Alley in Seattle maybe the early 2000s; then at the Blue Note in Napa I think just before the pandemic. But Jordan does this almost all the time but he raises it to a different level. Stanley often plays a lead melody with his left hand and either a bass line or chords with his right. He keeps his left palm away from the fretboard too so it doesn’t touch strings he needs for his right. It’s a thing to behold. The only player that “wows” me besides Stanley is maybe Jake E Lee. He has a solo where he anchors his thumb I think on the fretboard and then just plays some things with his right that are mind blowing. Sure, Eddie was good. But he wasn’t “Stanley Good.” (It should be written that I’m not a huge fan of some of Stanley’s arrangements. It’s hit and miss. “Lady in My Life” I think is his most popular hit though.)
Terry Kilgore like Karl Sandoval were names in the late '80s and '90s I heard thrown around with all sorts of magical factual and guitar lore 🪄🪄🪄 They were beyond human in stature among up and coming guitarists. ....
Harvey Mandel the king. I never get tired of listening to him, he's so creative and soulful. Much more versatile than EVH, who I got tired of after the first album. He did all his tricks and never got any better. Then started playing lame keyboard stuff. ( subjective )
There's always a martyr or 2 right b4 a great playing technique is accepted look at frank marino and his incredible use of effects and sound he was a juggernaut of sound yet doesn't even own a house
How many great memorable songs, that have stood the test of time and have become part of our culture have any of these other guys written? And done give me the canned heat argument. I woud bet any amount of money you can't find three people on the street who know a canned heat song. Edward is and will always be the King!!!
EVH had said many times that he DID not "invent" tapping, but he was one of the 1st to write melodies/complete songs using the tapping technique. BTW EVH said at one time that he got the ideal of tapping from seeing Jimmy page in concert. Regardless, EVH changed rock guitar & has influenced 1000s. Long Live the KING EVH
That's what Eddie said but Eddie is notorious for telling false things about his techniques and gear. He wanted to keep his stuff in secret. Jimmy Page never used the two handed tapping technique. Harvey Mandel did. Eddie was hanging out with his friend Terry Kilgore. Terry learned from Harvey Mandel a lot of his tapping stuff. You see before the internet, we learned things from friends. And Eddie admitted in 2015 that he and his friend Terry shared licks back in the 70s. And Eddie saw Terry doing tapping. I'm sure Terry Kilgore was the main guy who influenced Eddie to start doing tapping. Of course Eddie perfected the technique and took it to a new level. Have you listened to Harvey Mandel's 1973 Shangrenade? Harvey did all that tapping stuff in 1973 which Eddie adopted and played later in the late 70's.
A lot of people don't realize that Eruption is almost a direct take on Page's live Heartbreaker solo from around 71-72. They're structurally very similar with Eruption of course being on steroids.
Interesting stuff. I was messing with tapping in the 60s but dropped it because frankly my dexterity and musical knowledge was just not there yet. I had a lot of fun with it, but did not take it seriously, (likewise with concurrently voicing the notes I was playing for some licks I was rehearsing). I was largely infuenced by Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton and bands like the Yardbirds (of course). Cream, Zeppelin, John Mayall, etc were on my turntable as often as the Stones and the Beatles. It blew my mind when I first heard EVH doing his tapping and I couldn't believe what he was doing. I never dreamed that the tap technique would have ever evolved as it has. Even today I don't attempt to get close to those who have mastered it since it's not my style. But I have great admiration for the players who followed EVH's lead. Mind you, I read somewhere that the real credit for the tap method dates back much earlier than the 60s or 70s although I can't recall the name of the person credited with it.
Check out the video Kar did about Eddie and other guitarists who did tapping before Eddie ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-odiaaGLxQok.htmlsi=lHYcz76vK3PmpUlR
Well there was a guy named Rocky Athas from Dallas that was tapping back in the mid 7ps. The last I heard Rocky was with John Mayall. Great guitar player.m
Yes we talked about it in our previous video. In this video we are talking about Eddie Van Halen and his friend Terry Kilgore. Terry learned it from Harvey Mandel who used the technique throughout his 1973 record - ' Shangrenade'. And in LA, the technique came from Harvey Mandel which was eventually perfected and popularised by Eddie Van Halen.
Ok Eddie didn’t invent tapping… not sure why anyone said he did… but he revolutionized it. You know when your’re the greatest when everyone try’s to make little digs that you’re not.
Interesting. Frank Marino could out riff anybody and feedback control too. But when he tapped it was like Salieri and not Mozart. But shortly after...there was Eddie. But I finally saw Van Halen at the 88 Monsters of Rock. Too bad that they followed the Scorpions. Well, after seeing nearly everybody I wanted to see, there's Eddie...halfway through his solo bits I was like, ahh....wish it was Frank. Anyone who saw Frank Marino before that time period knows what I'm talking about. But Eddie? King of the tap, tap happy ace. Yes.
Also i know a trick on guitar that no one hear has ever seen and i learned it as a kid , if you get a TV remote control and press a button on the remote next to the pickup on your electric guitar it makes a weird sound like an Alien phoning home lol seriously im not joking , anyway i thought id share that as want to see someone do it on stage to make an audience laugh
In art and music, it's never who did it first. It's who did it best. How many guitarists did Terry Kilgore inspire? How many Guitar magazine covers has Terry Kilgore been on?
On Judas Priest’s 1978 album Killing Machine has a track Hell Bent for Leather that Glenn Tipton plays a similar tapping technique on the solo. Though, Van Halen 1 came out in early 1978 and Judas Priest’s album came out in late 1978
I saw a guitar player from farther back than this era doing the tapping technique on RU-vid. I don’t recall his name but I believe he was a Jazz player.
Yeah but when EVH 1 came out everyone was like "How's he doing that". However Eddie picked it up, he took it to another level and formed an entire style around it.
...........Chet Atkins and Roy Clarke may have been string tapping in the 50s and 60s too.......true.Harvey Mandel was tapping in 1968 in front of Richie Blackmore...Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix.............in 1968 you can hear Jimi Hendrix string tapping when he take a solo on the song ...Tax Free........thanks to Harvey Mandel.....Jimi Hendrix was very aware of tapping......
Eddies greatest gift was he could take something someone was doing and do it his way with just about anything he'd see or hear. It doesnt matter who invented tapping, Ed's version of tapping was the most complete and changed the landscape. Ed's use of tapping chords an octave higher comes from classical, jazz and fusion guitarists that used their right hand to simultaneously pluck the string with the thumb and lightly touch the fret above the fret wire-Ed just tapped them, giving them a percussive feel. Ed holding a note and tapping different notes, generally 5, 7, and 12 frets higher, is the same as if you played the natural harmonics of any open string. Ed took Albert Lee's playing with delay and instead used volume swells in 'Cathedral'. Hell, in Van Halen Rising, its mentioned that Ed was great but boring on stage. Look at young Eddie, he and Alex's stage attire was blue jeans and a white t-shirt. Ed was known to see Randy Rhoads quite often in the early days...Ed may not have been looking to cop Randy's licks so much as Randy's style of dress. Think about it. Randy ALWAYS looked like a rockstar...soon after, Ed has grown his hair out, gotten it layered. Ed started to wear silky blouses, platforms, his stage mannerisms werent boring anymore, he'd crouch down like Randy (RR himself emulating Mick Ronson). Ed saw Randy had his own trademark look and polka dots. Randy had a gorgeous girlfriend, Ed had a homely looking girl that cheated on him, eventually connecting with Valerie. Ed resenting the fact that Randy was the most popular member of his band where Ed played second fiddle to DLR-eventually leading to Ed wanting total control of VH. Ed 'borrowed' the black and white striped design from The Dils Chip Kinman, Ed even started mimicking (in his own way) punk rock jump moves. I remember hearing that when VH was recording in Cherokee Studios (1974?), someone that worked there mentioned that Joe Walsh used a Variac to get a then unknown-master volume sound of a cranked amp at a lower volume...leading Ed to connect his amp to a house light dimmer and almost burning the house down. Ed's famous humbucker strat was made because Ed saw Robbie Robertson from The Band playing what looks like a strat with a humbucker, which is actually a strat with its middle single coil moved right by the rear single coil. Which leads to Ed's famous sound, a pickup he said was broken. When his guitar was going to get copied, his humbucker wasn't bucking, it was reading weird on the voltage meter. Since Ed may have wound it himself, he may have damaged it (or wired it wrong) and only one side of the humbucker working, being the same middle single coil one that Robbie moved to sit by the rear single coil. Ed's guitar would have had a single coil sound in the rear slot that was a bit fatter sounding because it was near the tremolo but also because it being wrapped as a humbucker, canceled out the hum. Why does his famous VH 1 sound so clean and 'woody'...you're welcome...LOL!!!
Sorry we did a whole video about who played tapping before Eddie. But Eddie made it mainstream. Eddie took it to the whole new level. Nobody sounded like Eddie before Eddie.
This blows my mind. Eddie always told story about Jimmy page LA forum houses of the holy tour. This is first time I heard anything about this ..With all documenterys over the years on RU-vid I should've known this long ago. Los Angeles is responsible for lot of inovative rock bands from beginning 50s 60s -80s . There's not enough history on guitar in los angeles. Back in late 70s it was known LA was mecca for rock guitar players. Ozzy himself said at that time in LA their was a quote bands used whether or not a guitar player sucked, if guitarist sounded like (Eddie van Halen on acid) he was in!. We don't want him unless he sounds like van Halen on acid? Ozzy
The Wright Brothers didn't invent the idea of flying. They were the first one to make it work, and Howard Hughes took it to new levels with smooth fuselage and jet engines.
please, could you recommend some books mentioning where the tapping technique comes from? also a good book about Randy Rhoads, Eddie and Jimi Hendrix? thank you and also thank you for sharing all this with us ❤
@@zsanett11 You are very welcome, great pleasure! We did a great doc video about "where the tapping technique comes from". It's here - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-odiaaGLxQok.html .
Love Eddie Page Clapton Beck. Guitar is the funnest instrument to play. Everyone know Chris Holmes and Eddie were close buddies, love Chris Holmes too!
I knew as soon as I saw this title you were going to piss off some EVH fans. All of these guys that are claiming we don't love Eddie because of the tapping are probably the same guys that have said thousands of times that he invented it, and they're just embarrassed that they were wrong. But also the same guys that say Eddie never used any pedals and never took any lessons.
It's wonderful that Terry is finally getting credit, that I know to be true. Seen Terry many times last time being late nineties killer player. AAnd I agree about Eddie's playing before the tapping.
Eddie Van Halen dad's name was Jan. He played brass instruments. We did a whole video about who played tapping before Eddie. But Eddie made it mainstream. Eddie took it to the whole new level. Nobody sounded like Eddie before Eddie.
I would like to hear about Terry Kilgore's influence on Eddie regarding his right hand wrist picking. Incredible. Seems silly but it's impossible to play.
I got a lesson from Terry Kilgore back in 1979 just after I'd moved to Pasadena. He also taught me the tapping technique but I never incorporated it into my playing because I knew if I did the first thing people would think was Eddie Van Halen. So I didn't bother with it. I can do it, but it's not me. My cousin Mike had a buddy named Kevin who liked my playing and said he knew Terry Kilgore, and that Terry was in an up and coming band called Reddi Killowatt which I just thought was the coolest name for a band ever. So anyway, one day Kevin took me to Terry's apartment and introduced me. That was the first time I'd ever seen a rack. Terry was very cool. Walked me through his signal chain and patches. Really nice. He started in on that tapping which by that time as I mentioned above I had already seen Van Halen. VH opened for Journey in my hometown the previous summer (1978) before I relocated to L.A. in March of '79 so I was aware of the technique. One of the very first things Terry shared with me was that he was the one who taught the technique to Eddie. It made sense to me that that's where Eddie picked it up from because if I'm not mistaken I think Terry was a bit older than Eddie. BTW, my new buddy Kevin also knew Eddie and Alex's cousin Sandy and introduced me to her. Sandy was really cute. Tiny little thing about 4'11". Her and I hit it off great and we hung out together for awhile while I was in Pasadena before getting the gig with Lip Service and moving to Santa Monica in September of '79. 1979 was a great year for me. Terry played me some of his demos one of which was a song called "Liquid Lady" which is in a still in this video. It was really good. Anyway that's my Terry Kilgore/Van Halen story. Thanks for your hospitality Terry.
If any one of these A list players did a track as amazing as Eruption...any one of them would of been the next Guitar Star. It was common for guitarists in the then post Hendrix era , Alvin Lee, Johnny Winter, Page Nugent, Angus, Ace and more that to do a Long flashy Solo was in 90% of rockbands live. But Ted Templeman said to make it a feature track with Alex...straight into You Really Got Me...after Running With The Devil. Rock would never be the same. But did Ted Templeman partially make Eddie as well? Eddie did an Innovation on each Album, Cathedral, Spanish Fly Meanstreets, Women in Love and more on Every Album for like 6 albums and goes into synths and Pop. And he could write songs...a catalogue, not just a few riffs every five years a big catalogue as goid as any legend any genre.
Seriously you are all overthinking it as if it’s some great thing, for one thing Van Halen said he did it because he couldn’t play arpeggios the normal way and EVH started as a classical pianist so you are using two hands on a piano and then he starts on a guitar it’s not much of a leap to think “wonder what would happen if I play guitar like a piano?” I am telling you for sure that’s how it started, he may have refined the technique from a novelty to a staple by seeing others but I was drumming on a guitar neck when I started I was even using vibraphone mallets on it in high school classical guitar so that’s how it started for sure and I can tell you in case you don’t realise there are many classical pianists women included that can blow any male guitar shredder out of the arena with speed and virtuosity there is no comparison Yuma Wang being one that comes to mind, EVH had a great feel for rhythm guitar, the tapping in my opinion is a gimmick and I don’t like the sound of excessive hammer ons it doesn’t bring out the full harmonic potential of the guitar.
Barney Kessel, Vittorio Camardese, and various other jazz musicians were tapping all the way back in the 50s and early 60s... and not just single-index-finger or single-string tapping like in Eruption either. They used multi-fingers and multi-strings at a time (not just single string skipping) which was far more advanced than every one of these guys you mentioned who used it 15-25 years after them. What I don't understand is why do we get so hung up on who did it first? We don't say... who used a pick first? Or used alternate picking first? Or used sweep picking first? Or who was the first one to use arpeggios? Etc, etc. Why? For one, because there's no definitive answer or any possible way of knowing. You can go all the way back to around 1800 and find Paganini using tapping techniques on a violin, and I'm sure he probably wasn't even the first to do it. There was probably someone doing it 500-1000 years before him on an instrument none of us has ever even heard of, or even exists anymore for all we know. I mean, think about it... what is tapping? It's hammering on (and pulling off) the strings. What do pianos do? As of around 1700, they literally hammer on the strings. So does that mean whoever invented the piano technically invented note tapping? No... because dulcimers go back to at least 900 A.D. that I know of, probably even further... and guess how you play them? By hammering on the strings. It's all the same concept, just some literally use little hammers, whereas much later on people used the side of their picks for guitars, or their index fingers... or multiple fingers... or flat out played the guitar strings with all 10 of their fingers like a piano a-la Stanley Jordan, who many have mentioned in the comments. It is NOT a concept anyone just suddenly created in the 60s and 70s... it's a technique that's literally been used for at least a couple thousand years (if not more) on all sorts of different instruments.
Check out the video Kar did about Eddie and other guitarists who did tapping before Eddie ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-odiaaGLxQok.htmlsi=lHYcz76vK3PmpUlR
I'm not sure where Stanley Jordan got it from but in MY opinion, he took the tapping method to it's zenith in that era. It's a curious thing about music, everyone is learning and adapting ideas or concepts from one another, there is nothing truly original. Eddie had a unique perspective on tapping because in HIS mind it made sense, he suddenly saw the guitar as a keyboard and piano was his first instrument.
Eddie's dad was a string taper before Eddie was born. His Dada was a string player and there is videos of him tapping away in the 50s or 60s black n white film right here on youtube
I never believed the "I got it from watching jimmy page" crap EVH said over and over! There was a core group of players in Pasadena back then and they all were in friendly competition with each other. EVH, Terry Kilgore, Chris Holmes, Jimmy Bates of Stormer(who in my opinion was incredible and EVH definitely copied from him!) and there is no way EVH did not find out about Harvey Mandel back then. Terry and EVH used to jam together and both went to see Jimmy Bates play live many times! If you listen to the old bootlegs EVH did not used to tap at all then out of nowhere he started doing it at the end of his solo. In the end none of this really matters anyway because EVH made it famous and did do his own thing with it.
Someone already stated it, but just try some two handed work on the guitar WITHOUT being compared to Ed. He defined that technique, regardless of who may have utilized some of it before.
Eddie was the complete package. He had the riffs and songwriting and attitude. If he was just writing guitar instrumentals we probably wouldn’t be speaking of him. He knew you needed good hooks and melodys not just the pyrotechnic flash
It is SUCH a shame when people can’t mention EVH without tapping. It has been said dusins of times; EVH said it himself; I never claimed to have invented tapping. But one thing is for sure; try doing it, WITHOUT sounding like him. Whoever came up with the principle of doing it, EVH made it into what people associate with tapping, he defined it to a musical expression. As he did with everything else. If people wants to accredit EVH for his way of playing guitar, due to him not being the originator, then ALL of the Electric guitar heroes all the way back to Les Paul should be accredited, cause after all; did it before they did. Don’t hate the player, he didn’t ask you to play like him
wonder if the story about Eddie buying the guitar body and neck at Boogie Bodies is true? The story about Eddie painting his guitar B/W, the designed came from a guitarist in a Punk Band, called the "Deals" spelling maybe off, but I seen the picture and it resembled Eddie's guitar a lot.
