I never really liked Van Halen.... I think it was the big hair and David Lee Roth, but I recently got 'Running With The Devil' stuck in my head and went back and listened to a bunch of their stuff again.
No doubt Eddie Van Halen was an unbelievable guitarist.
I just read through his life story on Wikipedia which I found fascinating. Mixed race parents. Endured discrimination in the Netherlands. Parents moved to the US in the 60s. More discrimination after they moved to California.
But he and his brother turned to music. His dad was a jazz pianist I believe. They formed a band in 1972?
I liked EVH talking about the tone he was after. He called it “brown sound”. And that he never read music and just improvised and figured things out.
From Wikipedia re: his “Frankenstrat”:
“The guitar had a single Gibson PAF (patent applied for) bridge pickup from a Gibson ES-335, which he enclosed with paraffin wax to prevent feedback. The Frankenstrat was originally painted black, but was recoated with Schwinn red bicycle paint in 1979.”
The PAF was “rewound by Seymour Duncan in 1978.”
Just wanted to tip my hat to an amazing talent.
I like this tune. Awesome if you loop it on Apple Music or something. 8)
https://youtu.be/SzXB4rIVtHw
If you want to see more, check out this video of him sitting down with the Smithsonian Institute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb26D8bBZB8