RARELY HAS THERE been a relationship between an artist and a magazine like the one Guitar World shared with Eddie Van Halen. With more than 20 cover stories and additional pieces published by various GW offshoots like Guitar Aficionado, Guitar Legends and Guitar School, much ink has been spilled by us in the name of Van Halen through the years. Ed’s appeal to our publication was obvious. As one of the greatest electric guitarists of the 20th century, and one of the most important guitar inventors since Les Paul, Leo Fender and Ted McCarty, his work was endlessly fascinating and worth reporting to our readers.
As a personality, he was funny, unvarnished and a surprisingly effective communicator. His interviews were always an appealing combination of “aw, schucks” humility, rowdy fun and straight-shooting insight, and he regularly spoke about his revolutionary playing techniques, such as tapping, as if they were no big deal, often laughing at the absurdity of his own ingenuity as if it was some other “Eddie Van Halen” that made it all up.
“I was just sitting in my room at home, drinkin’ a beer, and I remembered seeing people popping their finger on the fretboard and tapping out one note,” he once told us in his distinctive gravelly voice. “I thought, ‘Well, nobody is really capitalizing on that. Nobody was doing more than just one stretch and one note… real quick.’ So, I started dickin’ around and said, ‘Fuck! This is a technique nobody really does!’”
Let’s unpack that for a second.
Denne historien er fra January 2021-utgaven av Guitar World.
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Denne historien er fra January 2021-utgaven av Guitar World.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Kittie - Guitarists Morgan Lander and Tara Mcleod discuss the canadian metal powerhouse's unexpected rebirth — by fire!
Guitarists Morgan Lander and Tara McLeod explain that making new music was “not on their bingo card” when the band regrouped in 2022 for a few festival appearances, preferring to think of the sets as more of a “final lap” than a new beginning. But drilling into old favorites — whether the nu-flavored teenage slams of 1999’s Spit or the more venomously groove-thrashed tunes of their late-’00s period — revealed that despite not having raged together in years, there was something undeniably special about Kittie’s musical connection. “Playing with these girls is like putting on an old pair of pants,” Lander says. “It’s very comfortable — and it looks good too.”
McKinley James - Why all you really need is a guitar, a drummer and some serious low-end six-string skills
Nashville-based blues rocker McKinley James came flying out of the gate in 2022 with his Dan Auerbachproduced EP, Still Standing By. His momentum screeched to a halt, however, when his keyboardist split, leaving only him and his drummer, Jason Smay (who also happens to be his father). “For a moment, I was like, ‘What are we going to do?” James says. “But then I thought, ‘Well, other bands have succeeded as a duo. Maybe we can, too.”
TC Electronic TC 2290P Dynamic Digital Delay
THE MID EIGHTIES was a golden age for digital delay, thanks to the proliferation of pro- and studio-quality rack effects units from Eventide, Korg, Lexicon, Roland and Yamaha.
Danelectro Doubleneck
WHEN I THINK back to the Seventies, the famously coined “Me” decade, it seems the only surefire way you could leave audiences awestruck was to strap on a doubleneck guitar.
CARLOS ALOMAR
The former David Bowie guitarist talks Young Americans, Station to Station and the Berlin Trilogy, plus recording (and co-writing) \"Fame\" with John Lennon
GEORGE TERRY
It turns out Eric Clapton's Seventies guitarist (and co-writer of \"Lay Down Sally\") also played on ABBA's \"Voulez-Vous.\" Below, he looks back on a decade-plus of E.C., Bee Gees, Diana Ross and more
FRANK MARINO
The Mahogany Rush frontman charts the band's Seventies lows and highs, plus SG's, pickups and how he was definitely not visited by the ghost of Jimi Hendrix
DEWAYNE "BLACKBYRD" MCKNIGHT
The jazz/funk/fusion veteran on his smooth segue from Herbie Hancock sideman to full-on Funkdaledic member -plus his '70s gear and what he learned from Shuggie Otis
PAT TRAVERS
The Canadian-born virtuoso discusses the rise and fall of the Pat Travers Band, witnessing the U.K. punk revolution and the riotous roots of \"Snortin' Whiskey\"
JOE PERRY
The iconic guitarist looks back on Aerosmith in the Seventies, the decade that literally made and temporarily broke apart those Bad Boys from Boston
