Eruption

Eruption: Edward Van Halen 1955 - 2020

On October 6, 2020, the music community lost its most innovative contributor and the world lost one of its greatest musicians in Edward Van Halen. Throughout his career Eddie Van Halen inspired, frustrated, and wowed generations of guitar players and musicians alike. His virtuosity was on full display from the band’s first album in 1978, to its last in 2012, remaining the preeminent guitar hero decade after decade.

On the song, Eruption, It took Eddie one minute and forty two seconds to completely alter the way that guitar was played from then on. His use of tapping, hammer-ons and pull-offs, string skipping, and sheer speed was unlike anything that had been done prior. A new standard for guitar playing was set and that song became the standard by which up and coming guitarists were judged. How often was that song played at a school talent show or used as an audition to prove you had the chops? In the early days of Van Halen, Eddie would often turn his back to the audience so they couldn’t figure out what he was exactly doing during some of the song’s more complicated passages. The shred boom in the early eighties was a direct result of what Eddie was doing in the late seventies. He inspired so many and continues to do so even in his passing.

Aside from the contributions Eddie made on the guitar, he made many significant contributions for the guitar. The idea of the super-Strat didn’t exist before Eddie Van Halen. He was the one to take a humbucker and put it in the bridge of a Strat style guitar. Now most guitar manufacturers sell guitars like this, but that wasn’t the case prior to Eddie Van Halen. Eddie was one of the first to use a Floyd Rose trem and the first to have a guitar with a singular volume knob. He was also the first to boil his strings because he felt it enhanced the tone and dip his pickups in parafin wax to eliminate unwanted microphonic feedback. The idea of hot-rodding guitars and amps started with Eddie and these changes were done out of necessity to further what he wanted to do on guitar. The “D-tuna” is a patented design of Eddie’s that allowed the player to detune the low E string a full step with a simple pull of a lever. This is used on Floyd Rose bridges and now allowed the player to make that tuning change much more efficiently without the need of an Allen wrench each time. This device came standard on all of Eddie Van Halen’s signature guitars beginning with his Peavey Wolfgang model through his signature line of EVH Wolfgang guitars made in partnership with Fender.

The final Van Halen concert was in 2015 at the famed Hollywood Bowl and Eddie’s playing was still top notch and you could tell that he lived for the music. He smiled through every complicated solo that would make most frown if they attempted it, and just exuded pure joy as they played hit after hit. Having fought through hip replacement surgery, tongue cancer, and ultimately succumbing to throat cancer, Eddie Van Halen changed music and the way music is played forever and all it took was one minute and forty two seconds.

Photo: Steve Rose