The Guitars of Van Halen: A Short History

I bought the first VH album while I was stationed in Korea in the US Army way back in the day. I'm 68 now. It was a bootleg copy the Koreans had made. I took it back to the barracks not knowing what I had since I had never heard of the band. We cracked open some beers and started to listen and were blown away. Music was never the same after that.

I said it before and I’ll say it again. Eddie deserves a statue. In my hometown Nijmegen, where Alex and Eddie lived until they moved to the US, we have street names named after the greatest rock bands and important artists. Surely there must be a nice place for a statue somewhere! Around the corner of the house where the Van Halen family lived there’s a square with an ugly statue of two bull horns. Surely nobody will have a problem to replace that thing for a beautiful real life statue of my guitar hero. If anyone deserves it it’s Eddie! ❤

Keith, why not a "Basses of......." series? You could do Geddy Lee, Phil Lesh, Bill Wyman, John Entwistle, even Michael Anthony........ Just a suggestion. AWESOME channel, please keep up the great work, it's much appreciated!

Famous stolen Guitars should be next.

Anyone who grew up in the ‘70’s knew who Eddie Van Halen was. He was a true innovator like Les Paul and others before him. He built guitars out of necessity because his family was poor and he wanted certain features that builders were not doing at the time. He, like Hendrix before him, changed everything. And he did it all with a smile on his face and took us all along with him. The first time I heard “Eruption” I thought, “What the hell was that?” One thing that I think is overlooked a lot is Eddie’s rhythm playing. You hear people imitating him and you can hear that they don’t quite have it. Anybody can shred if you practice enough and just work on speed but not everybody can play with the swing and groove he did. Listen to “Drop Dead Legs” on the 1984 album and tell me that doesn’t get the hairs on your arm to stand up. I literally did cry the day he died. I listened to Van Halen so much in high school and college and knew the words to every song and knew the guitar parts on all of the albums. He is so missed. He was the G.O.A.T. for me.

God bless Eddie. And God bless you for doing this. I’m in tears. I miss him SO terribly.

First saw VH at the Golden West Ballroon in Downey, CA. My bass player at the time just kept saying, “you gotta see this guy,” so we went and whoa. Eddie appeared with platform tennis shoes and a beat up 335 that was painted beige…like, painted with a roller. Looked like shite but sounded amazing…so good, so precise, SO much personality, no whammy stuff (yet). Amazing.

I remember being 12 years old and just getting my birthday money. I went down to the local record shop and bought 4 albums. 1984 was one of them, nothing was ever the same after that.

Eddie always had that smile, I saw VH on the 1983 tour, and Eddie smiled through that whole concert, I never meet him, but I bet he was a blast to be around.

I remember where I was when I heard Van Halen. It was blaring from a car stereo. Definitely a mind-blowing experience. I was 14 years old 🤪

Whenever I listen or read about the biographies of these guitar legends, I’m always curious about the formative stages of their guitar journeys. The stories are always something like “He got his first guitar for his 14th birthday, formed a band with his school buddies, and started playing gigs in town….” You NEVER hear about them learning and struggling with the instrument. It probably doesn’t exist anywhere, but wouldn’t it be cool… just once… to see a legend learning their first chords and their first songs? I just can’t picture a young Eddy fumbling through a barre chord, but I’d love to see a home movie of it!

King Edward…thank you for all you’ve given us…rest in peace Sir…

Thank you, Keith, for this. I was in 8th grade, I had rode my bike to school, and I had a little money in my pocket. I had been playing about 2 years at that point, and I wanted to buy an album that ROCKED. My buddy had a brother that was a senior in high school, and my buddy described this new album... I pedaled over to the dime store, found the album, brought it home, put it on the turntable in my room, and my guitar trajectory changed forever. RIP, King Edward. Again, thanks for all you do Keith.

I totally remember the first time I herd Van Halen it was 1978, I was a freshman in High school in San Diego going to the local JC Friday night football game and my buddy was playing Runnin With The Devil at the tailgate party in the parking lot…Mind Blown🙀

I had the pleasure of seeing EVH play three times in my life. I recall seeing the 1984 album cover at school that for some reason a kid brought to school. ( I guess I would have as well if I had one then) My first concert I ever went to was 5150 in Omaha Nebraska and back then was open admission so was able to get right up front. WOW as a teenager was blown away. Later in life got the chance to see him two more times and really could appreciate what I was seeing. in person it is amazing to watch him play so effortlessly. The smile he had on his face playing with his son on Bass on the last concert I saw was amazing. He wil be missed. Thanks for the great video.

Thanks Keith! It brings back a lot of memories. I was living in L.A. at the time Van Halen exploded on the scene. I was sitting in the back of a Camaro with brand new "Mindblower" speakers when I listened to VH1 for the first time. It was February 1978 and it turned out to be a very cloudy day.

To my mind, Edward Van Halen was the single most influential guitar player of all time. He represents a complete paradigm shift in how the instrument was played. Outclassing everything before or since in the world of guitar. Gone way too soon, we aren't likely to ever see another like him. Rest in Peace, Edward Van Halen for you, surely, have earned it. Thank you for the inspiration and thank you Keith for the video.

I was at my friends house it was after school when his older cousin came over with his guitar, peavey amp (which only had the faceplate with the speaker and the seperate head with the controls, he leaned the speaker against the wall and spanned the head between 2 kitchen chairs) and an album. He said you guys have to hear this. He fired up the record player and you didn’t hear a sound from anyone for at least 10 min. This was August 78’ I had just turned 12 the first time I heard the VH1 album. Fast forward October 27, 2020 I was at work in NW Kansas, I had been on for 28 hours straight, got a nap drove into town for a shower. I turned the radio on and that was when I learned of his death. I am not ashamed to say I shed a tear on that long dusty drive. It was as if a book had been closed on a part of my life. Ahh, I go on too long, thanks for the review of his guitars and their sequence. It was great!

The Rude guitar is one of my favorites because it’s so funky - extra thick body, modified Danelectro neck. Great paint job too as it does an homage to the original black and white.

Keith i remember EVH's 1st album like it was yesterday. My best friend from middle school had just bought the VH1 tape. 8 track tapes were a thing in '78. "He said you gotta hear this". Eruption comes on. My jaw hit the floor. And we listened to the entire album on tape. This was our first year of high school. I will never forget this because he loaned me the portable tape player and it ate the brand new tape at my house. Frantically i opened it up and put everything back right. Never worked on those things before. Sweating bullets the whole time hoping it would work and sound right. I did tell my best friend what happened, but he was cool with it. This was our favorite group for ever. Thanks for the memories Keith.