“It’s not really the speed at which you play”: Eddie Van Halen’s priceless advice to his son Wolfgang about guitar solos
“My dad always instilled that a solo should be melodically memorable. You can have those fun little wank moments.”
Image: Daniel Knighton / Getty
Eddie Van Halen instilled one core belief about guitar solos into his son and current Mammoth WVH frontman, Wolfgang Van Halen. Despite his famous speedy tapping technique, Eddie actually believed being melodic was key.
Wolfgang worked with his father’s former guitar tech Matt Bruck and EVH Masterbuilder Chip Ellis for the EVH SA-126 semi-hollow guitar, which debuted at the NAMM show earlier this year and was made available globally back in May. The model is “Wolf’s interpretation of what a modern guitar should be”.
Talking about the guitar and his own style of playing in an interview with MusicRadar, Wolf shares, “I think I approach guitar playing, like you said, more as a producer and more as a drummer than a guitar player. I think rhythm is always the first thing for me and melody is the second.
“You can play a solo that’s one note that can be way more impressive than a solo that’s 2,000 notes. It’s not really the speed at which you play. A really core thing for me that my dad always instilled is that a solo should be melodically memorable. You can have those fun little wank moments,” he says.
“I think a good example, and I can never shut up but how much I love this guitar player, is Aaron Marshall from Intervals. We toured with them lately and he’s such a great example of what my dad and I love about solos where he’s very melodic. He’s basically a singer as a guitar player. But he has those moments where he does these impressive, awesome shreddy runs.”
Mammoth WVH released their most recent record, Mammoth II, back in August last year. They have since been out on the road with the likes of Nita Strauss and, of course, Intervals in tow.
The band have remaining live dates scheduled across Europe, the UK, the US and more.