I actually think the guy is a genius. To me he completely reinvented the instrument and didn't let anything get in his way. If he wanted a sound he figured out a way to get it, either by inventing techniques, modifying techiniques, inventing gear etc. I was just switching form acoustic guitar to electric guitar when my friend got VH1 and brought it over and said I had to hear something. When I heard Eruption we were just looking at each other like, "What the Hell could this guy possibly be doing to this instrument?" I love that! The only thing is, there is no way you can keep that up. You can't keep topping yourself forever especially when you ushered in a paradigm shift in the first place. Add to that that he had the look and the image and the moves etc. and the guy was an absolute definition of guitar hero, more so than really anyone else I can think of. And I think a lot of the criticism is unfair, you can't take someone like EVH who obviously thinks farther outside the box than most of us can dream of and make him a house guitarist in celebrity jams. John Petrucci would excel at that but that's exactly why John Petrucci will never be EVH. And also, everyone talks about the first four albums but even if he continued spinning that stuff out, then he would be getting the Yngwie treatment i.e. "Yeah its the same thing over and over.' To me, the Eddie I remember is the one in the poster I had in my room, red overalls with the red white and black Frankenstrat doing his little jump with a big smile on his face. All the photoshops in the world won't change that.