Nazgul6

How about revolutionary? There are a bunch of guys that changed the way ROCK guitar was played. Who would they be? You guys probably know more than I do but I would say Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie and like it or not Yngwie. I would even add Blackmore to that list. For early heavy riffing I would put Iommi and Page in there as well. And from a guitar hero blues invasion standpoint I would throw Clapton in there too. Taking that list I could probably list a bunch of more modern greats and show how they were mostly influenced by the guys above. So best is subjective but revolutionary, inventive and influential, he certainly is up there.

Here is my Candy Plum Socal. I want to get another one but I can't decide on the color.

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.

I think he's pretty open about it. I just discovered him recently and picked up a couple of his discs. I really like his playing.