McHale

On 11/26/2020 at 8:31 AM, Idunno said:

Basically, this is the underlying demise of HC. It rose up to become the most popular question/answer mecca. Then it started backsliding when the guitar culture at large no longer needed to spend the time logged in after the questions ran out. That's about the time it devolved into a forum run by cliques, similar to the persona of the current PP, and required heavy-handed moderation. That was a frustrating period exacerbated by the site switching to an unproven platform that failed an already embattled membership in countless ways. It lost its charm with the clique-run membership and went downhill from there until buried by the site admin attempting "great things" by playing the platform shell game and leaning heavily on jackbooted moderation to re-vitalize popularity (???!!!). The original esprit de corps that rallied the site was gone through poor management (captains sink with their ships). But, at least we have the AGF to provide the guitar culture's nerdsmanship needs and TGP to provide for the culture's cool-kids needs.

I totally disagree.  HC KSS was a legit community with tons of regular activity.  We even had an annual meet up where a lot of people across the country attended (which has evolved into Chicago's Knob Con conference).  Then they decided a new 2.0 version of the forum was needed and that alone killed it.  Most moved on to other forums immediately.  The old forum was a million times better than 2.0  Any of the old timers will remember the infamous Hai Guyz thread.  That one thread had more activity in a day than the new 2.0 forum gets in a year.  I still visit music forums daily, just not Harmony Central.  I hope they are happy with their decisions.  They got exactly what they wanted.

Music - Everything

Everything Else - Gets in the way

Van Halen - Panama

bones heal. But you probably save a pretty big dent in that guitar by catching it with your foot.

I had a guitar where the same thing happened but it landed square on the ground, not my foot. That's when I discovered it was plywood. Still have the guitar but I destroyed the value of it (Martin SG from the 70's).

-Mc

Well, duh. Who could intelligently argue any differently?

-Mc

+1

I have a book around here somewhere where he talks about having a closet full of effects and every once in a great while he pulls some out and toys with them then throws them back in because he remembers again why he hates them.

-Mc

I'd say he's pretty straight right now, at least compared to a few years ao. When you see the pics of him where he looks like a scary little old lady vs. how he looked on Two and a Half Men (most recent shots of him), it's night and day.

He has a new life with a new wife, a new band with his son, and WB is looking forward to releasing a new VH CD where they refused to even consider it just a few years ago. I'd say with things going well, he has lots to look forward to. As everyone knows, once an alcoholic always and alcoholic. But he looks good and kicked ass on tour. I think the possibility of a relapse and re-entering rehab will be a fact of life from now on, but he's on the right track.

One thing to add, even when he was loaded on some drug or another, he could still play the {censored} out of the guitar.

-Mc

I dunno about that. The 2 new songs (Can't Get This Stuff No More but especially Me Wise Magic) on the Greatest Hits Volume 1 with Roth are better than almost everything they put out with Sammy. THAT sounded like old VH to me.

I don't care how good or bad the next Van Halen CD is. Songs may not be radio friendly, but there will be good guitar on there. Even VH3 has some good guitar in it, as God awful as it is.

-Mc

EVH doesn't get credit for his rhythm playing. He also has some great solos that aren't his normal tapping. Check out "So This is Love", great bluesy solo.

If you pay attention (especially to albums like Fair Warning or Van Halen I), you'll notice he's ALWAYS doing something with the guitar. Rhythm, noises, squeals, etc. And even at his ripe old age and years of abuse, he's as good as ever.

And you also have to give him credit for the things he started. Humbuckers in strats - Eddie. The {censored} he can do with a Trem, all Eddie. And when he hit the scene, nobody played like him. Many, many, many guitarists have tried to sound like him since.

I do agree with the sentiments above, he can be a douche to people he doesn't like. Not sure if that's the drugs or alcohol or his personality, but I've seen him {censored} over quite a few people.

-Mc