This shot of Edward’s early rack setup reveals what amp-guru Dave Friedman of Rack Systems Ltd. believes is a Flag Systems-built switching system (top) and a Roland DC-30 Analog Chorus-Echo.

"Eddie’s reinvention of the guitar in the late 1970s had the same impact on the rock guitar world as Jimi Hendrix did 10 years before. He’s not just a guitarist. He also puts a lot of thought into his sound and his production. He always writes great compositions.

So beside being a brilliant guitar player, he’s an all-rounder when it comes to production sound and presentation, as well as being a hell of a nice guy." —Ritchie Blackmore

"In the beginning, there were the big four: Clapton, Page, Beck, and Hendrix. In the interim, there has been no force more important and influential than the iconoclastic Edward Van Halen. He reinvented the landscape of guitar playing for his generation and succeeding generations and set the bar at a new level. There have been many great guitar players in the history of modern music, but Ed is in a class by himself, and all of us who love the guitar owe him a tremendous debt." —Grover Jackson