Eddie Van Halen: Rock Star or Mad Scientist? Both!

You know Eddie Van Halen as the rock guitar god that he was. You may know him as the tinkerer who built his Frankenstrat piece by piece. You may even know him as the guy that pioneered using attenuators on amplifiers.

Eddie’s Frankenstrat (Photo by Bainzy at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

But did you know that he was also a bit of mad scientist?

That’s right, Edward Lodewijk van Halen: rock star by day, serial inventor by night. Okay, maybe that’s the other way around. But the point still stands — EVH held multiple US patents.

Eddie Van Halen: mad scientist (Photo by See page for author, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Look, Ma, no hands!

The most well-known invention — besides the Frankenstrat — Eddie created was Patent No. 4,656,917. This device was a flip-out support system that could be attached to a guitar. It was basically a support that rested against the guitarist’s body and provided a solid foundation for the guitar.

Best. Patent. Illustration. Ever.

Eddie came up with the idea to facilitate the tapping technique he popularized (but ironically didn’t invent!). The device positioned the guitar…