Trying to compare EVH and Randy Rhoads... Get real.

[jabps]

This may be true technically...But Eddie's timing, feel and sense of "swing" is VERY difficult to get a handle on. And RR definitely had some proficiencies that I believe EVH may have struggled with. Both innovative and amazing. If I could only have one...I would lean towards Randy.

I would lean Randy as well. The great thing for me was growing up when EVH hit, it was like a bomb and everything changed after it dropped. However for me personally as a player, I just wasn't that interested in copping his chops, I was more interested in figuring out his rhythms, his incredible groove. That was tough enough, trying to decipher his leads was freaking alien at the time. His groove is still one of the things that stands out for me with Eds playing. I was very content to be the rhythm player in our little bands at the time.

However when I heard Blizzard, that hit me like a bomb. It'd be 25 years before I would play with another guitarist in a band again, that's what Randy did for me.

 

[TheBiggestJerk]

I'll take Allan Holdsworth for the win.

Problem with players like Holdsworth is, they didn’t produce anything memorable. Something you could sing along with.
The classical genre only goes so far in rock ‘n’ roll, ask Yngwie.
The lions share of listeners want simple tasty licks, with with memorable lyrics to sing along to. Eddie delivered in spades.

 

[hammered]

Saw them both in 1981

 

[pipelineaudio]

I liked Randy’s playing. But, I curse Max Norman for killing Randy’s guitar tone on those two Ozzy albums.

I got to talk to Max Norman about that a lot. The gist of it was he told me to imagine a wah pedal 2/3 pushed up.... THAT was Randy's preferred sound and he said to see any video or fan made bootleg and I'd hear it. He fought hard to get it even as thick as it was. But a lot of people, and I think I read it from Jake E Lee or Craig Goldy or someone called his sounds "thin". The iconic Megadeth albums were his though

He tracked Cryptic Writings and I thought it would be cool, but expecting kind of just an evolution from the last few, given that we did the Dave Mustaine solo album with him and it sounded a lot like a rawer Youthanasia. But DAMN! They ended up getting Dan Huff to finish it and it came back HUGE sounding. The guitar intro for Almost Honest was mind blowing at the time when every other record was on purpose lo-fi or fuzz boxes. I remember being insanely blown away, so of course immediately we were all asking, "what if Huff had done Blizzard of Oz?"

 

[Amp_chaser]

whos the better player im not about to argue, i definitely enjoy the Ozzy albums with Randy way more than i do Van Halen though

i think he would have shined even more if he had another lead singer. however i can be wrong too.

 

[Amp_chaser]

I think people should not think abot them as rivals. I don't know what was the truth about their relation however i want to believe that they respected each other.

However it seems to me from what i've read that randy was more of a kind person if we compare it to ed but who knows we never met them personnaly perhaps that both were great human beings. I don't know. However i think we also need to understand the LA context you had guys that were fighting to survive even george lynch said he had to do simple jobs to continue living guitar playing was his hope of a better future.

When you learn that most of the la guitarists were in this position you understand why they could have been jerks sometimes between each other. It was not only competition but survival.

 

[shar-vell Dan]

The world was big enough for 2 great guitarists.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I don't know why these comparisons come up.. Hendrix, EVH, YJM are stand out. They are on a diff level because they innovated. Randy was an awesome player but not really spontaneous in that he appears to have needed time to compose solos and think about them. But Randy had a presense EVH didn't have live and I think that's something that isn't mentioned enough. I think Ed probably knew that and that is why there are interviews of him seemingly talking down RR's playing.

Ed is out there shuffling his feet and havin fun, but Randy was out there aggressively digging in and shining brighter than anyone on stage. A tiny little guy with a huge sound and presence. He looks badass in any of the footage you can find of him and his live playing night to night was consistently awesome. That to me is one of big differences between them.

 

[bhuard75]

I liked Randy’s playing. But, I curse Max Norman for killing Randy’s guitar tone on those two Ozzy albums.

All RR needed was one of these. Could you image "Over the Mountain" through a modded Mesa Mark II?