RIP Eddie Van Halen!

It stopped being a prog site in 1990....

Another fascinating thing about the band is that they'd record with one guitar, one bass, one drum-set, one vocal.   No rhythm overdubs: when Eddie would switch from rhythm to a solo in the studio, no second guitar track would be used.   This not only gave them a unique sound but it also meant their live sets were true to form and sounded like their records.   A rare thing in rock 'n roll.

BTW, Eddie would boil his guitar strings for 20 minutes in order to pre-stretch them and to add that 'rubbery', slinky sound he had.

He would boil them (sometimes) to pre-stretch them.     Any guitarist will tell you new strings are extremely unstable and will extend & contract without warning, especially when one whams and bends as much as Eddie did.   He was a guitarist's guitarist, and had many tricks including "tweaking" the whammie-bar while using the Floyd Rose system he helped pioneer because the thing would throw guitars out of tune with no more than a light breeze.

^ Absolutely, they'd been making music that way since they formed.   And of course when Eddie & Alex were kids they had no choice but to play as a guitar/drums duo, creating the heart of the band's sound.