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lick], like that, with one hand, in ‘Heartbreaker.’ I thought, ‘I can play like that, and you wouldn’t know if I was using this finger [points to left hand] or this one’ [points to right hand]. But you just kind of move it around, and it’s like, ‘You got one big hand there, buddy. That’s a hell of a spread!’”
    Edward’s Discovery of Finger-tapping
    This would be the birth of Edward’s signature “double-handed” or “tapping” guitar technique that, when executed correctly, can present a sequence of notes at a theretofore unprecedented rate of speed on an electric guitar. On the surface, it would seem to be an obvious move—after all, you’ve got two hands. And the truth be told, he is not the inventor or discoverer of the technique. He himself said, “I didn’t invent the hammer-on technique. I just put it out there for people to listen to.” The origins of the move can be traced all the way back to Paganini in the 17 th century, and modern electric guitarists beginning in the 1950s have been well-documented using the technique. Regardless, the technique was not used even on a small scale, and Edward was never, at least not knowingly, exposed to it prior to discovering it himself at the age of 16. Later Eddie said, “As far as the hammer-on thing—I never really saw anybody do it, okay? I’m not saying ‘Hey, I’m bitchin’, I came up with it,’ but I never really saw anybody do it.” He began incorporating the move into his playing on a regular basis in 1972.
    Ed spent countless evenings alone in high school figuring out everything he could do with his right hand now hitting the fret board in conjunction with his left. “I used to sit on the edge of my bed with a six-pack of Schlitz Malt talls. My brother would go out at 7pm to party and get laid, and when he’d come back at 3am, I would still be sitting in the same place, playing guitar. I did that for years.” Although the guitar helped him fit in, he was still shy and couldn’t easily relate to kids his age—most likely because other kids his age had not just unlocked the keys to a new musical kingdom.
    His devotion to his craft was less like a love affair and more like a mad scientist sublimating a machine to do his bidding. His mother worried about him when hearing some of the sounds coming out of his bedroom. Edward said, “She always used to say, ‘Why do you have to make that high, crying noise?’” (Later, Ed would finally retort, “Well, it bought you a house, didn’t it?”) By high school, he had three steady companions: his six-string, his six-pack, and his cigarette pack (he would later state, “I started playing guitar, drinking, and smoking at the age of 12”).
    By Eddie’s senior year, Alex was well into his studies at Pasadena City College, where surely to his mother’s chagrin, he was taking music classes. The Trojan and Space Brother days petered out. When a bass player named Mark Stone entered the picture, it was Ed’s ideal combo—a Cream/Experience-based trio, with himself on both lead vocals and guitar. However, it was a less balanced act than Cream (where half the attention went to Jack Bruce on vocals and half to Eric Clapton on guitar). It was rather more like the Experience, where Jimi was the focal point on lead vocals and guitar. But Cream was their main thing; even at the band’s earliest gigs, they basically were a Cream tribute act with Alex playing the famous “Toad” drum solo and Edward wowing everyone with his stellar recreations—not interpretations— recreations of the solos and fills on “Crossroads” and “Spoonful.”
    With Cream having peaked in the late sixties, Ed had shifted his preoccupation to yet another English band while in high school. At one point, he was intent on naming the band Rat Salad, after the 1970 Black Sabbath song on Paranoid . “We played just about every Black Sabbath song. I used to sing lead on every Black Sabbath song we did,” said Edward.