“I wasn’t with a known band, as opposed to Van Halen, who had a hit record, so he did it, and the world got to hear it”: Harvey Mandel was one of the pioneers of the two-handed tapping technique – yet he claims he was never properly credited for it

One of Harvey Mandel's biggest contributions to rock ’n’ roll history is his role in the evolution of two-handed tapping.

While the likes of Jimmie Webster, Vittorio Camardese, Steve Hackett and even Ace Frehley have been cited among early electric guitar tappers, the former Canned Heat guitarist was using the guitar technique several years before it surged in popularity thanks to a certain Eddie Van Halen – something for which Mandel asserts he is not often properly credited.

“Not really,” he tells Guitar World when asked whether he gets his tapping dues. “On YouTube, I get credit for it, but the truth is that back then, unfortunately, when I was doing the tapping, I wasn’t with a known band, as opposed to Van Halen, who had a hit record, so he did it, and the world got to hear it. When I did it, the audience that got to hear me do it was much more limited.”

Mandel claims that he first learned the technique in “’67 going in ’68” from Randy Resnick, his co-guitarist in the Pure Food and Drug Act group (although Resnick himself says they first met in 1971).

“He did it in a very melodic but simple way. I didn’t want to do it in front of him, but once I saw him do it, I was able to practice it and figure out how he was doing it.

“I was actually doing it way before Van Halen and way before almost everyone else did after him. People heard my stuff and thought I was a jazz player!”

As to whether Van Halen did indeed take a page from Mandel's book, the veteran guitarist clearly remembers a number of ’80s shredders attending his concerts and keenly observing his technique.

“I was playing at the Whisky and the Starwood, and George Lynch, Van Halen, and a couple of different people saw me doing it. Next thing I know, he’s [Van Halen] using it all the time, and he took it off into his own world. He played great; I can’t say anything bad about Van Halen. He was a great player! But he was more of a gymnastic player.”

According to Mandel, Van Halen's technique differed in that he used “two-handed tapping to do all kinds of tricks” whereas Mandel preferred a strictly melodic approach.

“I still did the fast tapping and everything, but I tried to make it more musical, and parts of the melodies of the songs and stuff, as opposed to just going crazy and showing off with it.”

Ritchie Blackmore had previously spoken about witnessing Mandel tap in 1968 – accompanied by none other than Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison.

Van Halen, meanwhile, would cite Jimmy Page as an influence on his own brand of tapping, citing Led Zeppelin's Heartbreaker solo pull-offs in particular.

“I think I got the idea of tapping watching Jimmy Page do his Heartbreaker solo back in 1971,” Van Halen explained.

“He was doing a pull-off to an open string, and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, open string … pull off. I can do that, but what if I use my finger as the nut and move it around?’ I just kind of took it and ran with it.”

Guitar World's full Harvey Mandel interview will be published later this month.