Eddie Van Halen, who died today at 65 after a battle with cancer, was well-known for being the leader of the band named after him, Van Halen, and an electrifying guitarist who set a standard for generations of rock players who came after him. Lesser-known is the fact that he actually held a patent for a device that let him play the instrument without having to hold it up with his hands. The idea of the supporting device was to “permit total freedom of the player’s hands to play the instrument in a completely new way.”
With the guitar god’s passing, though, a tweet recognizing the invention and the illustration of its use from the patent application is going viral, bringing light to not just Eddie’s innovation of the instrument, but also to how cool it looked even in theory. News producer Timothy Burke tweeted a link to the patent from Google’s archive of such things (yes, I too am just finding out about this today) with the caption, “Many more eloquent than me will discuss his musical achievements, so I’ll just note that he was owner and inventor of the patent with the baddest-ass diagram in the history of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.”
Eddie Van Halen has died. Many more eloquent than me will discuss his musical achievements, so I'll just note that he was owner and inventor of the patent with the baddest-ass diagram in the history of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office https://t.co/R1ueaXNEsw pic.twitter.com/svLbBs3qK8
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 6, 2020
The device itself was described in its abstract as:
A supporting device for stringed musical instruments, for example, guitars, banjos, mandolins and the like, is disclosed. The supporting device is constructed and arranged for supporting the musical instrument on the player to permit total freedom of the player’s hands to play the instrument in a completely new way, thus allowing the player to create new techniques and sounds previously unknown to any player. The device, when in its operational position, has a plate which rests upon the player’s leg leaving both hands free to explore the musical instrument as never before. Because the musical instrument is arranged perpendicular to the player’s body, the player has maximum visibility of the instrument’s entire playing surface.
The patent application was submitted in 1985, approved two years later, and expired in 2005. The device itself was profiled by The Atlantic in 2011 and by Popular Mechanics in 2015. You can see the full patent information here.
