A week ago, I finished up enough of my black Les Paul guitar to make it playable (I've since completed everything except for screwing on the truss rod cover, but I'll tweak the truss rod for a little while before I put the plate on for good).
When I first plugged it in to give it a good play through, I immediately started playing Dio-era Vivian Campbell licks, because Vivian played a black Les Paul in Dio. As I played through his licks, I started playing through the licks of his contemporaries like Warren DiMartini from Ratt, Jake E. Lee from Ozzy's band, George Lynch from Dokken, etc.
It occurred to me that the one technique that unified a lot of those guys was the artificial pinch harmonic, that they incorporated into a lot of their leads and rhythms. Because these guys came out just a few years after Eddie and Randy, I consider them to be sort of disciples of Eddie. But though none of them really copied EVH's tapping per se, they all used his pinch harmonics as an expressive tool.
I noticed that in my playing, pinch harmonics are very prevalent as well, no doubt because I was so heavily influenced by both EVH and the guys influenced by him.
I believe that guys who are only sort of moderately interested in EVH get the whole tapping thing, but the guys who have really studied that style incorporate the pinch and artificial harmonics way more as an expressive tool.... so much that when they say tone is in the fingers, this aspect drives the point home.
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