Getting back to the popular notion Smeck was EVH’s dad…after the devastating loss of Eddie earlier this month, keyboard warriors started sharing videos of Smeck tapping away on his uke with lightning speed, with the caption “this is Eddie Van Halen’s father.” I suppose it was an easy mistake to make, given the skill level Smeck possessed, and its eerie similarity to one of Eddie’s calling cards, his blink-and-you-missed-it guitar tapping wizardry.Įd’s real father, Jan Van Halen, was, of course, a great musician in his own right and mentor to both Eddie and Alex Van Halen. Roosevelt’s inauguration celebration in 1933. Smeck’s popularity was such that he was invited to play at President Franklin D. The technique has been traced back to the late 1700s, but as far as the popularization of two-hand-tapping, that honor belongs to Roy Smeck – a visionary ukulele player who rose to fame as one of vaudeville’s premier attractions. This includes many acoustics and electrics, among them the famous Stratotone Roy Smeck H7208.One of the many rumors passed around the Internet (imagine that!) concerns musician and ukulele player Roy Smeck, known as “The Wizard of the Strings.” It turns out that a lot of people seemed convinced that Smeck was actually Eddie Van Halen’s father and an innovator of “two-hand-tapping,” a method of playing a stringed instrument by tapping the strings with an object or your fingers. Some 'Roy Smeck' signature models were sold as Harmony branded guitars (H58, H73), but most of 'Roy Smeck' guitars were sold only through the Montgomery Wards catalog, wearing only the 'Roy Smeck' logo. Before that date, Harmony made guitars sold through the Wards catalog had a generic logo without any brand marking.

Montgomery Wards began to use the Airline brand in about 1958-60. Montgomery Wards brand of instruments were made by Kay, Harmony and Valco. This guitar is in very good condition, just a little dirty and only minor corrosion on the metal parts. As far as I can tell, this guitar is all original and complete. The frets are in good shape and the neck is straight. Red toned mahogany shadded back with natural finish top. This appears to be the 7078 Model which was based on the Harmony H942 Stella Grand Concert size flat top acoustic from about 1969. I acquired this guitar in the fall of 2008 and it has a market value of $36.37.

Harmony roy smeck guitar identification