That's all well and good, but we aren't talking about whether or not EVH was innovative, but if he was more innovative than Page. And I still say BULLSHIT to that idea.
I was a Van Halen fan, my favorite album of theirs is Van Halen II. So I know the earlier years. But quoting "Secrets" at me doesn't change the fact that EVH works in an extremely limited palette, and Page works from one of the widest palettes of any rock musician EVER.
God, we differ on that. If you said I could save either Jack White OR every hair metal guitarist on the planet from certain death . . . let's just say the bottom would fall out of the spandex and hairspray industries. Eddie's solos sound like Page's, but Jack's RIFFS sound like Page's- and in the end, that's better.
How much or little of the credit for that do you give his guitar playing? What can I say. To me, Jimmy is Led Zeppelin, and EVH is Van Halen. (not that Plant and Roth aren't great, they are. But somebody's got to be the man, and in these cases IMHO the guitarist is the man.) Therefore, if you like LZ better than VH, you like Jimmy better than you like Eddie.
Well, good. But if you think EVH is a better guitarist, all I can say is . . . ding dong, you're wrong!