This isn't exactly earth-shattering news, since details have been filtering out for a while now, but Eddie Van Halen has officially launched the new EVH Wolfgang guitar (and finally, FINALLY updating his
evhgear.com website).
It seems the biggest differences between this and the Peavey version is that the new Fender-build, EVH-brand version has a much thinner neck and new pickups. Also, you can crack open a Heineken on the headstock.
By the way, if you go to the evhgear.com site, you'll see that soon you'll be able to buy Eddie's striped shoes...
Anyway, here's the press release:
Eddie Van Halen launches the all-new EVH Wolfgang electric guitar, available worldwide beginning January 2009. The EVH Wolfgang guitar represents Eddie's 35 years of experimenting with guitars, over two years of intense research and development, and a full year of brutal road testing during the top-grossing VAN HALEN 2007-2008 tour.
It was during the massive 2007-2008 VAN HALEN tour that the all-new EVH Wolfgang guitar went through extensive live "road-testing" performance trials. The tour kicked off in fall 2007, and Eddie punished early versions of the new Wolfgang each night; playing every updated prototype onstage under the full, unfiltered spotlight of his fans. The results are reflected in the EVH Wolfgang guitar; produced to Eddie's exact specifications and with features identical to the Wolfgang guitars he records and performs with.
"A guitar is a very personal extension of the person playing it. You have to be emotionally and spiritually connected to your instrument. I could have just stayed at home and built this guitar for myself. I do this because a lot of people ask if they can get what I use. Well, yes you can and what you get is identical to what I use," commented Eddie. "From the basics of the guitar to painstaking aspects like the binding and everything else-we re-did everything on this guitar."
"Every aspect and component of this guitar has been examined and upgraded to the highest standards possible: stainless steel frets, double-potted custom-wound pickups, five-piece binding on the matching body and headstock, custom-made signature tuning machines and Floyd Rose bridge, new low-friction pots, and the list keeps going … we left no stone unturned," said Eddie. "Everything that I've built, destroyed, stumbled onto, learned and experienced is in this guitar."
When Eddie Van Halen made his debut into the rock music scene in 1978, he did so with a homemade guitar (later known as "Frankenstein"). At a time when his monster technique and tone demanded a high-performance, indestructible guitar, he created his own to reach his own seemingly impossible standards. For over 35 years, he has continued to examine and improve every variable within the instrument, all culminating with the new EVH Wolfgang guitar.
In 2007, Eddie Van Halen and Fender collaborated to launch the first EVH brand high-performance products, including the all-new EVH 5150III amplifier, the limited run of Eddie Van Halen Frankenstein replica guitars and an array of high-quality EVH brand accessories.
For more information, go to http://www.evhgear.com/.
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Whoa! I just spotted this over at the Van Halen News Desk. Released on March 1 is the EVH Frankenstein humbucker. Recommended retail price is $199.99. There's also a relic'ed, Eddie Van Halen-autographed version (see below) for $399 which, while expensive, is pretty freakin' cool!
The legendary humbucking pickup from the guitar that changed everything.
This is awesome news. Who hasn't wished they could leach some of that famous Van Halen I tonal magic? I think I might just have to get one of these and chuck it into the Ibanez RG370 I wrote about in my guest blog on Jemsite.
