Eddie Van Halen Guitars Info
Probably the most famous of Edward Van Halen guitars seen on early album covers is the black and white striped Stratocaster-style guitar Eddie is holding on the fron cover of Van Halen's first album 'Van Halen'. The guitar was built by Eddie from various inexpensive parts including a Fender Strat body which Eddie had Charvel rout out so that he could fit one humbucking pickup instead of the standard three single-coil pickups. The tremolo was from a 1958 Strat and the neck was made by Charvel. The pickguard was made by Eddie to accommodate the single humbucker and cover the holes where the original pickups sat. Around this time Eddie also used an Ibanez Destroyer which can be seen in the footage of 'You Really Got Me'.
Van Halen- You Really Got Me
The back cover of Van Halen's next album, 'Van Halen II' saw Eddie using a black and yellow striped Strat-style guitar. The ash body of this guitar was made by Charvel and the humbucker on this guitar was constructed by Eddie using a magnet from a Gibson PAF pickup fitted into a DiMarzio pickup. The pickup was then hand wound by Eddie.
Around this time Eddie began to use a Floyd Rose tremolo fitted to a custom-built mahogany Strat-shaped body from Boogie Bodies. The body was made extra thick as Eddie found the Floyd Rose made his tone brighter than normal, the idea being that the extra thickness would compensate for the bright tone.
The black and white guitar from the first album was given a new paint job by Eddie, also adding red to the color scheme and removing most of the scratchplate. This guitar was nicknamed 'Frankenstein' or 'Frankenstrat' by fans.
Around the middle of the 1990s Ernie ball produced the Music Man EVH signature guitar. Eddie later became associated with Peavey who produced the EVH Wolfgang model (named after Eddie's son) which had a similar shape to the Music Man EVH.
Recent years have also seen Eddieassociated with the EVH Art Series guitars which are hand-striped by Eddie, and the EVH 'Frankenstein', a limited edition replica of the famous guitar.
EVH 'Frankenstein'