Eddie Van Halen Guitars

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:40:18 +0000

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’.

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.

‘Frankenstein’ Guitar

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.

Eddie Van Halen Effects

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:32:39 +0000

The effects pedals use by Eddie in his early recording career were limited to an MXR Phase 90, an MXR Flanger and an Echoplex EP3 tape echo unit.

MXR Phase 90

His modern setup is more complex and includes the MXR Phase 90, MXR Flanger, Boss Octave and Overdrive pedals.

MXR Flanger

Eddie also uses a Dunlop Wah Pedal, rack-mounted digital delay, reverb, harmonizer, speaker simulator, noise gates, digital switching, foot controller unit and wireless transmitter.

Dunlop Wah Pedal

Eddie Van Halen Amps

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:31:28 +0000

Eddie’s favoured amp in the early days of his career was a Marshall Super Lead 100 Watt, built in the 1960s. Input voltage was modified using a variac. The amp head output went into a dummy load box then through his effects pedals and into a power amp which drove the speaker cabinets.

Later on, Eddie worked with Peavey to produce the 5150 and in recent times helped to design the EVH 5150 III.

EVH Amps Part 1

EVH Amps Part 2

Easy Guitar Store

Eddie Van Halen Guitars

Eddie Van Halen Effects

Eddie Van Halen Amps