For the legion of fans who attended the 2015 Van Halen Tour, it’s unlikely they failed to notice the striking, aged-looking Ivory Wolfgang USA guitar that Eddie Van Halen played onstage.
In exciting news, EVH Gear has announced that it will make available an exact replica of this very instrument for consumers with the release of a limited 20-piece run of custom-built EVH Wolfgang USA Tour Relic Replica guitars.
Van Halen originally planned on using the same Wolfgang USA in Stealth Black that he played during the band’s 2012 tour, but he also asked Master Builder Chip Ellis to build him this guitar with a detailed relic treatment so that the original coat of black paint showed through the Ivory top coat.
“Chip built that for me and did a wonderful job,” Van Halen said in a recent interview. “I compared it to my trusty old Stealth, and the white guitar sounded better, so it immediately became my main guitar for rehearsals and the tour.”
Famous for tinkering with his guitars, Van Halen decided to sand down the back of the neck since he felt it was a little thicker than what he typically prefers from his neck profiles.
“It’s still a little fatter than the Stealth’s neck, but I’m happy with it, so it stuck,” he said.
The custom-built instrument also features an ebony fingerboard, block fretboard inlays, custom kill switch, EVH Custom High Friction (Tone) Pot and an EVH “HPU” or High Performance Upgrade, custom-made Low Friction (Volume) Pot.
“It’s the only volume pot I’ve found where I can play ‘Cathedral’ without any crackle or pop,” he said.
All of these features will be found on the EVH Wolfgang USA Tour Relic Replica, which also comes with a Custom Anvil white case (with black interior) featuring the Van Halen logo, Certificate of Authenticity autographed by Eddie Van Halen, EVH instrument cable, EVH strings .009-.042 and an EVH leather strap with dog leash.
11 Responses
I rarely advocate for alcoholics to start drinking again. But Van Halen was better when Eddie was a drunk. Keyboards and sobriety killed Van Halen.
Sammy killed Van Halen and Dave brought it back to life.
Wow, when is this guy going to get bashed for this comment? Btw, I completely agree!
Sammy SAVED Van Halen! If Sammy never joined VH, your choices would’ve been Daryl Hall, or Patti Smyth, think about that for a second, Daryl Hall, or Patti Smyth, and Eddie was dead serious about that. The keyboards, ballads, that was EDDIE’S idea, not Sammy’s! Eddie wanted Sammy to write those songs, EDDIE wanted ballads! And for the last time, I’m just as big of a fan of Roth’s as I am of Hagar’s. Now I’m done wasting my time on you Hagar haters.
Doug,
I agree wholeheartedly with your statement.
While I wasn’t necessarily a Van Hagar fan, I cannot imagine the band being fronted by either of those two lead singers, especially Patti “I am the warrior” Smyth.
D 🙂
Sammy didn’t ‘save’ VH. I would suggest he changed VH. Some would say for the better and others for the worst. I was never a Van Hagar guy and never will be. But you can’t dispute the sales and success they had with him. But as a guy who grew up with the original, it was hard to accept anyone other than Dave on vocals. But it’s kinda like James Bond actors, I’m a Roger Moore guy cause that’s what I grew up with. A Sean Connery guy would think that’s blasphemy. Just don’t tell me Sammy was better than Dave. Just tell me you like Sammy better than Dave and we’ll agree to disagree (not you Doug – you and I are always cool).
DR, as I have said before, I never got caught up in the middle of that BS Roth vs. Hagar war. I’ve always liked and respected both of them equally. I too grew up with Montrose, Sammy solo, and then of course came Van Halen, trifecta! Like most fans, I was shocked, pissed, and confused when Roth left OR got fired from VH. I was already a big Red Rocker fan, and a big Van Halen fan, so when I first heard the news that Sammy was going to be the new lead singer in VH, I had mixed emotions. I liked everything Van Hagar did, as well as DLR solo, (almost everything) but I still do and always will prefer Roth with Van Halen and Sammy solo! Doesn’t mean I like one more than the other or think one is better than the other, just my preference. We are cool little bro, all good!
Amen
Sammy turned them into Journey light
Plus , he had zero respect for the back catalog with Dave
I always thought it was odd that a Edward, who was so paranoid about people copying his guitar, gear, amps, etc… is releasing exact replicas of his guitars. I guess money makes the world go ’round.
I still prefer the Ernie Ball guitars over the Peavey’s and these current Fender/Charvel versions.
$14K a piece, and I bet they’ll all be snapped up by wealthy collectors.
While I can attest that the USA EVH guitars are great guitars, I don’t get the relic’d version. It would take multiple decades of gigging weekly to get a guitar to look like that. But that model is a fairly new guitar. And all of the other EVH guitars eddie toured with are in perfect shape, so it’s obvious someone took a file to this one. I wonder if they will include a free pair of acid washed jeans with the guitar? Looks like the well has run dry and Eddie is out of the recording biz. Hey Eddie, how about working on new music instead of peddling guitars?
Man,those EVH nameplates and logos must be quite expensive to produce,because any piece of equipment they get pasted to immediately costs at least twice what it’s worth….