Edward Van Halen's Influence on Guitar and Amp Design

It's a good time to be an Eddie Van Halen fan again, he's got it together and is on tour and with David Lee Roth nonetheless. As far as I am concerned the only challenge to his being the king of rock guitar this year is Jimmy Page's upcoming performance with Led Zeppelin. As Page did Mr. Van Halen influenced a generation and beyond. The record sales and concert sales have always been good for Van Halen, but it is harder to gauge Eddie's impact on the musical instrument industry.

In 1977 when Van Halen came out we were in electric age, not a digital one. We were also in an age of live performance and showmanship, especially in Southern California. Tube amps were the norm and a lot of effect came from the tone of the volume. Pedals had been around a while and simple switches and adjustments could change a sound a lot. I personally remember the time as being one that anything electrical was cherished. Radio Shack and the hardware store had solutions to any electrical problem it seemed.

Eddie Van Halen's tinkering led him to build his own guitar which became known as the first incarnation of what later became known as the Frankenstrat also known as Frankenstein. The original incarnation was the black and white one pictured on the first Van Halen album. That era had a black pickguard and a Gibson PAF Humbucker dipped in wax and directly mounted to the body with a Fender tremolo. At the same time he was playing an Ibanez Destroyer known as the "Shark" which Ed cut a V in the back and had a hockey stick head and sported a red, white and black paint job.

Both the "Shark" and "Frankenstein" showed innovation at the time and the showmanship that it took to get paid for gigs. As much as David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar have been showmen in their own rights; Eddie's showmanship was always directed towards the guitar. The homemade paint jobs and guitars looked good from the stage and were played better. The chunky Gibson sound coupled with a Stratocaster tremolo made for some interesting sounds. But Ed had the same problem as fellow guitar great Jimi Hendrix, when jamming hard in a live situation the Fender whammy bar would often throw the guitar out of tune. This ultimately led to Ed's early use and input on the Floyd Rose tremolo which became synonymous with the 80's.

What has been known as the VHII Guitar was the yellow and black Charvel Eddie made for the second tour. He was impressed with the looks but not as much as the sound. This guitar was placed in Dimebag Darrel's coffin when he was buried by Eddie himself. The original Frankenstein had a Floyd Rose and some red paint added and became the most famous version. This is the guitar seen in the Jump video that later ended up having Kramer necks. Ed then started a relationship with Kramer that started in the 1984 era. After a few world tours Frankenstein had been beat up pretty hard and Ed started playing Kramers with the red, white, and black paint scheme, one humbucker, one volume knob, Floyd Rose with a hockey stick neck.

This was the 5150 guitar that defined the late Roth early Hagar period, that sent me to the mall gazing at the Kramers and wondering what I could do if I talked my parents into one. I had studied the available guitars in the Sears and Montgomery Ward's catalogs and none held the promise that one one the Kramers hanging on the wall at the mall. During that time many manufacturers went to one humbucker and volume knob with some kind of locking tremolo system. In 1991 Ed went to Ernie Ball and designed a guitar from scratch and was working with Peavey to design his own amp.

The Ernie Ball was the first official EVH model as Ed played Kramers but a Barretta was as close as you could get to one. The Ernie Ball EVH was an innovative and beautiful instrument with a high price tag and limited availability. The 5150 amp produced with Peavey went a notch higher than Ed's original magical Plexi Marshall. The 5150 amp took high gain higher and influenced a new generation of music that was much heavier. After a few years Eddie changed to Peavey to build a redesigned guitar which became the Wolfgang.

Over the last few years Peavey and Eddie split taking his show to Fender. Since Fender owns Charvel now Ed started making limited art guitars through Charvel and has a version that is similar to the early three color schemes for a little over $2000. Eddie now has EVH through Fender which released a Fender Custom Shop recreation of the red,white and black edition of only 300 units for $25,000 each. He has also released the EVH 5150 III amp and cabinets through EVH. For the 2007 tour he has made one of a kind custom striped models that are documented to be played during shows that go for over $5000 a piece.

He now has a signature MXR Flanger and Phase 90 to help gain that brown sound. Yeah Ed is making some money off his innovations but consider how much of an industry has been built over the years to sound like him. How many Marshall amps and one humbucker strat style guitars were sold off Eddie? Kramer now owned by Gibson makes a guitar closer to the one Ed played during the 80's than they sold when associated with him. Ernie Ball still makes the Axis which is the guitar Edward designed and Peavey still makes a variation of the Wolfgang and renamed the 5150 amp the 6505. OLP makes an Ernie Ball licensed version of the Axis which ends up being an inexpensive EVH designed guitar.

Many guitar builder suppliers and aftermarket parts suppliers owe their existence to Eddie showing us we could tear apart our guitars and build them better than what we could buy. I have torn apart quite a few guitars and swapped parts and painted and changed them due to Eddie's influence. A $70 Ibanez single humbucker guitar I found in a pawn shop years ago ended up with a Frankenstrat paint job. Though it will always be argued who is the best guitarist I don't know of any other that convinced us to take our guitars apart and rebuild and repaint them to become our own.

As many records, cassettes and CD's were sold by Warner Brothers on Van Halen recordings I think it is fair to say much more has been spent trying to sound like Eddie Van Halen. Though I have bought some Van Halen recordings several times as the media changed or I have lost or broken one I have spent much more trying to get the brown sound. I have gone through different guitar amp combinations over the years but have found that sound to be the tone that sounds right as many have over the years.

Eddie sounded good 30 years ago with a relatively simple setup played very well. We will all keep chasing that tone through Plexis, 5150s, Kramers, Ernie Ball, Peavey, Charvel and the current ultimate EVH gear. We all know it's all in Ed's hands; but when we get that moment that we hit that tone that hits his sound we decide whatever we paid to get there was worth it.