Anyone seen the new $30k Van Halen guitar?

[Rick Lee]

Fender is really giving these away. Ed says he can't tell the difference between the copies and his original.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83gz7GVMUQg

[nostatic]

Eddie doesn't really seem to be all there any more...

[Rick Lee]

He still has the chops, but his mind is long gone.

[nostatic]

seemed like his chops were pretty rusty as well though. Maybe he's just getting back into it. I know that I go through layoff periods and need to do some serious woodshedding to be able to really work the instrument.

[roadhog]

Is that guitar old enough smoke.

[roadhog]

????

[Sonic dB]

From last weeks' LA Weekly:

Not With Eddie

By TED E. GRAU
Wednesday, January 10, 2007 - 6:00 pm
On a recent morning, as I was driving my beloved to work in Century City from North Hollywood, we stopped at a gas station on the corner of Coldwater and Ventura to load up on supplies (coffee, smokes, Bratz press-on tattoos, etc.) before heading up the canyon to parts better known and vastly overpriced.

Tapping my toe to the hottest of Hindi hits lilting softly through the burnt-coffee-scented air, I noticed a small commotion at the front of the line. What I saw was a frail, hunched man, with longish, stringy hair and gnarled, shaky, “hard work” hands, wearing a loose-fitting long-john shirt, faded jeans and expensive track shoes. While the cashier waited, the man muttered to himself as he arranged six packs of smokes into a stack on the countertop — three packs of American Spirit heavies, three packs of Marlboro Light 100s (the chica smoke of choice). He was too well dressed to be a bum, but also too unkempt and “lived in” to be anything other than a burned-out roadie or an out-of-work roofer. He’d obviously seen too many late nights, but he also seemed like a scrappy sort who could mix it up, work with his hands, create... Hmmm... What’s this Hessian dude’s deal? And what’s with the smoke stacking, you goddamn smoke stacker?

As I watched him futz around with the cigs and thought to myself, “This is one chain-smoking mother ****er,” he turned his head to the side, giving me a brief glimpse of his profile. All at once, I realized that he looked very familiar, like an old friend who didn’t look the way I remembered but was still very recognizable based on a strong memory deeply rooted in the lizard brain of my youth. Then it hit me, like the first strains of “Runnin’ With the Devil,” the midpoint of “Eruption,” the last note of “Ice Cream Man.”

This was Eddie Van Halen.

Muttering to himself. Stuffing change into his wallet with shaky, gnarled, hard-work hands. Stacking six packs of smokes on a countertop. Two brands. Three a piece.

This was Eddie Van Halen, my first guitar hero, the blistering virtuoso with the striped guitar, the fuel behind the first great American arena-rock supergroup.

Eddie Van Halen, the musical whiz who was described as “coming from a planet where everyone plays guitar.” The guy who taught us about the “hammer on” move and the tremolo, and who took fretwork to a whole new stratosphere — or maybe just back to the planet he came from. The icon who invented the tennis-racket air guitarist. The effortless genius who grinned that laconic, dopey grin while blowing the doors off of guitar convention when not blowing the embryonic matter off of MTV. The man who married childhood boner queen Valerie Bertinelli.

The guy we all once knew as just “Eddie.”

And now here he was, at 9 a.m. in the Valley, gathering up his smokes and shuffling past me, eyes down, smelling of three-day-old liquor, and out the door to the dirty Toyota Land Cruiser, and the young, moderately pretty woman (certainly no boner queen) who waited for him behind the wheel, smoking her long, chica Marlboro Light 100 and yammering into her cell phone. Didn’t she know who this was? He’s a Guitar God, you jabbering skank! Pay some respect and at least open the door for this faded titan.

But she didn’t pay respect, nor did she even notice as my boyhood hero walked to the front of the Land Cruiser, banged his head a few times on the thin metal hood, and then mock collapsed, before slogging wearily to the passenger door, as if it was all too much effort. Like he was exhausted from the smoke stacking, from the journey, from the memories of what he once was and what he will never get to be again.

By this time, I stopped looking, for maybe the same reason that Eddie’s female friend stopped looking, as we all want to remember our Gods and Monsters the way we did as children, when all seemed possible, and men could be made giants, and giants into the infinite.

I didn’t even look to see where he went, or in which direction, because I already knew, and didn’t need to know the truth. At least not this time.

Not with Eddie.

[Sonic dB]

The video shows that he still can rock it though this is
stuff that he has played a million times in his life, probably.
So what does it matter...

Was Kira Kenner working the Fender Booth at NAMM this year?
http://i5.pbase.com/u13/jroy/upload/3314158.DCP03747.JPG

[Shuie]

Fender? Huh?

[rouxroux]

Poor Eddie was so toasted, he left his smoke on the headstock when he hung up the guitar.

(Did anyone notice he was playing one of his 5150 amps from another company there?)

[Shuie]

The original 5150 frankenstein guitar was a Charvel bodied concoction. Where is the Fender association to this guitar? I have never seen even a picture of EVH playing any amp or guitar with a Fender logo on it. Is this one of the 'Burst Brothers-Christies-Guitar Center deals like Clapton's 335 and Black strat?

[Sonic dB]

[IMG]Is this one of the 'Burst Brothers-Christies-Guitar Center deals like Clapton's 335 and Black strat?[/IMG]

Wow what does that statement mean? I have the Clapton Signature Black Strat...and bought it because it plays like butter and sounds even better. Something I should know about as an owner?

[Shuie]

no, Im not talking about the signature model.

More info here

http://www.fender.com/blackie/blackie_home.html

Guitar Center sold off x number of replicas of the guitar for ~$25k after it was bought at the Christies auction last year by the 'Burst Brothers. They did the same thing with the 335 he used on Crossroads the year before. I was wondering if this EVH Fender replica came about after a similar deal.

[rouxroux]

You also note that the lights were not up too high on the "5150" amp...what a coup that was! I guess he's still under license, huh?

...I can still remember him coming into the local clubs to sit in with the bands when he was dating Valerie. He could rip it up pretty good back then...hehe

[Sonic dB]

$25K is nuts, but looks like they got it to look exactly like the real deal.

Maybe someday Fender will do that to a Shuie guitar or a Nostatic guitar..

[Rick Lee]

Ed has a new company called something like EVH Gear and I think that's who's doing his amp now. It's probably the same as the Peavey 5150. They're also doing resissues of the MXR flanger and phase 90, the Drop-D Tuna and I wouldn't be surprised if they started selling striped Chuck Taylor sneakers.

Scoff all you want. VH will be touring this summer and likely with Diamond Dave, though Ed's kid will be replacing Mike on bass. That's almost enough to make me boycott the tour. But I'll probably go see it at least once in between Police reunion and Rush shows. This summer will be a good concert time.

[the]

That LA Weekly article makes it sound like EVH is down and out - but what ever lifestyle he's leading, it must be by choice, right?

He must still have some serious bankroll.

[Shuie]

Rick, what is the Fender association? Have you ever seen or read about him playing a Fender guitar or amp? The Brown Sound was all Marshall-Gibson P.A.F. tone through basswood Charvel strat wasn't it?

[Rick Lee]

I think the royalties from current sales of old VH albums afford EVH a comfy living. But the guy has really been through some (self-inflicted) hell. His wife left him after 20 yrs. of putting up with his alcoholism, he had part of tongue cut out from oral cancer, he hasn't had a decent album in umpteen years and his latest gig is doing scoring (as in writing the music) for his buddy's porn flicks. I kinda wonder if his brother ever nags him to get moving again so he too can start making money again.

[Rick Lee]

The newest issue of Guitar mag. has a DVD with a 20 min. interview with Ed and the guy who copied the Frankenstrat for Fender. It's quite a story. This has attention to detail like no one else and Ed loaned out the original for him to work with. Fender is making something like 300 of these and that's it. It's got to be so labor intensive. They even scrounged up 300 1971 quarters from some guy on eBay to screw in under the bridge like Ed did. In fact, Ed explained that he had taken his guitar apart like 30 min. before he had to go on stage and the bridge wouldn't go back right. So he grabbed a quarter from someone and screwed it in under the corner of the bridge. Just so happened that it was a 1971 quarter, which is kinda hard to find now. They also had a hell of a time finding all the right bicycle reflectors that Ed had put on the back of the guitar to deflect the stage lights when he held the guitar up. It's a cool story. But I can find better things to drop $30k on.