The evolution of EVH's Wolfgang guitar

axisus

Not that surprising, but I seem to be following a lot of EVH avenues at the moment. Anyway, I found this article and thought that it was really interesting - The evolution of his Wolfgang guitar, from Ernie Ball (forgot about that!) to Peavey, to his own 'Fender' brand (I didn't even realise that it was Fender!)

https://reverb.com/news/the-story-of-eddie-van-halens-wolfgang-evh-guitar

It's a guitar that I have never liked the look of, but I can now appreciate the amount of thought that went into it. It is a genuine long-term honing of a guitarists ideal guitar for sure, which is what a signature guitar should be (take note Mark Knopfler!). I say that I've never liked it, but I think that I'm more into it now, especially since seeing this lovely aged one below. I think that part of my dislike was that it replaced the awesome Frankenstein guitar look. I LOVED that hacked up, thrown together, abused look of the old days, and it just seemed a bit lame (to me at the time) to swap to a boring, off the shelf guitar.

Anyway, it's an interesting read.

Funkfingers

That Reverb article goes on a bit … rather like years of interview excerpts merged into one. (I am old enough to remember some phases of the story when they were current.)

The mention of a two volume pots, no tone layout reminds me of an acquaintance who had that modification performed on his Wolfgang. One local tech made the changes. About six months later, I had the dubious pleasure of reversing them.

I still have my modified Sterling AX40. The combination of Duncan Live Wire Classic II pickups and a midrange boost makes perfect sense of the Tele-Meets-LP concept.

mudslide73

I'm probably showing my age but the EBMM is my favourite. I bought the "Poundcake" CD single on release which had a blurry photo of it in the inlay. The move to Peavey was supposedly down to quality problems but it's been asserted that the real reason was that they couldn't build them quickly enough. 

skullfunkerry

That was really interesting, thanks for posting the link.

I've never really liked the shape of those guitars, but I've literally never heard a bad thing about them. I saw a guy playing one once and when we were chatting about it later he said it was the best guitar he'd ever played... I might have to give one a go at some point

Bellycaster

And I thought my Nasal Hair problem was bad 

Philly_Q

Very interesting.  I was quite surprised by this bit in the Peavey section:

Jim made the body shape somewhat more asymmetrical, which meant the neck could be pushed a little deeper into the body, in turn improving balance. "It didn't neck-dive as much as the Music Man, because the tip of the horn was closer to the 12th fret," he says. "And because the neck was deeper into the body, when you're reaching for an open E or an F chord, it didn't feel as far out. It almost felt like a shorter-scale guitar, but it was still a full twenty-five-and-a-half."

I never had a Music Man EVH, but I had an Axis Sport.  I never found it neck heavy and the nut end of the neck certainly didn't feel "far out" like an SG.  If anything, the whole guitar, top-to-tail, felt very compact and a bit "squashed", as I recall it.

tekbow

Philly_Q said:

Very interesting.  I was quite surprised by this bit in the Peavey section:

Jim made the body shape somewhat more asymmetrical, which meant the neck could be pushed a little deeper into the body, in turn improving balance. "It didn't neck-dive as much as the Music Man, because the tip of the horn was closer to the 12th fret," he says. "And because the neck was deeper into the body, when you're reaching for an open E or an F chord, it didn't feel as far out. It almost felt like a shorter-scale guitar, but it was still a full twenty-five-and-a-half."

I never had a Music Man EVH, but I had an Axis Sport.  I never found it neck heavy and the nut end of the neck certainly didn't feel "far out" like an SG.  If anything, the whole guitar, top-to-tail, felt very compact and a bit "squashed", as I recall it.

Me either.

It's worth noting that the design of the EBMM was more or less sitting ready to go as an Albert lee sig, and early pics of prototypes had the Axis logo.

EVH Obviously added the hardware config and the famous neck scan.

Jim DeCola of Peavey redesigned the shape, with not as much input from Ed as you might think.

Peavey trademarked or otherwise registered the scoop on the headstock, hence the bottle opener appearance of the EVH Brand

He also did not design the D-Tuna, some other guy did and was trying to market it. EVH bought the patent etc.

This isn't to take away from EVH. His vision was the thing that brought it all together and is just as important in some respects.

usedtobe

@axisus ;

I never much cared for the look of the guitar, either, as it goes. I loved the Frankenstein one, too, and when I sat that, it just looked meh..
Obviously much more to a guitar than just the visuals, and of course the guy made it talk...

Funkfingers

Bellycaster said:

And I thought my Nasal Hair problem was bad 

Grow it long. Comb it over!

Monstronaut

I've owned two of the budget models. A Korean Peavey Wolfgang Special and a Mexican EVH special. Both sounded great. Easily the best sounding floyd equiped guitars Ive had. I usually play old guitars but since lockdown 1 Ive played the evh every day and the vintage guitars are gathering dust. If/when we're allowed to play outside the house again I'm planning on taking the evh.  I don't like the low friction pot though, i have a habit of knocking the volume down by accident. I wish I'd picked up a USA wolfgang steath before now but the prices are a bit elevated at the moment.

DrBob

It’s one of my favourite guitars. My wife bought me a 1997 Purple Quilt Axis as a wedding gift near on 20 years ago now. It’s still very much the weapon of choice for rock action although I do wish it had a wider nut