EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

[quiksilver]

Sounds weird, doesn't it? Well, go to page 68 of the March 2004 Guitar World.

There you will find a vintage B&W photo of Edward Van Halen playing what appears to be his original "Frankenstrat" when it was still white, with a full pickguard cut for 1H, and a "vintage" style trem.

The weird part is, it has a maple neck with the large, Jimi-style Fender headstock, and a very clearly visible "Gibson" logo. Is this an early April Fools' Day Photoshop trick on the part of Guitar World, or what is going on?

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Re: EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

I've seen that logo on there in other pictures, I think that's the original neck he bought from Charvel or Boogie Bodies or whoever the hell he finally decided on it being. Others will chime in here for sure. But he put the logo on it himself, not a photoshop joke by the mag.

[quiksilver]

Re: EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

That's interesting. As a devoted fan of EVH, I'm surprised I never saw that before.

[SEEGERMANY]

Re: EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

Eddie played a gold top Gibson Les Paul quite a bit prior to his love afair with the Strat. Matter of fact, he played a gold top at the Texas Jam back in the mid 1970s. Here's a few to gander at. http://www.collectguitars.com/StarsC.../VanHalen.html

[SEEGERMANY]

Re: EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

[JACKSONFREAK]

Re: EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

MY old store manager has a picture of Eddie and Dave from the early days. And Eddies is playing a White LP Custom. It just looked odd but looked big on him too.
Gil

[Chuckracer]

Re: EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

Naw, that shot's real. Eddie had a Gibson sticker on the head of that guitar for a little while. Just a joke on Eddie's part.

Maybe he felt inferior cause he was playing one of those horrible single pickup bolt-on-with-a-heel vintage trem guitars. How awful for him, eh Joe?

[Newc]

Re: EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

Or it could have been a jab at the purists who were surely telling him to stick with Fender and Gibson, so he slapped the sticker on it to say "It says Gibson on the head, so it must be good" [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Newc

[quiksilver]

Re: EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

Thanks for the info. Seeing that Gibson logo on the Fender headstock, being played by Eddie. Thought I was dreaming or something. [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

I LOVE that pic you posted with Eddie holding the V. Do you have that in a higher resolution? If so, I could get it blown up and framed. I did that with another shot I have of EVH, and it worked very well. (I'd also like a nice shot of Randy Rhoads if anyone has one, along with a shot like on the back of Aerosmith Double Live Bootleg, with Joe Perry looking out at the crowd, with a BC Rich hanging on his back). So far, I have framed pics of EVH and Ted Nugent in my basement/hall of fame.

[Chuckracer]

Re: EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

I'd love to see that Joe Perry pic.

[No Use]

Re: EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

the gibson sticker could be because he always wanted that gibson sound from a fender styled guitar...since he hated the double hums (he says both together create a muddy sound, and he couldn't get a good sound out of it), so he went to his self-made strat.

[BigDaddyD]

Re: EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

It wasn' that both pups together created a muddy sound. Eddie loved the LP, but he said that when he dialed in an awesome bridge tone, his neck pup would not sound good and when he dialed in a great neck tone, the bridge wouldn't sound good. That is one of the reasons he went to a one pup deal...that and that he couldn't always figure out how to rewire his guitars. He even took the neck out the the goldtop at one point. He switched to the strat for the trem and then added the humbucker when the rest of the band yelled at him because his tone was so thin.

[stsk]

Re: EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

i noticed that too in one of my magazines

[randyvanmalmsteen]

Re: EVH Playing a "Gibson" Strat neck

Originally posted by Chuckracer:
Naw, that shot's real. Eddie had a Gibson sticker on the head of that guitar for a little while. Just a joke on Eddie's part.

Maybe he felt inferior cause he was playing one of those horrible single pickup bolt-on-with-a-heel vintage trem guitars. How awful for him, eh Joe?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">that was ed's sense of humor, he really liked gibby's,but cause he wanted "a gibson type of sound with a vibrato bar" he made that homemade boogie bodies strat. the ONLY thing GIBSON about it is the P.A.F pickup and the volume pot it goes to!

[Tekky]

Re: EVH Playing a &quot;Gibson&quot; Strat neck

OK, I'm gonna say this right here and right now.. I hate Collectguitars.com... Every time I go to their site, I get sent to The Guitar Hanger... BASTARDS!!!!!