GEAR INNOVATOR

Eddie Van Halen didn’t just amaze his fellow guitarists with the remarkable work he did and his rare combination of playing techniques. Eddie’s attitude to his guitars and his amplification also influenced a multitude of musicians, as well as instrument makers and amp builders.

“I hate store-bought off-the-rack guitars,” he told Jas Obrecht at Guitar Player back in the late 1970s, a few months after the first Van Halen album had appeared. “They don’t do what I want them to do.” This statement summed up the approach Ed would take to more or less all the gear he used during the years of his growing success.

He’d started out on a cheap Teisco electric but some of his mates in early pre-VH bands thought that the Strat he moved to sounded too thin and the ES-335 didn’t look rock ’n’ roll. So he decided to take matters into his own hands and combine some of the qualities of Fender and Gibson units into one home-assembled instrument. Enter the Frankenstrat, Ed’s generic name for several lashed-together guitars that he built from assorted parts.

FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER

As with many things Eddie Van Halen, the stories have varied throughout the years.