EVH Wolfgang Standard TOM review: “are you going to regret not picking the Floyd Rose model?”
$629.99/£579, evhgear.com
Eddie Van Halen’s Wolfgang design is nearly 30 years old now – beginning life in 1996 when Ed was with Peavey, and then being redesigned from the ground up a decade later when he moved over to his own Fender-backed EVH brand.
In that time, the Wolfgang has become something of a modern classic, as Eddie’s “last attempt” to design a guitar, it holds even more significance for the Van Halen faithful after his sad passing in 2020.
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Over the last decade, the Wolfgang has also become one of the more accessible hard-rocking guitars out there, with the Standard line’s Asian manufacture bringing entry-level prices to the line.
Now we have the most affordable Wolfgang yet, but is it one that veers to far from the recipe that Eddie laid down with Fender’s Chip Ellis nearly 20 years ago?
Image: Adam Gasson
EVH Wolfgang Standard TOM – what is it?
Ed might have named the Wolfgang for his son, long before he was an accomplished musician in his own right, but the ‘TOM’ in the name of this guitar isn’t another nod to someone in EVH’s life, it reflects what is a pretty significant change to the Wolfgang recipe – a tune-o-matic bridge and tailpiece.
The TOM isn’t the first Wolfgang to shed the Floyd Rose locking vibrato that Van Halen made famous – you can get a US-made version that also rocks a tune-o-matic, but this is the first affordable version to do so.
Like the other Wolfgang Standard guitars, the latest addition to the Wolfgang line is made in Indonesia – where Fender has also started making its own Standard series guitars in the last 12 months.
The good news is that the lack of a Floyd means that it’s also the most affordable Wolfgang out there, but the rest of the spec sheet reads like an instrument priced significantly higher, with a number of features tailored to comfort and speed.
Such features include a special “comfort cut” forearm contour in its basswood body – which is instantly noticeable and certainly aids long practice sessions – and EVH-branded humbucking pickups mounted directly into the body in the time-honoured Van Halen manner. Direct mounting them like this was, in Ed’s view, to increase vibration transfer, resulting in “sustain for days on end”.
Image: Adam Gasson
EVH Wolfgang Standard TOM – feel and sounds
Days might be a bit much, but the first unplugged strum certainly reflects a resonant and lightweight guitar with plenty to recommend it.
You do have to check yourself and remember this is a $600 guitar at times, because it’s very easy to forget that it’s not a much pricier guitar. You can attribute this primarily to two things: the feel of the neck and fretboard, and the palette of rock-ready tones courtesy of its EVH Wolfgang humbuckers.
Chief in my list of requirements for a comfortable playing experience is a low action, and the Wolfgang delivers here spectacularly. This action – set up exquisitely straight out of the box, it must be said – is complemented very well by the smooth oiled finish of the maple neck, meaning playing is effortless the length of the fretboard, whether riffing in the lower registers or doing your best at some Eddie Van Halen-style two-handed tapping.
Of course, the subtraction of a Floyd Rose means you have slightly fewer tools to play with when crafting solos. But what you lose in divebomb potential you gain in the ability to make quick tuning adjustments, and the setup still provides rock-solid stability even when you’re dropping things down.
In fact, after I tuned this guitar up, I barely needed to make any tuning adjustments in two hours of non-stop playing (including some pretty rigorous and ambitious bends that would knock most guitars out of whack).
Image: Adam Gasson
The humbuckers are proprietary EVH models, and while you’re never really sure what you’re going to get with own-brand units, these hit the mark on high-gain, crunch and clean tones alike.
The Wolfgang is obviously a guitar aimed primarily at modern rock and metal players, and with that in mind I thought it best to test it both through an amp and going direct into amp software.
Naturally, I went straight for a high-gain sound with both, and both through my Blackstar and Positive Grid’s BIAS modelling software, the pickups serve up that raw hard rock power, with a gnarly biting quality to the bridge humbucker and classic warm smoothness to the neck.
In a pleasant surprise, there’s still plenty of character and depth to these pickups played clean – the neck ‘bucker has a beautiful crystalline quality that, when paired with a touch of chorus and delay, is just *chef’s kiss*.
A disappointment, however, is the volume control – there’s really not a lot of the linearity you’d expect. I found that I essentially got full signal at about three on the knob, and everything after was giving you more treble but not a lot else.
It’s not a deal-breaker, but it does make volume swells or using the volume to control your gain a fair bit trickier.
Image: Adam Gasson
EVH Wolfgang Standard TOM – should I buy one?
It’s easy for those of us in the reviewing chairs to call something ‘entry level’ and make a bunch of excuses for it, but just over $600 is still a lot of money for a lot of people to spend on a guitar – especially if you’re starting out. You could buy a PS5 instead.
There’s also a lot of competition at this end of the market for budding rock and metal players, and so it’s all the more impressive that this steps into the market as such a well-sorted and reliable instrument. You could make this your main guitar for years to come – it feels and sounds like a much more expensive instrument.
That said, there’s an argument that if technical metal and shred is your bag, you might be better off saving another $150 and buying the Floyd Rose-equipped version instead. Yes, a Floyd can be idiosyncratic for some, to put it mildly, when it comes to string changes, but it opens up a whole world of playing possibilities for the technically inclined.
But if you’re dead set on keeping it as simple and hassle-free as possible, this Wolfgang certainly won’t let you down.
EVH Wolfgang Standard TOM – alternatives
The Floyd Rose-loaded Wolfgang WG Standard obviously presents itself as a contender here – certainly if the ability to divebomb is a non-negotiable for you. This comes in a little pricier, though, at a still-reasonable $789. Of course, if budget isn’t a concern in your case, you could spring for the US-made Wolfgang USA; however this will set you back a cool $4,099. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…
If a Floyd Rose isn’t a must-have, there are plenty more rock-ready guitars built for speed at this price point. The Jackson JS Series Surfcaster JS22 HT, for example, is similarly set up, with a bolt-on neck, single volume and tone controls, high-output humbuckers and a hardtail bridge. This is at the uber-affordable end of the spectrum, too, at just $299/£279.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
