“I’m sorry my guitar is such a pain in the butt!”: Eddie Van Halen once apologised to the Fender production line for the EVH Wolfgang’s fiddly frets
Back in the 1970s, Eddie Van Halen asserted that he hated “store-bought, off-the-rack guitars”. As a result, he would go on to design and configure many axes throughout his career, with his most iconic creation being the EVH Wolfgang. And, as one Fender luthier discovered, the Van Halen frontman was very involved in the building process.
In a new interview with Premier Guitar, Andy Hicks recalls working on the production line for the EVH Wolfgang, unaware that Eddie was surveying his craftsmanship. While working on guitar necks, the guitar builder felt himself being watched – but he didn’t suspect it would be the designer himself. “It’s Fender – we have tours all the time!” Hicks explains. “This guy comes over, leaning on me, and he looks like some dad wearing a baseball hat.”
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Of course, he soon registered what was happening, mentally noting the fact that “Eddie Van Halen is just standing here watching us work”. However, his Fender peers were still none the wiser. “The guy I was working with was in the middle of complaining: ‘Man, these stainless steel frets. With just these Wolfgangs, we’ve gotta do 12 stainless steel necks today.’”
Rather that feeling insulted by the complaint, Eddie decided to chime in with a “playful” comment. “He said something along the lines of, ‘I’m sorry my guitar is such a pain in the butt,’” Hicks laughs. “It was incredible.”
Eddie truly hadn’t taken the comment to heart – in fact, he later invited the entire production team to an ultra-exclusive Van Halen show in 2012. The gig was intended for friends and family of the band, and took place at the Forum in Inglewood, California. “My dad was sitting next to Tom Morello, telling him that his son made Eddie Van Halen’s guitar,” he says. “I had to say, ‘Dad, please stop talking to Tom Morello…’”
“He was so excited to talk to somebody, and he just happened to be talking to Tom Morello!” he adds.
Throughout his career, Andy Hicks has helped many signature models come to fruition at Fender. He also had the honour of making a guitar for Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray. “It was completely insane,” he says. “They were about to start this multi-year tour and wanted another guitar. I was working really closely with his tech, fine-tuning his model a little bit.”
“I shipped it off and got an email a couple days later from Dave,” he continues. “It just said ‘Regarding the guitar’ [in the subject line], and it’s a Schrödinger’s cat situation: ‘I’m gonna open this email, and one of two things happens: He either likes the guitar, and that’s good, or he doesn’t like it, and now what do I do?’ He said how much he loved it. His guitar tech reached out and said it was going to be his number-one for the tour.”
The guitar has even been recreated for fans to purchase, with the $11,000 Masterbuilt Strat being announced back in December. The special release came just in time to mark the band’s 50th anniversary.
The post “I’m sorry my guitar is such a pain in the butt!”: Eddie Van Halen once apologised to the Fender production line for the EVH Wolfgang’s fiddly frets appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
