New EVH Franken Replica

[Rhino Madness]

Here's Ed playing his new upcoming Frankenstein replica (to be produced by Charvel/Fender):

Ed plays the new old frankenstein .

 

You can also watch Ed as he introduces the guitar and the people behind it:

Ed blah-blahs about the new replica .

 

Those vids come from the NAMM 2007 opening yesterday.

 

People can say what they want about artificially aged guitars but it's an art in itself (it might be controversial but what art isn't?) and the artists involved here are definitely masters at what they do.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Rhino Madness:

People can say what they want about artificially aged guitars but it's an art in itself (it might be controversial but what art isn't?) and the artists involved here are definitely masters at what they do.

Oh, nobody's denying that they're good at what they do... I think the "controversy" is about whether anyone in their right mind would pay exhorbitant prices for a pre-aged guitar when it's so much more rewarding to "age" the axe yourself.

[mdrs]

So, Fender is going to put out a EVH axe, eh? That's cool. I'll be interested to see what the innovations are. Also, is Fender going to put out a EVH amp??? That might be very cool....

[Omaha]

Watching that video makes me think, even though Van Halen's playing almost became a cliche, he is really unbelievably good.

 

I was surpsised to see him smoking. I thought he had had an incident of some kind of oral cancer. I would have thought he would be off the death sticks. Didn't he also have a hip replaced? All things considered, he looks really good.

[mdrs]

Yea...he's had surgery for oral/head and neck cancer. There was a disturbing interview recently, where he sounded pretty crazy, saying that the cigs didn't cause the cancer, etc etc.. His speech in these vids is kind of slurred. That could be from the surgery. But, it might be from other things....years of alchol or drugs, or even worse medical issues. There is no way to tell from the vids.

 

He is an amazing, and I think very inovative player. He is still a powerful player. I'm not so sure the rest of his life has been as healthy. I hope he's O.K.. I for one would like to see him play more. Also, I'd be very interested to see if he does come up with some inovative new guitars and amps!!

 

Go Eddie

[Rampdog]

Originally posted by Omaha:

Watching that video makes me think, even though Van Halen's playing almost became a cliche, he is really unbelievably good.

 

I was surpsised to see him smoking. I thought he had had an incident of some kind of oral cancer. I would have thought he would be off the death sticks. Didn't he also have a hip replaced? All things considered, he looks really good.

I just relized that is from the 2007 show... I thought he cleaned himself up but he sounds and looks like he did back in the day... Of course his playing is outstanding as always... Maybe it's just me but does he look like hes been imbibing a bit?

[Hardtail]

Originally posted by Rampdog:

Originally posted by Omaha:

Watching that video makes me think, even though Van Halen's playing almost became a cliche, he is really unbelievably good.

 

I was surpsised to see him smoking. I thought he had had an incident of some kind of oral cancer. I would have thought he would be off the death sticks. Didn't he also have a hip replaced? All things considered, he looks really good.

I just relized that is from the 2007 show... I thought he cleaned himself up but he sounds and looks like he did back in the day... Of course his playing is outstanding as always... Maybe it's just me but does he look like hes been imbibing a bit?

He looked shitfaced to me.

 

But yeah... that being said, he still played great.

[Rampdog]

Originally posted by Hardtail:

He looked shitfaced to me.

 

So it wasn't just me who thought that... whew...

Woof.

[Fumblyfingers]

F&^* I wish he could stop smoking those cigarettes!!

 

I have never been a fan of two-handed playing as far as the tapping etc. But if I am going to listen to it, Eddie is the man I want to hear doing it.

[Greg B.]

Originally posted by Fumblyfingers:

F&^* I wish he could stop smoking those cigarettes!!

 

I have never been a fan of two-handed playing as far as the tapping etc. But if I am going to listen to it, Eddie is the man I want to hear doing it.

100% agreed!

[Rhino Madness]

Originally posted by mdrs:

So, Fender is going to put out a EVH axe, eh? That's cool. I'll be interested to see what the innovations are. Also, is Fender going to put out a EVH amp??? That might be very cool....

I don't know about the amp but the guitar does not have anything "new" about it: it's an exact (as exact as it could ever be) replica of his old famous frankenstein strat he put together in the late 70s.

 

It's basically the equivalent of the recently produced Clapton Blackie replica but for Van Halen fans (the Blackie replica sold out in 7 hours).

 

Ed is setting up a new merchandising company and I believe the replicas will only be available through that channel ( evhgear.com ). The assumed price will be in the 20 to 30 thousand dollars (ouch!).

[Rhino Madness]

Originally posted by Kramer Ferrington III.:

Originally posted by Rhino Madness:

People can say what they want about artificially aged guitars but it's an art in itself (it might be controversial but what art isn't?) and the artists involved here are definitely masters at what they do.

Oh, nobody's denying that they're good at what they do... I think the "controversy" is about whether anyone in their right mind would pay exhorbitant prices for a pre-aged guitar when it's so much more rewarding to "age" the axe yourself.

Oh I know what you mean!

 

But in this case, the replica is aged just like one pretty famous guitar in particular.

 

And even for the regular aged guitars, the expertise that goes into them is pretty impressive. I see them as "props" that look like the real thing (the real thing being a vintage guitar) except that they also are functional props and I admire the talent of the people that create those props (even more so after seeing really bad examples made by amateurs).

 

The price is exhorbitant but it does require talent, expertise and hard work to produce and it's still cheaper than the real thing and it's not really falling apart.

[mdrs]

Originally posted by Fumblyfingers:

F&^* I wish he could stop smoking those cigarettes!!

 

I have never been a fan of two-handed playing as far as the tapping etc. But if I am going to listen to it, Eddie is the man I want to hear doing it.

I feel the same way, Fumbly. Tapping is usually "cute", and shows the player to be a "dandy".

 

In Eddie case, he kicks ass on that fretboard!! He brings a power to tapping that I've not seen anyone else bring.

[Bytored]

I like VH so much more when he isn't talking.

[mdrs]

You got that right!

[Guitarzan]

well it is official now.

maybe a lower priced basic model will trickle out.

still it is good to see Ed back with a frankenstrat.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Rhino Madness:

Oh I know what you mean!

 

But in this case, the replica is aged just like one pretty famous guitar in particular.

And I know what you mean.

 

I was reading an interview with the Fender guys that produced the Clapton "blackie" tribute strat and the comparison photos were pretty damned amazing. If it wasn't for the "Fender Custom Shop" logo on the back of the headstock, you'd have a VERY hard time telling them apart (I wonder whether Clapton would too?) Every missing paint flake, every stain on the fretboard is identical. I keep posting about that guitar, so you *know* I was impressed.

 

And you can even (sort of) learn new things about Clapton from looking at the guitar. For some weird reason, the paint is chipped and missing in various places around the input jack. It's chipped off in distinct "dots". Now... I could understand scratches, and I could understand whole chunks of the paint being missing. But do the missing "dots" mean that he always hits the same wrong spots with his lead? How many times did he hit the exact same wrong spot?

 

The Fender guys in the interview answered the "what doofus would buy..." question by explaining that if you're a big Clapton fan, you can now have the EXACT same guitar as he plays, down to the dings and setup. And well.. people buy replica armour and guns and model boats and have castles rebuilt in Colorado... so why not model guitars?

 

I don't know... a) I'm not that a big an ANYBODY fan, so I don't really care to have an exact copy of anyone's guit and b) it may be a copy of the guitar you see in almost every Clapton pic of the 1970s... but do you really want it NOW? It wasn't anywhere as beat up twenty years ago. Not even Clapton's still playing that guitar.

 

Finally... I'm not so sure copying a guitar (or even aging one) is an actual art form. If it's art, what's the "artist" expressing or saying? I think it's very, very clever and quite interesting, but I'm not sure I'd call it "art".

 

Anyway... back to EVH...

[Hardtail]

Originally posted by Kramer Ferrington

Finally... I'm not so sure copying a guitar (or even aging one) is an actual art form. If it's art, what's the "artist" expressing or saying? I think it's very, very clever and quite interesting, but I'm not sure I'd call it "art".

I call it bullshit! These axes are merely for people with more money than talent who think they're going to sound like their favorite artists if only they had his exact guitar. What a load of shit!

 

You put that EVH guitar in anyone else's hands and it ain't going to sound like EVH!

 

This whole thing about beat up guitars playing better cracks me up. It's almost like when you wash the car after it's been dirty for some time and you can swear it runs better. Psychological B.S.

 

The beat up guitars I like are the ones people have owned for a great many years and have a history with not these fake beat up things.

[Darklava]

My father went through the tounge cancer thing

and when they cut half his tounge out it always sounded like he had a mouth full of marbles.

Your not able to control the spit in your mouth

and when he got excited his speech was slured like he was drunk.Even after eight years of not drinking he still looked and sounded like he was drunk.I'm happy for Ed after the things he's been through cancer..no fault but his own...divorce,hip replacement,his mother just passed away,most guys wind up sucking on the edge of a shotgun barrel.Would i buy that guitar?if i had Lee's money yeh! why not.

[A String]

I'm glad to hear him using his old sound again. I sort of missed it...

[mdrs]

Yea, Dark...you are right...one's speech can be affected by surgery for oral cancer. After having surgery like this, you can sound like you are drunk when you are not!! The surgery affects the parts of your mouth that you form words with. So, often the speech patterns after such surgery are slurred, and just sound wierd.

 

That vid of Eddie does show other things than just slurred speech, however. I don't think that we can know for sure by just viewing a video...but, the thing he was saying gave me the impression that he was impared in some way, NOT just slurring his speech. Could he have been intoxicated? Does he have some sort of cognitive or thinking imparement from many years of alchol or drug use? Does he have some other condition that would impare brain functioning? We can't know by watching a video. But, that's what I was thinking while watching that video.

 

Head and neck cancer, and it's treatment is NOT PRETTY. I've done a lot of it in my training. It's the only hope for survival for those with these types of cancer. But, the treatment and it's resultant deformities are very tough. I've been involved in the treatment of hundreds with this disease. And, I was with my wife's uncle when he died of oral cancer at age 52. That sucked, I can tell you that!

 

I just hope Eddie is healthy, and continues to be healthy. I for one would like to hear some more new music out of him!!

[A String]

Just from a "Devil's Advocate" point of view, it's quite possible that he had stage fright. I know how that sounds (being a huge rock star and all), but he does mention that he was terrified about getting up there. Public speaking is very different from playing a guitar. He does mention that he's not a public speaker...

 

Looks as though he shows all the signs of being REALLY nervous, to me. Mix that with the surgeries and it could well explain his behavior.

 

That being said, Eddie rocks. To still have his sound and charisma, after all he's been through, is an inspiration.

[Gruupi]

I love EVH and I feel sorry for what he is going through health wise. But does anyone else think that this particular vid sounds like some kid wanking at a guitar center?

[Rhino Madness]

Originally posted by Kramer Ferrington III.:

Finally... I'm not so sure copying a guitar (or even aging one) is an actual art form. If it's art, what's the "artist" expressing or saying? I think it's very, very clever and quite interesting, but I'm not sure I'd call it "art".

Vince, you know, I believe you're very right here: I shouldn't have called it art but craft since there is no particular personal expression involved. So we are dealing with expert craftmen in this case .

 

 

By the way, as a side note, what is pretty cool with the EVH guitar (and probably the other replicas as well) is that they are trying to duplicate the feel and physical properties of the original model as well as the look. That includes the friction coefficient of the volume pot, all electrical measurements and the weight of the guitar (all of the EVH replicas are said to end up within half a pound of the original).

 

 

And as another side note, I agree with you that it would be cooler if the replicas were made to look like the original models in their prime and not decades of abuse later.

 

 

And for those trying to replicate the sound and feel but not the look, it would be cool if they offered the guitar without the aging and other cosmetics (which would save a big chunk of the cost).

[Rhino Madness]

Originally posted by Gruupi:

But does anyone else think that this particular vid sounds like some kid wanking at a guitar center?

Yeah Gruupi, you're right. But in this case, this little performance was meant to show that the guitar looked and played and sounded just like Ed's. He probably did not have the timeframe to play entire songs but some of his famous licks and riffs (and since he is one the original wankers...).

 

At least, he was wanking on his own licks.

[Guitarzan]

wanking?

no way. he was being Eddie.

as far as his stage fright, Eddie has always been a shy guy who comes alive when he has his guitar in hand. if he had a drink i would not hold it against him. i wish i could play like that with a buzz.

i believe darklava's explaination is probably more accurate.

i tend to sound like a moron when i speak. and i would think others may think i am short a few bricks from the sound of my voice.

and when i get excited i appear like i have been into something.

EVH frikin rules.

in honour of Ed i got off my butt and replaced my album of VH1 with the CD today.

[Hardtail]

Originally posted by Gruupi:

I love EVH and I feel sorry for what he is going through health wise. But does anyone else think that this particular vid sounds like some kid wanking at a guitar center?

He was just showing off this guitar. What would you have him play?

[mdrs]

EVH is wanking at it's FINEST!

 

He's the ultimate wanker....

 

If you look up "Wanker" in Webster's Dictionary, there's a picture of Eddie!!

 

Also, with axes like this one, usually they produce high priced, hand made "exact" replicas first. The big time fans who have the $$$ will scarf them up. Then they'll do a custom shop version at a couple of grand. Then they'll put out the standard mass produced version, which will be more affordable.

 

Some buy the limited edition, first run of these axes thinking they'll be worth more in the future...Examples are the Clapton ES-335 they did, and then the "Blackie" replicas. It'll be interesting to see what happens to their value going forward.

 

Is Eddie drunk? Is Eddie's brain pickled? Does he have some medical issues making his thinking goofed up? Is he simply nervous? Hard to say. For his sake, I hope it's nerves.

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Originally posted by Gruupi:

But does anyone else think that this particular vid sounds like some kid wanking at a guitar center?

No... I think it's the kids wanking at GC that sound like EVH (in their dreams! ).

 

Be fair! Eddie was already playing like Eddie a good thirty years ago, whereas the GC centre kids..?

 

To compare Eddie to the kids is like writing to Louis Vuitton to complain that the cheap counterfeit handbag you bought your wife lets in the rain. And, as has been pointed out, he was just demoing the guitar, Heard the demos electronic instruments normally come with? Hardly inspiring, are they?

[Greg B.]

I have never seen ANYONE play like that at a guitar center or any other guitar store.

 

It was refreshing to me to hear him play with just a cord between his guitar and amp. His tone absolutely kills me.