EVH: Wolfgang Special

This guitar bears the initials of one of the most (if not the most) iconic guitar slingers of all time. Since his involvements with the Music Man brand name, Van Halen had settled with this rather stable design for his guitars; one which features simple cutaways & a non-6 in a line set of tuners. This is the latest addition to his line up of preferences & it's one not made in the USA; the Special is made in Japan. 

I had the opportunity to try this guitar out recently & was first stirred by the weight of it; it's light. Despite the massive hardware there, the Special is one which would please newbies or senior players concerned with having to lug around a heavy (musical) implement. This was made clear by the manufacturer as the guitar is crafted from a lighter basswood grade & features a laminate top as opposed to the full 1/2" maple which adorns the American counterpart. All in all the guitar was a pleasure to handle, made very desirable by the unfinished neck (& gloss-free). However, the bridge humbucker in the audition model, I'm confident to say, wasn't equipped with an F-spaced humbucker so the E & B strings alignment was clearly off.

Tone-wise, the bridge humbucker is an all-out rocker; very gain friendly without losing definition at high drive settings. Switching to the neck, one would feel the stark difference immediately- it's much deeper sounding & has a steep inclinations to all things vintage in terms of warmth. Due to the lighter build, the guitar did not suffer from any coercion from the bottom end & balances out nicely across the frequencies despite the neck pickup manifesting its boomy pedigree. All in all, the Special succeeded in its enticements for both tonal & playability considerations. In fact, I'd guess that there would be many of us out there expressing a firm preference for the neck's 'balanced' profile- neither too thin nor too overwhelming when serious grip is in order. 

A couple of things to note: 1) The frets in this guitar are not your rocker-grade, tall & wide type, Van Halen prefers a less obnoxious selection & they are, at best, mediums with a hint of vintage. 2) The pickup selector switch was wired to Van Halen's peculiarity- the up position selects the bridge humbucker, the down position gets you the neck humbucker. Annoying, yes, but it's the man's liking & this is his guitar anyway.

EVH: Wolfgang Special

List: $1,890

Availability: Swee Lee Co.