All user reviews for the EVH Wolfgang USA Custom

EVH guitars is a company Fender started in collaboration with Eddie Van Halen. A few years ago Fender hooked up with EVH to make a line of replica Frankenstrats for EVH to play live. These guitars went over so well they decided to start up a company together to continue making the stuff EVH liked. They put out a new version of the 5150 amp and now they are continuing the Wolfgang style guitars EVH started with Peavey. They have gotten EVH to experiment a little bit because some models are a bit different than the traditional Wolfgang models. This model is a set neck and is more setup like a Les Paul. This guitar has a mahogany body with a thick flamed maple top. The set neck is mahogany as well with a 24.75 inch scale and a compound radius. The neck has some carbon fiber strips for stability. The fretboard is ebony with 22 vintage sized stainless steel frets. It has vintage style tuners up top with a tune-o-matic and fine tuner stoptail piece. The pickups are the regular EVH pickups but they have covers on this model. The controls are like a Les Paul with a volume and tone for each pickup and a reversed 3 way toggle.

UTILIZATION

This guitar has a bit of a vintage feel but still retains great playability. The neck has a slightly bigger feel than a lot of modern guitars. I love stainless steel frets. More companies should use them. With stainless steel frets the frets do not have to be as big to get the same smoothness. The frets on this guitar are pretty small but they are stainless steel so they dont wear out or get rough. EVH says he can play a full tour on one of these guitars now without having to get it refretted. Before stainless steel frets his guitars were getting refretted once a week. With these EVH guitars you have to get use to the reversed pickup selector. I find it pretty annoying but its what EVH likes. The reinforcement rods in the neck means the neck will never warp and will only need minor adjustments throughout its life. These rods extend into the headstock to help prevent headstock breakages since this guitar has a mahogany neck. This is a very modern design on the inside.

SOUNDS

EVH's pickups are one of the most important parts of his sound. Ever since he has taken the PAF out of an old Gibson and put it in his strat he has had a certain tone that involves a more vintage style pickup through modern gear. The pickups in this guitar are vintage style like the old EVH guitars. The low output pickups respond well to picking and volume dynamics. Better than most super high output pickups would. The pickups are attached directly to the wood of the guitar not on springs. The direct mounted pickups get more sustain although they are not adjustable. This also makes the pickup tone very clear and direct. The bridge has an open sound with not much compression. The neck position is a bit smoother for tapping and such. You gotta remember that the pickup selector is reversed so Up is the bridge and down is the neck position.

OVERALL OPINION

It is cool that EVH and Fender are making different styles of guitars through the EVH brand. They all have the same Wolfgang DNA but they can cover different tones and styles of guitar. This guitar is more Les Paul like while the other more standard model is a bit more stratty. The internal construction on thsi guitar is very modern with all of the reinforcement in the neck area. It would be a miracle if Gibson started reinforcing their necks and they are the ones whos necks break all the time. If you are a fan of the EVH line of guitars and want something with a more Gibsonesque tone this is the guitar they are making for you.