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tjon901 « Modern version of the old Peavey model »
Published on 08/01/11 at 09:42For the last 15 years or so EVH has been using guitars similar to this. in the mid 90s EVH set out with Peavey to design his perfect guitar. After a few years of trials they came out with the Peavey EVH Wolfgang which looked a lot like this. After his time with Peavey he hooked up with Fender to produce a very similar guitar through the new EVH brand and this is that guitar. This guitar has the round EVH shape that the Peavey version had. It has a basswood body with a maple top. It has a fender scale neck with a birdeye maple fretboard. It has 22 frets and they are vintage Fender sized so they are pretty small. The neck is pretty chunky. The neck has two carbon fiber rods inside of it along with the truss rod to keep it nice and straight, something I wish more guitar makers did. It has an EVH signature Original Floyd Rose with a D-tuner attached so you can easily go to drop tunings on the fly.
UTILIZATION
This guitar is setup to EVH's specs. The neck is pretty big and has a vintage Fender feel along with the small frets. The neck shape is asymmetrical so it fits your hand in a unique way. The action is very low, almost two low on the low strings. There is a bit of buzz with the factory setup. It has a compound radius fretboard like a Jackson. It goes from 12 inches to 16 inches near the body. With the compound radius you get good comfortable playability with chords on the lower end of the neck and the higher end of the fretboard is nice and flat so you can bend away. This guitar has stainless steel frets which are super smooth and will never wear out, another thing more companies need to do. The Floyd Rose is setup to go down only so you cannot pull up on it. It is set up like a Fender tremolo but since its double locking it wont go out of tune on you like a fender tremolo will. One strange thing on this guitar is that the pickup selector switch is reversed. Up is the bridge position and down is the neck position. This is the way EVH likes it. I find it pretty annoying.
SOUNDS
The unfinished neck helps the tone of this guitar. You can really feel the resonance in your hand while you are playing. The low output PAF style EVH pickups give great clarity to the sound in a very old school way. You can really hear every note you play and they are all clear as a bell. 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, something else I wish more guitar makers would do. Because of this you get better tone but you cannot adjust them and it is a very complex task to route the pickup compartments for a guitar like this. The way the Floyd Rose is setup the bridge plate is resting on the body of the guitar so you do not lose as much vibration in the spring assembly of the tremolo system. This guitar is very well thought out.
OVERALL OPINION
This guitar has a lot of modern features more guitar makers should look at. If they werent stuck in their traditionalist ways more guitars would have great features like carbon fiber neck reinforcement or directly mounted pickups. EVH may be crazy nowadays but he can still design a good guitar. I dont know how many of these features were his idea but overall this is a great guitar with great modern features. If you are looking for a great rock n roll guitar with dynamic pickups and super tone this EVH brand Wolfgang is a good choice. Maybe Fender can start making some Fenders like this.
UTILIZATION
This guitar is setup to EVH's specs. The neck is pretty big and has a vintage Fender feel along with the small frets. The neck shape is asymmetrical so it fits your hand in a unique way. The action is very low, almost two low on the low strings. There is a bit of buzz with the factory setup. It has a compound radius fretboard like a Jackson. It goes from 12 inches to 16 inches near the body. With the compound radius you get good comfortable playability with chords on the lower end of the neck and the higher end of the fretboard is nice and flat so you can bend away. This guitar has stainless steel frets which are super smooth and will never wear out, another thing more companies need to do. The Floyd Rose is setup to go down only so you cannot pull up on it. It is set up like a Fender tremolo but since its double locking it wont go out of tune on you like a fender tremolo will. One strange thing on this guitar is that the pickup selector switch is reversed. Up is the bridge position and down is the neck position. This is the way EVH likes it. I find it pretty annoying.
SOUNDS
The unfinished neck helps the tone of this guitar. You can really feel the resonance in your hand while you are playing. The low output PAF style EVH pickups give great clarity to the sound in a very old school way. You can really hear every note you play and they are all clear as a bell. 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, something else I wish more guitar makers would do. Because of this you get better tone but you cannot adjust them and it is a very complex task to route the pickup compartments for a guitar like this. The way the Floyd Rose is setup the bridge plate is resting on the body of the guitar so you do not lose as much vibration in the spring assembly of the tremolo system. This guitar is very well thought out.
OVERALL OPINION
This guitar has a lot of modern features more guitar makers should look at. If they werent stuck in their traditionalist ways more guitars would have great features like carbon fiber neck reinforcement or directly mounted pickups. EVH may be crazy nowadays but he can still design a good guitar. I dont know how many of these features were his idea but overall this is a great guitar with great modern features. If you are looking for a great rock n roll guitar with dynamic pickups and super tone this EVH brand Wolfgang is a good choice. Maybe Fender can start making some Fenders like this.