The image is forever ingrained in the minds of Van Halen fans around the world – Eddie Van Halen’s original red, black and white striped Frankenstein guitar. We’ve all seen and heard Eddie playing it many times over the years but there’s a good chance you’ve heard it a few more times recently; only this time it’s played by Eddie’ son Wolfgang.
In a new interview with Total Guitar, Wolfgang detailed the making of his debut Mammoth WVH album, which is due out on June 11th. When asked whether he used any of his dad’s equipment, Wolfgang revealed something very interesting in his response.
“Yeah, a handful of it. I played the original Frankenstein on the solo on ‘Mammoth’ and on ‘Feel’,” said Wolfgang. “You feel the history. It’s kind of terrifying holding it, just because arguably it is the most famous guitar in musical history. It’s definitely quite the thing to hold it.”
Both “Mammoth” and “Feel” were recently released by Wolfgang. Let’s give them another listen, only this time imagine Wolfgang strapping on that iconic red, black and white Frankenstein guitar!
“Mammoth“
“Feel“
Wolfgang went on to tell Total Guitar that the main guitars for the recording of the album were a Gibson ES-335 (as seen in the video for “Don’t Back Down“) along with an EVH Wolfgang Custom. Wolfgang
Wolfgang added that he used different amps to make sure his sound was his own.
“That was probably the one area that we made a collective effort to not replicate Pop,” he says. “We did use a bunch of 5150s mostly, but there were also Marshalls – a red early-’70s 100 watt Superlead, and a ’72 Superlead metal-panel 1959 model. All the Marshall heads were modified with extra gain stages. We used a lot of cabinet variations, with Celestion G12H-30s, G12M-25s, and G12-EVHs just to contrast the sound.”