- When I first encountered the EVH Wolfgang model, it’s easy to overlook this guitar unless you’re specifically chasing Eddie Van Halen’s sound. However, after repeatedly searching through specs, this guitar kept showing up. I get the feeling this is a guitar where substance outweighs reputation, or perhaps this truly represents the real power of Eddie Van Halen’s design philosophy.
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Why This Guitar Stands Out
- Neck:
- Most importantly: This guitar is one of the few I’ve found with a quartersawn roasted maple neck under $1500 (you could also consider the Shijie Guitar TM-5). When selecting a guitar, I know I’m 70% picking a “neck,” and whether it has quartersawn wood easily divides guitars into two categories. When it’s also roasted, the roasted maple fretboard already gives me that premium feel just from the looks. Plus, this Wolfgang Backshape neck profile really hits the sweet spot for me – not too chunky that it might feel slow, but not so thin that it lacks support.
- The nut width is 1.625” (41.3 mm), which is Eddie’s unconventional design choice, smaller than mainstream sizes. After using it, I definitely prefer it.
- The headstock looks like a little creature from a Studio Ghibli film. I give this headstock very high marks from a design perspective. It eliminates Gibson’s angled headstock issues and Fender’s insufficient downward pressure problems. From Wolfgang’s design history, you can see that Eddie and the design team spent considerable time making this headstock meaningfully different from Fender. Most importantly, those final string trees give me great confidence. This headstock is shorter than other guitars (while maintaining the same 25.5” scale length), making it less prone to getting knocked around.
- Features like Graph Tech TUSQ XL, jumbo frets, 12”-16” compound radius, graphite-reinforced bolt-on construction, and wheel truss rod adjustment ensure this guitar doesn’t lose points on the smaller details.
- Electronics:
- Very simple three-way switching, which is exactly what I like. Post-2025 models changed the pickup ring routing from the previous crescent shape to a universal square shape. Quick volume knob and slow tone knob – this tone knob feels better to turn than any other guitar I’ve played.
- Neck:
- Finish:
- I bought the Oxblood color, which is really special. It’s somewhat like the deep red Ibanez GIO GRG121SP with that kind of sparkly finish. But the key point is that it’s dark red, so this finish doesn’t show up in regular photos or videos – only you can see it. So what you see from mid-to-far distance versus what the guitarist sees up close are completely different colors. Whether this is good or bad, I can’t say for certain, but I prefer PE finishes – this one is PU.
- Pickups:
- The neck pickup has a DC resistance as high as 14.0-14.6k, and the bridge pickup uses Alnico 2 instead of Alnico 5, making this pickup combination feel special.
- Areas for Improvement:
- Tuners don’t have locking functionality
- Bridge intonation adjustment has no margin, and uncertain if the bridge matches the neck’s 16” radius
- No stainless steel frets
- Upper fret access convenience might not match Charvel’s latest series.