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Peavey EVH Wolfgang
Manufacturer	Peavey
Period	1996–2004
Colors available
Gloss Black, Gloss Ivory, Vintage Gold, Seafoam Green, Transparent Sunburst, Transparent Amber, Transparent Red, Transparent Purple, Transparent Green, Transparent Blue, Transparent Cherryburst, Transparent Black Cherryburst (plus numerous other colors and graphics offered via the Peavey Custom Shop)

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The Peavey EVH Wolfgangguitar series is the result of the collaboration between guitarist Edward Van Halen and Hartley Peavey's company, Peavey Electronics.

Peavey included the following endorsement in their advertising: 'For as long as I've been playing guitar, I've always been searching for a certain feel and tone..I've experimented by tearing apart and reassembling hundreds of guitars in different ways searching for these qualities. Although I've ruined a lot of great guitars by having done this, I have learned what it takes to make a truly great guitar. The Wolfgang, after years of trial and error, (for me) is that guitar. Our collective efforts in designing the Wolfgang guitar have resulted in a versatile, quality-crafted guitar that feels great, sounds great and is truly inspiring to play. I've already put mine to the test in the studio and on tour and now it's your turn.'^[1]

The EVH stands for 'Edward Van Halen' while Wolfgang is the name of Edward Van Halen's son (born in 1991).

History[edit]

Since the late 1970s, when Van Halen regularly performed on the Pasadena club scene, and with the release of Van Halen's self-titled debut album, Edward Van Halen's guitar tone—nicknamed the 'Brown Sound' for being full yet distinctively aggressive and articulate—had been widely acclaimed. It immediately set a standard for guitarists all over the world.

To achieve the legendary 'Brown Sound', Edward Van Halen employed a variac to limit the voltage of his Marshall guitar amplifier while still allowing the volume to be at its maximum. He also used a custom-assembled strat-like guitar with a PAFhumbucker (taken from a Gibson ES-335) mounted directly to the guitar's body. Van Halen's infamous Frankenstein (a.k.a. the 'Frankenstrat') guitar laid the groundwork for most of the custom guitars he played throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Prior to working with Peavey, Van Halen had worked with and endorsed Charvel, Kramer and Ernie Ball Music Man.

Production of the Peavey EVH Wolfgang began in late 1996 (after a year-long development process) and lasted until 2004, when Edward Van Halen and Peavey parted amicably.^[2] Production of the Wolfgang guitar (along with other Peavey models) occurred in a dedicated Leakesville, MS plant but was moved to Meridian, MS in early 2003. Van Halen had also developed three amplifiers with Peavey, starting in 1991.

In 2009, Edward Van Halen announced the release of a new Wolfgang guitar built by Fender but only carrying his own 'EVH' brand label. The newer Wolfgang retains many of exactly the same attributes as its Peavey-built predecessor.

Models and specification[edit]

In some sense, the Peavey EVH Wolfgang guitar picked up where the Ernie Ball Music Man EVH model left off, with the prototype design being made by Peavey Design Engineer/Luthier Jim DeCola (an amber quilted top model which still didn't have the Wolfgang headstock shape, but rather a Peavey classic one). On the second prototype, DeCola then developed the final body and headstock designs. Another innovative feature DeCola designed was the recessed truss rod adjustment wheel. Recessing the adjustment wheel into the neck provided a stronger neck joint as well as ease of adjustment like his previous model. This design has since been adopted by Fender, Jackson, Charvel, ESP, Schecter, and many other brands. The body was made of basswood and often had (like its predecessor) a maple cap. This combination is considered by some, such as renowned luthier John Suhr, 'the Holy Grail of tone.'^[3] The Ernie Ball model, however, used a 1/8' figured maple cap, which is itself less likely to change the overall effect of the tonewood. Peavey Wolfgangs had maple caps ranging from 1/4' to 5/8'.The guitar had a Floyd Rosevibrato system, built by Ping, which lowers pitch only (like the Ernie Ball Music Man EVH model) but added a d-Tuna on the low E-string, a device that allowed that string to be instantly tuned to and from D (a former design of this device, named 'The Willie',^[4] was filed for patent by Edward in 1997, but later abandoned in 1998).

Many Peavey Wolfgang owners have incorrectly adopted the terms 'Standard' and 'Deluxe' and applied them to their guitars. Though common, these terms were never officially used by Peavey. Wolfgang owners were simply seeking a way to distinguish between arch top and flat top model Wolfgangs and maple cap and solid basswood model Wolfgangs. The word 'Deluxe' was used by Peavey, but only to describe Custom Shop models.

The guitar specifications ^[5] are:

Solid (usually 2-piece) basswood body
Carved maple top (1/4' to 5/8' thick) on selected models (translucent finishes); no top on the Special models
Bolt-on construction with contoured neck heel, no neck plate
Unique offset cutaway design
Birdseye maple neck and fingerboard, oil-finished
Dual graphite reinforcements and adjustable torsion rod with recessed adjustment wheel
25 1/2' scale length
22 jumbo frets (Dunlop 6105)
15' fingerboard radius
Locking nut, string retainer bar
Straight string pull headstock with asymmetrical 3+3 tuning machine configuration
Precision die-cast tuning machines (based on the Schaller M6L)
Two Alnico-V custom-wound Peavey humbucking pickups (DC resistance:16.22 kΩ on the neck, and 13.87 kΩ on the bridge)
Master volume control (500 kΩ, long split shaft, logarithmic)
Master tone control (500 kΩ, long split shaft, logarithmic)
Switchcraft® 3-way toggle switch and output jack
Peavey/Floyd Rose® licensed, double-locking tremolo assembly (made by Ping)
D-Tuna device (allows instant drop of low E string to D)
Chrome-plated hardware finish

Peavey EVH Wolfgang[edit]

Edward Van Halen playing a sunburst first year quilt top model in 2004.

The original and top-of-the-line model. Made in the USA. It featured an arched (carved) top, body binding, two knobs (volume and tone), three-way pickup toggle switch, two Peavey/EVH-designed humbucker pickups, oil-finished bird's eye maple neck and fingerboard with dual graphite reinforcement rods, ten-degree tilt headstock, and Schaller mini M6 tuners (with either pearloid or ivory colored buttons). Two base versions were offered: a solid basswood model and a solid basswood/maple cap model. (The maple cap was 5/8' before carving.) Each version could come with either a licensed Floyd Rose tremolo with D-Tuna (d-tuner device) or a tune-o-matic bridge and hard tail piece. Solid basswood Wolfgangs were offered in gloss ivory and gloss black; solid basswood/maple cap Wolfgangs were offered in various transparent figured maple finishes (sunburst, amber, red, purple, blue, green, cherryburst, and black cherryburst) as well as vintage gold and seafoam green. Very occasionally a rejected maple top was painted either gloss black or gloss ivory.

Peavey EVH Wolfgang Special[edit]

Peavey and Edward Van Halen's attempt to make a 'budget' version of the Wolfgang that didn't compromise quality in parts or craftsmanship. Made in the USA in 1998. It featured a fla

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