Ultimately Eddie Van Halen got fed up of the restrictive contract with Peavey and wished to do his own thing.

The original Art Series of EVH guitars that was done by Charvel indicated Eddie Van Halen’s future intentions. Little is known about these guitars except that Eddie Van Halen created them with Charvel and marketed them specifically to be sold on the internet through auctions. They were made to Eddie’s specifications and were intended to be replicas of some of his original guitars: the original Frankenstrat; the VH2 “Bumblebee” guitar; the mark II Frankenstrat. They were presented with a certificate of authenticity and an autograph from Eddie himself.

The Charvel EVH Art Series was a chance for Eddie Van Halen to revisit past glories amidst uncertainty in Van Halen itself.

Picture courtesy http://www.edroman.com/detail_sheets/charvel-evh-art-series.html

Since Charvel are now owned by Fender, shortly after the sales of these models, the contract with Peavey ended in 2004, and Eddie Van Halen went to Fender a few years later to sign a new contract to create and distribute his own line of guitars.

The original Charvel EVH Art Series Guitars are very expensive (at least $10 000 AUS) and only available through places such as eBay, so your best bet is to go for the EVH Fender Art Series that is available today if you cannot afford to get one of the original Charvel models. It will not be covered here as it already has been in the past and will be covered again in the future.

Below are some statistics of the build of these guitars, courtesy of http://www.vintagekramer.com:

Origin: Made In USA

Machine Heads: Schaller M6

Body Material: Solid Basswood

Neck Material: Hard Maple

Skunk Stripe: Rosewood

Neck Joint: Bolt-On

Fingerboard: Hard Maple

Frets: 22

Neck Finish: Oil

Tremolo: Original Floyd Rose – Schaller

Pickup: EVH Humbucking made by Fender

Pickup Mounting: Direct to body

Volume Knob: Strat Type – Labelled Tone

Scale Length: 25.5”

Output Jack: Unknown

Controls: Unknown

Headstock: Fender Shaped

The Charvel EVH Art Series Guitars were a tactically good method of EVH removing himself from Peavey and moving onto Fender as the company that sponsored him.

Picture courtesy http://www.posters57.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=794

This prophetic action by Eddie Van Halen later did him a good stroke of fortune as it eventually sealed his contract with Fender, with who he has remained with to this day.

 

References:

1. Ground Guitar. 2016. Eddie Van Halen Guitars and Gear. http://www.groundguitar.com/eddie-van-halen-guitars-and-gear/