Six of Eddie Van Halen's stage-played Charvel EVH Art Series guitars – and a Masterbuilt Frankenstein copy – go up for auction
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Six Charvel EVH Art Series electric guitars – which have all been stage-played and signed by Eddie Van Halen – have gone up for auction as part of one mammoth collection.
The sextet of six-strings are also accompanied by a Chip Ellis-built Fender Custom Shop Frankenstein copy – dubbed "Frankie 2" – which will be included in Analogr’s monster Van Halen offering.
We’ve seen our fair share of Charvel Art Series auctions over the years, though none quite as extensive as this. In this case, all seven guitars are being auctioned as one lot, with a minimum reserve price of $525,000.
As per the auction house, the seven-strong collection is estimated to sell for anywhere between $750,000 and $1,000,000. In one crazy world, six signed Van Halen six-strings for one mill is a bit of a bargain, not least because one lone Van Halen-related guitar – the one that featured in the iconic Hot For Teacher music video – sold for nearly $4,000,000 earlier this year.
For a brief history of the Charvel EVH Art Series collection, each of the "tour" guitars in the catalog were made to Van Halen’s exacting specifications and played (usually briefly) onstage. As part of the run, guitars loosely based on the guitar god’s Frankenstein and Bumblebee designs were released.
With their faithful EVH aesthetics, each guitar comes loaded with a Stratocaster-style body, maple neck and fretboard, a sole bridge humbucker adjacent to a Floyd Rose tremolo, and a volume control labeled ‘Tone’.
A range of different striped configurations are on offer here, with each Charvel also sporting a dated signature from Van Halen himself.
Each of the following models are also accompanied by certificates of authenticities and photographs (or a video, in one case) of Van Halen wielding them.
As a whole, this collection spans three separate tours, with the earliest example – a black-bodied, yellow-striped beauty – hailing from the band's 2004 tour. Specifically, it was wielded on July 9 at the band’s show in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The next three guitars all saw action during Van Halen’s 2007 tour. Taking things chronologically, the first is a more classic red-with-black-and-white-stripes example, dated October 14, after a concert in Indianapolis.
A Bumblebee iteration was wielded eight days later for a show in Detroit, with the final ‘07 tour guitar arriving in the form of a white-with-black-stripes Charvel that was taken to the stage in Washington D.C. on November 1.
Two A Different Kind of Truth tour models played in 2012 complete the Art Series round-up: a final black on white example, signed and dated on February 20 in Detroit, is joined by another hybrid-style Frankenstein guitar that was used on May 11.
As mentioned, the Art Series models are in the company of a prestigious Chip Ellis-built Frankenstein copy. Few details about this particular offering have been shared, though pictures on the auction house's site show it comes with a signed photograph and a certificate of authenticity.
For more information about each guitar, head over to Analogr.
