Quantcast Ryan's Guitars: New Guitar!! Peavey Eddie Van Halen Wolfgang

Friday, January 04, 2008

New Guitar!! Peavey Eddie Van Halen Wolfgang




Well, it happened again. I walked into Guitar Center with my buddy Nik with no agenda and I end up buying another damn guitar. :) This time a used USA Peavey Wolfgang Standard (artchtop) with a lovely green flamed maple top. I was hanging out with Devin and my buddy Nik while playing a Gibson Explorer that Nik was interested in when the Wolfgang was thrust into my hands by Floor Manager, Lee. Previously, there had been another Wolfgang Standard in the store with an amber top, and I was told that the owner of the green one decided to do a straight trade for the amber.

According to Lee, this guy kept the guitar in the case most of the time and as hard as I have looked I can't find any real damage, dings or major scratches in the finish. The fretboard is slightly stained, but that is par for the course on these guitars as they have unfinished, oiled necks. The only problem with the guitar is the D-Tuna drop D mechanism. It is missing the set screw needed to adjust the fine tuning when in drop D. I decided to remove the D-Tuna altogether since I rarely ever play in drop D and don't plan to make a habit of doing so. If I am ever in a band that requires a lot of drop D, I'll consider getting it fixed and popping it back on.





I setup the guitar after thoroughly cleaning the neck and body. The necks on these are basically unfinished maple with a light hand-rubbed oil to seal them and protect the wood from moisture. This oiling process needs to be repeated from time to time (about once a year, depending on how much it is played). I did a basic fret polish and cleaned the board with Murphy's Oil Soap, some 0000 steel wool and elbow grease. :) I wasn't able to get all the stains off the neck, but the next time I restring I'll do a more comprehensive cleaning and re-oil the neck. At this point I wanted to get it "sanitized" and clean enough to evaluate how it well played. I applied some 3M Fine Cut polish to the body and vigorously rubbed out as many scratches and spots of filth as possible. The finish shined up beautifully! Almost as if it were brand new.

The neck plays marvelously, and even though there is evidence it was played frequently, there is almost no appreciable fret wear (which was a major consideration when I decided to buy it). I adjusted the Floyd to reduce the spring tension, as this is a non-floating tremolo that rests on the body of the guitar. The original owner had the spring claw cranked in very tight making the tremolo action super stiff and uncomfortable to use (I imagine this was done to help keep the D-Tuna stable). Having only two springs when I bought it, I added a third low-tension, black Strat spring in the middle to keep the spring claw from needing to be adjusted in as tightly as before. I now have the tension set with just enough spring pull to keep the trem resting on the body, but no more. This keeps the feel of tremolo loose for easy dives, which is the whole purpose of the tremolo to begin with. ;)

The pickups are super hot with a great metal/rock tone. This guitar is not for Jazz or Blues, but playing with the volume knob you can get it to clean up admirably well. So with a little practice you can get it to do some pretty diverse stuff. Speaking of knobs, I replaced the cream volume and tone knobs the guitar had on them with black ones, just like the stock guitars have from the factory (from some reason the original owner changed them to cream). I decided to leave the cream switch tip as is, since it looks good (but those are black from the factory, as well).

Overall, I love this guitar and since I only paid $750 w/case, tax and all I really got a great deal. These regularly go on eBay for over twice that. ;)

18 comments:

  1. Hello Ryan!

    Love the site man. I, too, am a guitar player. The Wolfgang is beautiful and you got a killer deal. Sadly, my black Wolfgang was stolen from my house several years ago. Truly was the best guitar I had owned up to that point. I loved it much better than the EBMM EVH model. I've since gone Carvin with a CT6C and a V3 combo.

    In any event, love the blog. It's given me some inspiration. Thanks!

    All the best,

    Joe.

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  2. Thank you so much, Joe! I am so happy, and humbled, that my little blog could inspire you. It's comments like these that make writing this stuff down worth while.

    Keep rockin' and thank you so much for reading!

    Ryan

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  3. Anonymous8:47 AM

    Ryan,

    This is awesome! I just bought one - same color actually. The neck is a bit stained. But just reading your blog here has given me some inspiration to clean it up and make it a real player. The sound is killer!!

    God Bless,
    Tony

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  4. Anonymous7:49 AM

    Ryan,

    I think this blog is pretty awesome! I just bought a wolfgang - same color actually. I need to clean it up a bit though. I can't tell you how helpful it was going thru the steps you took in your blog! I really like the sound of the guitar. Hope things are well! Best Regards,

    Tony

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  5. Anonymous2:49 PM

    ur gay so is van halen his guitars r overpriced pieces of shit gimme les paul neday quicker dan dat




    asshole

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  6. Hi! Can you tell me how you make that sound from 00:17 to 00:20? I can never figure out how Ed makes that harmonic sound once he lets the bar up because I never see him actually hit the fretboard. Thanks!

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  7. Anonymous5:00 PM

    great deal .. I have 2 st specials USA, 1 trem special exp, 1 archtop st and a custome Namm special in tangerine (rare), love the guitars powerful sound and incredible playability. A great investment for those wanting a top level rock guit.

    I have found that a lightly dampened magic eraser works the best for cleaning the stained fret board .... its mild abrasive nature work perfectly ..

    enjoy it .... and be sure to keep it ...

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  8. Anonymous6:21 PM

    I bought the Wolfgang on 1/15/2009 The Cost $3280.00. There were the following problems.The bridge pickup was out of alignment by 3/16. The same pickup was missing one mounting screw. The Guitar fretted out on the second and third fret. Not real bad, but for a guitar at this price, it should have been PERFECT. I returned the guitar to Guitar Center, New Orleans. The Tech said that This is Normal, and that the guitar was within specs.
    I said just refund my purchase, which is somthing that I do not Normally do.
    The Wolfgang that he still has on the rack had perfect string alignment and did not fret out, and had all the screws in the pickup. I guess that the Fender techs were getting lazy, I noted that the guitar was inspected on 12/18/2008..right about the time for Christmas holiday.
    Eddie, Please get the Fender tech guys to do a better job.Thanks
    inspectorbuilder@yahoo.com

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  9. Ryan I need a little help. I restrung my EVH Wolfgang and I can not seem to get it in tune. I have not restrung this guitar. I checked the springs and they are still in place. Any tips? One maybe stupid question... Is it possible to put the strings on backwards. not high to low but head to pick-up reversed.

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  10. Anonymous1:08 AM

    Hey Ryan Thanks for the Excellent tips on Cleaning a Wolfgang Guitar. I recently purchased a Wolfie myself and it needed some TLC So thanks to your site I was able to bring it back to life! Thanks Greg

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  11. Anonymous11:48 AM

    Yeah, you might expect to have to tweak a few things on a OLP. But to drop that kinda cash on a bad ass guitar (you thought) and then get it home and go WHAT THE!!!! Makes me me love my Peavey Wolfgang even more. Actually, my OLP MM1F looks even better as well..

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  12. Anonymous11:50 AM

    Wolfgangs Rule!! Best guitars ever made.. In my humble opition

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  13. Anonymous1:34 PM

    Hey, just wanted to say that your peavey is awesome! And for the person who said Ed is an asshole and so are his guitars, why are you even on a site like this then??? LOL

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  14. Anonymous5:40 AM

    RYAN NICE BLOG YOU HAVE GOING FOR ONE OF THE BEST AXES MADE IN THE LAST 20 YEARS. WOLFGANGS ARE THE ONLY GUITAR I PLAY BESIDES MY FENDERS WHICH I HAVE BEEN PLAYING 30 YEARS. IF YOU NEVER TRIED ONE YOU BETTER SEE IF YOU CAN STILL SNAG ONE OFF EBAY AS THEY ARE JUST ABOUT GONE. THE IDIOT WITH THE STUPID COMMENTS HOPE YOU CAN PLAY BETTER THAN YOU SPELL.

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  15. Anonymous6:00 PM

    Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

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  16. Anonymous2:41 AM

    I think you are a pathetic guy, you think you are cool by imitating someone's else work, you should try t o dig your own idea...

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  17. Anonymous4:57 PM

    hey man, very cool blog/site. i just bought my first peavey wolfgang on ebay, should receive it in a couple of days. got an ivory w/ black binding and a stoptail. yours sounds killer! what does your rig consist of? thanx, grh

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  18. Eliton2:07 PM

    Hi!! Excellent tips!

    How did you apply this Murphy´s Oil Soap on the fretboard? With a toothbrush, steel wool, a rag?

    Thanks dude!!

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