Free Edward Van Halen: A Definitive Biography by Kevin Dodds

he wanted it to. For all intents and purposes though, Eddie basically wanted a Strat-style guitar that sounded like a Gibson (common today, but theretofore unheard of).
    He went straight to the Charvel guitar factory and bought a Stratocaster-copy body and neck for less than $200. He put in a modified Gibson PAF humbucking pick-up in the bridge position. Go into a guitar store and you’ll see countless variations of Strat-style guitars with humbuckers—but before 1978? Not so much. Edward’s unique mind conquered not only music, but the tools he used to make his music. Through his own bouts of trial and error, he figured out how to build a guitar to do exactly what he wanted it to do, to play exactly the way he wanted it to play, to sound exactly the way he wanted it to sound. Therein lies a major point of distinction between Edward and his oft referred to “competitor” as king of the electric guitar, Hendrix. Edward didn’t sing lead and write lyrics, but Jimi was perfectly content to take any Fender Stratocaster just exactly as it was made, no questions asked. To make it all the more simple, Edward’s guitar had just one knob, a volume knob—no tone knob. “I don’t use any fancy tone knobs,” he said. A tone knob on a guitar?! Fancy? The ability to adjust the difference of the output between treble and bass? Reiterated on yet another occasion: “No fancy tone knobs here!”
    If anything was fancy about this particular guitar, it was Edward’s paint job, a seemingly random pattern of lines (and a little squiggly thing). Ed brushed it off, “Painted it up, you know, with stripes and stuff. I guess that’s my thing.” Again, Jimi did paint his guitar for Monterey, the one he burned, but when you think of Jimi, the guitar in his hands is bone white. Ed’s guitar looked completely like his and his alone. He used tape to make the lines in various widths, lengths, and directions. He preferred Schwinn bicycle paint: “It’s acrylic lacquer, like car paint. It’s good paint.” At first, this guitar—known as the Frankenstein—was just black and white, but it is the exact same guitar he is so famously known for (he added the red paint a little over a year later).
    The “striped art” concept, if you will, was completely original in the world of art (“I love stripes,” he said). His unique design is as instantly recognizable as the American flag. The mouse pad on my office desk is an official red, black, and white striped pad. The photo of Eddie on the cover of Van Halen , taken at the Whisky, shows him proudly brandishing his creation. The black and white stripes on his guitar make the whole cover. It is iconic. Arguably, it’s as original and unique as a Jackson Pollock work.
    The getting-to-be-not-so young man, twenty-three years old as of January 1978, was a legitimate artist, even punk rock in his approach—he didn’t even need tone knobs! “A lot of bands keep hacking it out and doing so many overdubs and double-tracking that their music doesn’t sound real. And there are also a lot of bands that can’t pull it off live because they have overdubbed so much stuff in the studio that it either doesn’t sound the same, or they just stand there pushing buttons on their tape machines. We kept it really live.” Punk rock. Not Fleetwood Mac.
    He built his own guitar. He inadvertently cast himself as an immensely successful graphic designer by painting his guitar in an extraordinarily original way. And he played the thing like no one had ever played one before. But damned if he wasn’t still a bit naïve.
    The Release of Van Halen
    So proud of the Van Halen recordings, Edward took a tape of the album to play for the members of Angel at the home of drummer Barry Brandt. Angel on Casablanca… Angel discovered by Gene Simmons. Totally and completely without ill intent, Eddie played them a tape of the record. Shortly after, Ted called Eddie. Ted was furious. Ted informed him that Angel was in the studio