Wolfgang Van Halen used his father’s famed Frankestrat on Mammoth WVH’s debut
The famed guitar appears on two solos on the new album.
Images: Icon and Image / John Medina / Getty
Wolfgang Van Halen, the son of the late Eddie Van Halen, has revealed that he used his father’s famous Frankenstrat guitar for some solos on the upcoming debut album of his solo project Mammoth WVH.
Speaking to Total Guitar, Wolfgang was asked if he used any of Eddie’s gear on the recording of the debut solo effort. He replied: “Yeah, a handful of it. I played the original Frankenstein on the solo on Mammoth and on Feel.”
He noted that even though the guitar was his father’s, he still was aware of the guitar’s status as an instrument. “You feel the history. It’s kind of terrifying holding it,” he said, “just because arguably it is the most famous guitar in musical history. It’s definitely quite the thing to hold it.”
However, Eddie Van Halen himself was less worried about treating it like a museum relic, as Wolfgang recalled: “When we were pulling it out of its safe, Dad picked it up and he was just noodling with it for a second.”
“He’s like ‘Yeah, feels about the same’ and he tossed it onto the couch. Everyone just gasped when he did that. To Dad, it’s just a little piece of junk that he built himself, but to us, it’s the most famous thing in the world.”
Mammoth WVH will drop on 11 June and can be preordered now. Its tracklist is below.
- Mr. Ed
- Horribly Right
- Epiphany
- Don’t Back Down
- Resolve
- You’ll Be the One
- Mammoth
- Circles
- The Big Picture
- Think It Over
- You’re to Blame
- Feel
- Stone
- Distance
