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Wolfgang Van Halen on playing the Frankenstein: “Picking up that guitar is almost a religious experience”
Wolfgang Van Halen is currently working on the second record for his band Mammoth WVH.
Image: Gus Stewart / Getty
Wolfgang Van Halen has spoken of what it feels like to play the famous Frankenstrat guitar once owned by his father, Eddie Van Halen, noting that it’s “almost a religious experience”.
Wolfgang’s band, Mammoth WVH, released the deluxe edition of their self-titled debut in November 2022, in which he used his father’s Frankenstein on just two tracks, Mammoth and Feel.
Speaking in the March 2023 issue of Total Guitar, WVH said that the profile of the instrument is very similar to the EVH Bumblebee reissue, stating: “Dad was developing that neck at the same time and hell, with the Frankenstein reissue it’s pretty much one-for-one. It’s very faithful to the original, which is obviously a lot older.
“Picking up that guitar is almost a religious experience,” he said. “Even if you’re not a religious person. You just kinda hold it and feel the history right there in your hands.”
Adding, “When I started recording with it back in 2015, we pulled it out and Dad picked it up, played it for a second then sorta just tossed it on the couch. Everybody in the room gasped! Because to us, it’s quite literally the most famous guitar in the existence of music, where to him it was this little piece of junk he put together.”
Wolfgang confirmed he was working on new music back in September last year, and confirmed to Total Guitar that he was close to completion: “The only thing I have left to do is track the guitar solos, so what I want to do is go through some of Pop’s notable guitars and do a solo with each of them.”
Mammoth WVH are set to tour on select dates with Metallica later on this year. Find out more at Metallica.com.