This guitar comes with a great story. Picture this if you will. It's 1982 and the biggest rock band in the world is VAN HALEN. I was 12 years old and had only been playing guitar for 9 months. Eruption and the Mean Streets intro were on a constant loop in my head. I was signed up to play at my school talent show. It was coming up in a week. I was going to play "Running With The Devil" with my little teenage rocking combo.
In the days before the show we received a phone call at our house from a guy claiming to be Edward Van Halen. My mom answered the phone and talked with him for a bit. She whispered to me, "This guy says he's Eddie Van Halen, pick up the other phone and listen to see if you think it really is." Of course I jumped for the other phone extension and quietly picked it up. I heard a gritty voice on the other end talking about wanting to come over and meet Frank Zappa. I had no reference of the sound of Edward Van Halen's voice except for the possible long shot audio clip from Unchained where a voice is heard saying, "Come on Dave, give us a break." I thought maybe that was Edward's voice, or maybe it was Ted Templeman's voice? It didn't matter. I wanted it to be Edward Van Halen so I said to Gail, "It's him... it has to be him!"
Frank picked up the phone and talked for a short time. He hung up the phone saying, "Okay I'll see you in a few minutes." 20 minutes later Edward Van Halen was at our house. He had a new guitar with him. A purple Kramer with a piece of tape covering the logo. Frank called Steve Vai and asked him to come over. What followed as the coolest night a 12 year old guitar player could ever imagine, or perhaps any guitar player. Edward Van Halen, Steve Vai, and Frank Zappa all passed around this new purple guitar. Occasionally I would fumble around on it as well...
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