| Sound |
I held off on making this review for a while because I wanted enough time to evaluate the guitar more thoroughly, and have a chance to play it with a band in a live setting.
I have always been a fan of the EVH influenced guitars, from the Musicman EVH model to the Peavey Wolfgang, and Charvel Art guitars. I owned a black Musicman EVH for a time and loved it. I later ended up owning a Musicman Axis because it was the only thing comparable. The only reason I never ended up owning a Peavey Wolfgang model was because I always found the neck too chunky for my taste.
The new EVH Wolfgang is another evolution of the above guitars. There is nothing "revolutionary" about it, but it is a more perfect instrument than its previous incarnations. That is very high praise considering the respect the Musicman and Peavey models have earned.
The guitar is positively alive with tone and rich harmonics, even unplugged. It is bright sounding, and resonates beautifully and sustains forever plugged in or not. As with the other EVH guitars, the Floyd Rose trem is flush mounted to the body. Like the Peavey Wolfgang, the bridge is recessed slightly into the body to keep the action beautifully low.
The basswood body, with maple top is lightweight and great sounding. A combination common to the Musicman and Peavey models as well. The finish is perfect, and very thin to allow the guitar to resonate naturally. Don't let thin fool you though, the finish is designed to be tough as nails as well.
The neck on the new EVH is a little different than earlier models. The fretboard is birdseye maple, and the rest of the neck is hard rock quartersawn maple. Contrary to some internet experts this is not done to cut costs, this is done for stability, strength and durability. Some other high end builders do this as well. Dual graphite rods to reinforce it and keep it rock solid. The stainless steel vintage frets take a little bit of getting used to as they're small compared some of the jumbo frets on other common guitars. However, if you can get used to them, they're a dream to play on. Silky smooth bends, and easy transitions up and down the neck make the adjustment well worth it. The neck feels almost liquid to play on it is that fluid and smooth.
Another item of note with the neck is the radius. As much as I liked the EVH and Axis Musicman guitars, one complaint I always had was the radius of 9". The Peavey Wolfgang, on the other hand, was much flatter at, I believe, 15". The new EVH features a compound radius from 10" in the lower fret range, to 16" in the higher range. This makes for comfortable chording and makes shredding a breeze. The neck is also thinner than both the Musicman or the Peavey. For me, this is the best one I've played to date.
The bridge is a standard (genuine) Floyd Rose, but this one is the first "signature model" Floyd and features the EVH logo. An EVH D-Tuna comes factory standard, and works great.
The pickups... Probably even more so than the neck, the pickups are a huge selling point on this guitar. They are perfectly tweaked for the body wood, mass and overall tone of the guitar. They're incredibly articulate, crunchy and clear. They seem to be relatively low output and the neck and bridge pickups are very well balanced. Eddie describes it best when he speaks of EQ'ing your amp so your bridge pickup sounds good, but then having to change the EQ when you switch to the neck pickup to have it sound its best. Not so with these, they're EQ'd to work perfectly together. The middle (combined neck/bridge) selection sounds fantastic as well. There is no split positions. So far, everyone who has heard this guitar has been floored by the tone, including me.
I suppose the pots are worth mentioning as well, in that they move like well worn pots, they're smooth and fast, not like the usual brand new pots on many guitars. I like it, but I can see some people not liking that loose feel.
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| Action, Fit, & Finish |
The guitar came with the lowest action I've ever seen on a non-Ibanez guitar. Moderate buzzing when unplugged, but nothing you hear when plugged in. The springs needed a little loosening to get the spongy feel I like, but that's a preference thing.
5 play binding on the body and headstock, perfect finish, careful fretwork and overall attention to detail make this one of the nicest guitars I've used. Comes with a hardshell EVH case that cradles the guitar perfectly.
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| Reliability & Durability |
Good enough for Eddie to tour with, I can't imagine what I could possibly do to break anything without being neglectful. The stainless steel frets will last longer than I will probably, and everything about the guitar feels very solid and high quality.
updated: 06/30/2011
I wanted add a little this to describe some trouble I had with the bridge on this guitar. To set the record straight, the trem is an OEM Floyd Rose with some EVH branding. It is a Korean unit, not German and is not the same. The block is not nickle plated brass like the MIG Floyd, the screws and bolts are cheap metal and wear, shear and break easily. The saddles are not steel and the trem arm mechanism is very lightweight and cheap. I had some serious trouble with the bridge and replaced it with a MIG Floyd Rose and have had no trouble since.
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| Customer Support |
I dealt with Fender customer support on a couple of occasions lately, related to my Floyd Rose problems. While Fender was unable to cover my replacement bridge cost, they did compensate me for the most part. To be fair, my issues would've likely been covered if I'd been able to take my guitar to an authorized service center, but there are none within 1000km of my address. They were helpful, concerned and went out of their way to try and make it right.
I have no issues with the support I received.
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| Liked about it |
Tone to die for.
Superb playability.
Ultra reliable, super high quality everything.
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| Didn't like |
The EVH branding is a little over the top. EVH logo on the tuning keys, the headstock, the bridge. If you look in the electronics cavity, the pots have the logo, and though I haven't checked, I have no doubt the pickups have the logo on the bottom too. Not to mention the "frankenstripes" molded to on the case, the stripe EVH logo on the outside of the case, and another logo on the inside of the case. I mean, really, is this necessary? I didn't buy it just because I'm an EVH fan, I bought it because its a phenomenal instrument that works for my style, it doesn't bother me that much, but still.
I have seen better maple tops over the years, but this one isn't bad.
The price is high, though when considering the price of guitars of similar quality and signature models from other brands it's not really a stretch price-wise.
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| Overall satisfaction: |
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5.0 |
By blackspy Jan 26, 2010
Last updated: May 30, 2011
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