7 Wild Eddie Van Halen Stories That Still Blow My Mind (Beyond the FrankenStrat)

The $130 body, the Gibson humbucker stuffed in with wax and wood, the Variac trick, Eruption being a warm-up that the engineer caught. Wild stuff.

But here's the thing about Eddie. The man wasn't just a guitar. He was a life. And there are stories about Eddie that have nothing to do with the FrankenStrat that should still blow your mind. So here are 7 of them. Crank it up.

Listen to the episode: YouTube · Buzzsprout · Apple Podcasts · Spotify

1. The original FrankenStrat is in the Smithsonian

Eddie's original Frankenstein guitar, the one he built in his garage out of mismatched parts and electrical tape, is now part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington DC. Eddie donated it himself in 2011.

Think about that. The same guitar he routed crooked, hand-painted with masking tape, and stuffed full of wax to make a humbucker fit, now sits behind glass next to George Washington's uniform and Dorothy's ruby slippers. As cultural artifact, that hunk of janky Frankenstein wood is more important than 99 percent of "real" guitars in the world. Punk rock economics ascended to American history.

2. Eddie was born in Amsterdam and didn't speak English when he moved to the US

Edward Lodewijk Van Halen was born in Nijmegen, Netherlands, in 1955. His mother was Indonesian, his father was Dutch. The family moved to Pasadena, California in 1962 when Eddie was 7. He didn't speak English at all. His first language was Dutch.

How did he learn English? Music. The Van Halen brothers (Eddie and Alex) bonded with American kids over rock and roll records. Eddie has said in interviews that the guitar was his second language before English really clicked. There is something deeply on-brand about a kid using rock and roll as a translator.

3. He played the "Beat It" solo for Michael Jackson for free

Yes, that searing guitar solo on Michael Jackson's "Beat It" (1983), arguably one of the most famous guitar solos in pop history, that's Eddie. He recorded it for free. No royalties. No credit on the original liner notes initially. Quincy Jones called him out of the blue, asked if he'd lay down a track. Eddie said yes, drove to the studio, recorded the solo in two takes, refused payment.

His logic? He thought it would be cool to do something different. He'd never played on a pop record. The label and Jackson's team thought he was joking when he said no money. He wasn't. The song went on to win Grammys and sell tens of millions. Eddie got nothing financially. But the solo is now in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. Sometimes "free" is the most rock and roll move you can make.

4. Eddie sent his Bumblebee guitar to be buried with Dimebag Darrell

This one gets me every time. Dimebag Darrell of Pantera was murdered onstage in 2004. Dimebag was a massive Eddie Van Halen fan and had asked Eddie years earlier for a Bumblebee, the yellow and black striped guitar Eddie had used on Van Halen II.

When Dimebag was killed, Eddie didn't just send a wreath. He sent the actual original Bumblebee, his own guitar, the real one, to be buried with Dimebag. He showed up to the funeral, walked up to the casket, and laid the guitar in with him. That guitar is in the ground in Texas right now. The original Bumblebee. Gone forever. Because Eddie thought a fellow guitar hero deserved to take it with him. There is no purer rock brotherhood than that.

5. Eddie invented the D-Tuna

Real product, real invention, you can buy one today. The D-Tuna is a small device that attaches to a Floyd Rose tremolo and lets you instantly drop your low E string down to D and back, mid-song, without retuning. Lots of metal songs need that detune for one specific riff. Before the D-Tuna, you had to retune by ear, which is awful in front of an audience.

Eddie had the problem on the song "Unchained" and other tracks where he wanted that drop-D growl. He invented the D-Tuna to solve it. Now it's standard issue on Floyd Rose-equipped metal guitars worldwide. The man wasn't just a great player. He was an engineer who shipped real product.

6. Wolfgang Van Halen is named after Mozart

Eddie's only son is named Wolfgang. As in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Eddie was a deep classical music nerd (remember he was classically trained on piano), and he wanted his kid to carry that lineage in the name. Wolfgang grew up backstage at Van Halen shows, joined the band on bass at age 15, and now leads his own band Mammoth WVH.

Mammoth WVH's debut album hit the Billboard 200 top 12 in 2021. Wolf plays nearly every instrument on the record himself, just like Eddie used to. The kid named after Mozart turned out to be a one-man band. Eddie's gene pool came through.

7. The "5150" name comes from California police code for "criminally insane"

Eddie's home recording studio, his signature amp brand, and the famous Van Halen album are all named "5150." That number is California Welfare and Institutions Code section 5150, which authorizes involuntary psychiatric hold for someone deemed a danger to themselves or others. Translation: the official cop code for "criminally insane."

Eddie picked the name because, in his words, "to do what we do, you have to be a little crazy." He embraced the joke so hard he named his entire creative empire after it. The Peavey 5150 amp (which he designed) became one of the most-used metal amps ever made. The 1986 Van Halen album 5150 hit number one on the Billboard 200. All of it stamped with a code for "officially insane." Beautiful.

Wear it loud

If you've made it through 7 Eddie deep cuts, you're a real one. Two picks for the certified rock heads:

Volume Knob Rock Baseball Cap →
Eddie ran a single volume knob on the FrankenStrat. We feel that.

Rock Hand Sign Graphic Tee →
Throw it on, queue up Eruption, two minutes of pure bliss.

Anyway

Those are 7 stories I wish I'd squeezed into the FrankenStrat episode. Eddie was more than the guitar. He was a Dutch kid who couldn't speak English, became the most influential rock guitarist of his era, gave away one of the most famous guitar solos in pop history for free, buried his own guitar with a fallen friend, and named his amp empire after a psychiatric hold code. What a life.

If you haven't listened to the FrankenStrat episode yet, the YouTube embed is right at the top of this post.

Got a band you want me to dig into next? Hit me on YouTube, Facebook, or just drop me a message at its1louder.com. Always reading.

Crank it up 1 louder. For Eddie.

PJ Pat