Eddie Van Halen wanted his first signature guitar to be a scaled-down ES-335
In a now-resurfaced 1980 Eddie Van Halen expressed that he wanted his first signature guitar to be a scaled-down Gibson ES-335.
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In a video uploaded to YouTube, Talking Guitar released the 1980 interview, which according to them, took all day to record.
The guitarist spoke a lot about his family and musical influences, and his favourite guitar, the Gibson ES-355.
“I enjoy working with guitars, but I think the next guitar I’m going to get built is going to be difficult and probably cost a lot of money.”
“I was playing a 335 for a while in the band before we got signed and it sounded fine but they told me I looked like Roy Orbison, he was a little skinny punk kid playing a Ted Nugent act,” he admitted. “They told me “hey c’mon man you’re in rock and roll and you look like Roy Orbison. You either get some dark glasses or you get rid of the guitar”.
“So I dumped that and started playing an [Ernie] Ball again. This was before I developed a Strat thing. So what I’d really like now to have built is like a quarter scale down 335, or maybe half size to fit my body. Maybe not quite as hollow.”
He then suggests why he isn’t a fan of the original ES-335.
“The old 335 had a solid beam all the way down, they changed the design, I don’t know why. The original design was better. What id want is a whole piece down and maybe a little extra wood in there but still like a real semi-hollow to add a little bit of tone. The new one I have now lacks a little bit of tone, it’s too acoustic.”
You can listen to the interview below:
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
