“This guy comes over, leaning on me. He said, ‘I’m sorry my guitar is such a pain in the butt’”: That time Eddie Van Halen visited the EVH workshop while they were building the Wolfgang

Fender Master Builder Andy Hicks has looked back on his early days as a guitar builder – and recalled the moment he received a surprise visit from Eddie Van Halen, who came to oversee the making of his signature guitar.

After various partnerships with the likes of Kramer, Peavey, and Music Man, Van Halen began working with the Fender corporation to build his Wolfgang signature guitar under the newly formed EVH brand.

Around that time, Hicks had started cutting his teeth on the Fender production line, and after a stint shaping necks at the Jackson Custom Shop, he soon found himself making necks for the Wolfgang. Little did he know Van Halen himself was popping in to inspect how things were getting on.

“It’s Fender – we have tours all the time,” Hicks tells Premier Guitar of the day he met Eddie Van Halen. “This guy comes over, leaning on me, and he looks like some dad wearing a baseball hat. Then I’m like, ‘Oh, Eddie Van Halen is just standing here watching us work.’

“The guy I was working with was in the middle of complaining: ‘Man, these stainless steel frets. With just these Wolfgangs, we’ve gotta do 12 stainless steel necks today.’ Eddie [playfully] said something along the lines of, ‘I’m sorry my guitar is such a pain in the butt.’ It was incredible.”

The pair survived the embarrassment of putting their foot in their mouths in front of the late legend, and Hicks’ stock would continue to rise. Soon, he was moved away from the production line to build bespoke electric guitars for the stars, including Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith.

But his EVH story arc didn’t end there. Before he moved over to the Gretsch Custom Shop – which is still part of the Big F family – Van Halen played a friends-and-family show at the L.A. Forum. Everyone who had helped build Eddie’s Wolfgang guitars was invited with a +1, and Hicks invited his dad, who encouraged his passion for the guitar from a young age.

“My dad was sitting next to Tom Morello, telling him that his son made Eddie Van Halen’s guitar,” Hicks laughs. “I had to say, ‘Dad, please stop talking to Tom Morello. And also, I didn’t make his guitar. Chip [Ellis] made his guitar. I make Wolfgang guitars.’ He was so excited to talk to somebody, and he just happened to be talking to Tom Morello.”

In related news, Hicks was part of a Master Builder roundtable last year, where he offered his theory as to why some of the most famous Fender guitars are so heavily worn. Meanwhile, speaking to Guitar World last year, Hicks' colleague, Paul Waller, detailed what he believes is the heart and soul of a guitar.