A stage-used 1984 Eddie Van Halen Kramer guitar is headed to the auction block

We almost managed to go a full week without seeing an electric guitar used onstage by Eddie Van Halen hit the auction block, but this hand-assembled 1984 Kramer had other ideas.

One of five examples hand-made by Eddie at the Kramer factory in New Jersey in 1984, this striped guitar – put up for bidding by Guernsey's – was used onstage by the guitar legend during Van Halen's 1984 and 5150 world tours.

Hand-painted in red with white stripes, and featuring the remains of five black marker tape stripes on the body's face, the Kramer has a one-piece solid poplar body that's contoured on the back and bass-side top edge, and a one-piece Eastern hard rock maple neck with a mahogany "skunk stripe" and a maple fretboard with 22 jumbo frets, a 26-inch scale length and black dot position markers.

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Sonically, the guitar features a single Seymour Duncan Custom humbucker in the bridge position, controlled by a single volume control with a seven-sided black plastic control knob lifted from an MXR Flanger effects pedal.

Elsewhere, the guitar features a Floyd Rose bridge and locking vibrato unit with two springs and six individually adjustable saddles, a locking nut assembly, a single-bar string retainer, and individual Schaller M6 Mini rotomatic tuners. The guitar's one-of-a-kind visual marks include a cigarette burn on the headstock by the low E tuner and a streak of black tape across the face by the G tuner.

Additionally, inside the guitar's neck pocket is an inscription – written in black marker by Kramer assembly foreman James Paul DeCesare, who helped Eddie build the guitar – reading "JPD / EVH #4."

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The guitar comes with two letters of provenance, from DeCesare and Backstage Distributions President Danny Perkins.

The letter from DeCesare affirms the instrument's provenance, and explains the differences between the custom build and the similar, EVH-style production-line Kramers of the time.

The letter from Perkins, meanwhile, details the history of the Kramer's ownership, and what distinguishes the built-for-the-road guitar from the near-identical, hand-built-at-the-factory-by-EVH '84 Kramers that were given away around that time in promotions. 

You can watch Jared James Nichols take the guitar for a spin in the demo below.

Watch On

Bidding for the guitar – which currently sits at $75,000 – ends at noon EST on Thursday, July 15. The guitar's estimated value is $150,000 - $250,000.

For more info on the guitar, stop by Live Auctioneers.