An Ernie Ball Music Man EVH electric guitar, once owned and heavily played by Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford, has gone up for sale on Reverb.
But, as if Whitford’s ownership didn’t already season the six-string with an ample amount of celebrity spice, the guitar itself was actually a gift, and was given to Whitford by Eddie Van Halen himself back in the early ‘90s.
The early run Ernie Ball Music Man model – authenticated as number #127 – was manufactured on October 24, 1991, and was gifted to Whitford by Van Halen shortly after it had been produced.
After acquiring the guitar, Whitford then used it extensively for almost two decades, with the six-string seeing plenty of action on stage throughout 1991 and 2017.
For the past few years, the guitar has been retired, and has been residing in the Brad Whitford Collection at Donn Bennett’s Drum Vault
At around the 24:00 mark in the video below, Whitford can be seen using the purple Ernie Ball Music Man during Aerosmith’s 2017 gig in Moscow.
No spec sheet has been given by Reverb, but owing to its production year most of its appointments can be surmised. After all, the original EVH Ernie Ball Music Man template was only produced in the early to mid-'90s.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
At the time, it was the first guitar Van Halen and Ernie Ball Music Man made together following the late guitar legend’s departure from Kramer. Following its development, the EBMM EVH was used extensively by Van Halen for the For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and Balance tours.
Thus, it can be speculated that the guitar – which paved the way for the Ernie Ball Music Man Axis – has a basswood body with a purple flamed maple top, as well as a select maple neck and fretboard, and color-matched headstock.
In the hardware department, there’s a Music Man locking tremolo and a locking nut, both of which line up alongside Schaller locking tuners. Furthermore, the Zebra humbuckers are probably DiMarzio customs, and are wired to a three-way selector switch and – in true EVH fashion – a sole volume control labeled “Tone”.
Some more model-specific extras include a “Property of Aerosmith” sticker on the headstock’s rear, a Whitford-played guitar pick and a certificate of authenticity that reads, “This is to certify that the item to which this certificate is attached is genuine and 100 per cent authentic and this item as documented below was owned and played by me, Brad Whitford of Aerosmith.”
Unsurprisingly, the guitar carries a pretty hefty price tag – $25,674, to be precise. To find out more, head over to Reverb.
It’s the latest guitar associated with Eddie Van Halen’s name to go up for sale. Earlier this year, a similar Ernie Ball Music Man model from the ‘90s – which had been borrowed by Van Halen to record with Black Sabbath – hit the auction block.
Another notable sale came from Van Halen’s guitar tech Tom Weber, who last year parted ways with an Eddie Van Halen-signed Kramer that Van Halen himself had gifted to him back in 1988.
