With a street price just under $1,000, the EVH 5150 Series Deluxe delivers unbeatable value for players seeking Eddie Van Halen’s custom touches in a sweet SuperStrat package ideal for any style of music or gig.
Pros
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Refined tones with an ideal balance of bass, midrange and treble with exceptional expressiveness.
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The low-friction master volume pot makes it easy to perform smooth, fast volume swells.
Cons
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No coil-splits.
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Eddie Van Halen may have invented the Super Strat way back in the mid '70s, but for the last three decades he’s focused more upon his own original signature models while letting other companies profit (quite handsomely) from his initial revelatory design.
While Ed’s own company EVH appeased many classic Super Strat fans with its Striped Series guitars, the instruments’ single pickup and master volume-only design along with Ed’s iconic striped finish made those guitars more ideal for Van Halen fanatics than players with everyday gigs looking for something more incognito.
Features
(Image credit: Guitar Center)
The EVH 5150 Series Deluxe is the flagship model of the company’s new 5150 Series guitars, which provide a hybrid of Van Halen’s original Frankenstrat design and numerous “Ed-ified” features from EVH Wolfgang models. Classic features include a Strat-style asymmetrical double-cutaway body, top-mounted Floyd Rose double locking tremolo with fine tuners and bolt-on quartersawn maple neck with 25 ½-inch scale length, 22 jumbo frets and beloved '80s-era “hockey stick” headstock.
The 5150 Deluxe features a lightweight basswood body capped with a maple top (in this case gorgeous quilted maple), an ebony fingerboard with a compound 12-16-inch radius, body-mounted EVH Wolfgang bridge and neck humbuckers, low-friction master volume pot, high-friction master tone pot, MXR-style speed knobs and EVH D-Tuna.
Popular details like a slim, C-shaped neck profile, hand-rubbed satin urethane neck finish and standard-configured three-position pickup toggle switch make the EVH 5150 Deluxe an excellent SuperStrat for the masses.
Performance
(Image credit: Guitar Center)
Whereas the EVH Striped Series guitars boldly proclaim their Van Halen pedigree, the 5150 Deluxe is available in a more “conservative” tobacco sunburst or transparent blue burst finish that makes it more ideal for gigs in churches and jazz, country or blues bands (EVH also makes 5150 Standard models - without quilt tops - with maple fingerboards in rocket red, primer grey and matte army drab).
However, there is nothing conservative about the 5150 Deluxe’s blazing playability and aggressive tones. The slim neck profile delivers high-performance speed and action with outstanding playing comfort, and the EVH Wolfgang humbuckers growl and howl with drum-tight bass, rich, beefy mids and brilliant, sparkling treble.
Considering that most Super Strats costing two to three times as much don’t provide custom touches like the D-Tuna and low- and high-friction pots, the 5150 Deluxe offers an outrageous value for guitarists seeking a high-performance axe for any variety of gigs.
Specs
LIST PRICE: $999.99
MANUFACTURER: EVH
BODY TYPE: Solidbody
BODY MATERIAL: Basswood
TOP MATERIAL: Quilted Maple
BODY FINISH: Gloss
NECK MATERIAL: Quartersawn Maple
NECK SHAPE: Modified C
RADIUS: 12"-16" compound
FINGERBOARD MATERIAL: Maple
NUMBER OF FRETS: 22 Jumbo
SCALE LENGTH: 25.5"
PICKUPS: EVH Wolfgang Humbuckers
BRIDGE/TAILPIECE: Top-mount EVH-Branded Floyd Rose with D-Tuna
Chris is the co-author of Eruption - Conversations with Eddie Van Halen. He is a 40-year music industry veteran who started at Boardwalk Entertainment (Joan Jett, Night Ranger) and Roland US before becoming a guitar journalist in 1991. He has interviewed more than 600 artists, written more than 1,400 product reviews and contributed to Jeff Beck’s Beck 01: Hot Rods and Rock & Roll and Eric Clapton’s Six String Stories.
