Back to navigation


High-performance EVH Electric Guitar





This article was


Written By





Our Product Research Team





Get to know them!





The EVH 5150 Standard was built for high performance. But what did you expect? It was designed by Edward Van Halen himself! The 5150 Standard's basswood body yields a growling, mid-forward tone that pairs perfectly with its muscular Wolfgang Alnico II humbuckers. Thanks to a graphite-reinforced, quartersawn maple neck, you'll enjoy rock-solid stability, while a compound-radius ebony fingerboard enables exceptional speed and comfort. Designed to his exact specifications and intentionally positioned against the body, the dive-bomb-only D-Tuna-equipped Floyd Rose lets you mimic Eddie’s signature trem work with ease, along with giving you instant access to Drop D tuning. The EVH 5150 Standard has a kill switch for mind-blowing stutter effects and a low-friction volume pot for super-smooth swells. The eye-catching black hardware and matching hockey stick headstock add the perfect final aesthetic touches to this shining machine.





Quartersawn neck for stability and playability





The neck is one of the most important aspects of any instrument, which is why the 5150 Standard features a graphite-reinforced, quartersawn maple neck. Besides looking good, the straight grain of quartersawn necks is significantly more stable than plain-sawn necks and less likely to warp, twist, or shrink. Beyond that, this guitar’s compound-radius fretboard goes from 12 inches at the nut to a comfortable and flat 16-inch radius on the upper frets, ensuring easy chording down low and lightning-fast playability up high. The guitarists here at Sweetwater are awed by the incredible, unfettered playability supplied by the 5150 Standard.





Wolfgang Alnico II humbuckers yield classic EVH tone





The 5150 Standard comes outfitted with EVH Wolfgang Alnico II humbuckers. Superhuman chops aside, Eddie forged his unmistakable sound through incessant tinkering with guitar parts and pickups. To achieve his signature tone, Eddie paid particular attention to different pickup windings. The 5150 Standard’s pickups are the culmination of his experimentation. They nail Eddie's classic tone with muscular lows, singing highs, and snarling mids ? all the essential elements of EVH’s elusive brown sound.





Floyd Rose tremolo for twisting, bending, and dive-bombs





The 5150 Standard boasts an EVH-branded Floyd Rose tremolo. First gaining popularity in the 1980s, the Floyd Rose’s locking design keeps your guitar in tune, even if you like to perform extreme pitch pyrotechnics. You can force the whammy bar all the way down to the guitar's body for psychotic dive-bombing. No matter how much you abuse it, you'll maintain your tuning stability, thanks to the Floyd Rose tremolo's locking design. On top of that, you can easily switch to Drop D tuning, courtesy of the 5150 Standard’s D-Tuna.





EVH 5150 Standard Electric Guitar Features:


Designed by rock legend Eddie Van Halen


Resonant basswood body yields a growling, mid-forward tone


EVH Wolfgang Alnico II humbuckers deliver muscular lows, singing highs, and snarling mids


Kill switch allows you to create mind-blowing stutter effects


Low-friction volume knob enables even-volume tapering for smooth swells


Graphite-reinforced, quartersawn maple neck provides rock-solid stability


Compound-radius ebony fingerboard allows for exceptional speed and comfort


EVH-branded Floyd Rose tremolo allows for twisting, bending, and dive-bombing


D-Tuna tremolo device gives you instant Drop D tuning


Convenient neck-heel truss rod adjustment thumbwheel


Eye-catching black hardware and matching headstock