PICS Of AXIS signed by Eddie Van Halen

[Ricco Morialli]

Well, I couldn't figure outhow to get these pictures added to my first thread, so I started a new one. Here are some PICS of my AXIS with Eddie's signature. Look at the deepness and complete coverage of the Curly Maple Top......and these pictures do NOT do justice to how 3D this thing is. There appear to be a couple of washed out little spots on the top, but that is ONLY A REFLECTION....the top is perfect. The neck on this one is exceptional, look at the combination of flame and birdseye mixed together. Oh yes, and the signature is very smooth in person, it looks a little "digital" on the edges here. This signature is almost identical to a signature I saw of his on a BALANCE album, which was signed in 1995, except without the "5150". I even did the research on how Eddie wrote numbers during this phase of his career, and they match as well.

 

[koogie2k]

Man, that is a nice neck....now, how about the rest of the axe! I wanna see more! More I tell you!

 

[Ricco Morialli]

I just put the rest of the pics in the post. Go back and take a look. That's all the attachments Ernie Ball will let me post, but there is a good shot of the signature and a close-up of the top........look how deep those curls are!

 

[bluebullet]

did he say anything when you had him autograph a axis just curious cause the axis kind of pissed him off after he left E.B.

 

[brentrocks]

did he say anything when you had him autograph a axis just curious cause the axis kind of pissed him off after he left E.B.

yeah, i'd like to hear the story behind that. nice guitar!!!

 

[bluebullet]

nevermind i just read your other post

 

[koogie2k]

That is a sweet looking EVH there bro......nice flame to boot. Thanks for the pics.

 

[Ricco Morialli]

did he say anything when you had him autograph a axis just curious cause the axis kind of pissed him off after he left E.B.

If you go and look at my first thread you will see that this plate came from a pre-94 EVH model.........but Eddie does NOT sign guitars....PERIOD. I got this from one of my best friends wife after he died in a motorcycle accident. The plate was placed in a picture frame that was nicely matted, without the glass in it (that's how I received it), and Eddie signed it thinking it was going to have the glass put back in it. You couldn't tell it was a backplate at all........tell ya what.......I'll just post that thread info here and cancel the other thread.......it's easier that way.......see ya in a minute.



OK, here was the original post:

EBMM AXIS signed by Eddie Van Halen, need truss rod help!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello! I am new to this forum and I didn't see any threads about truss rod adjustments. I have one of the most beautiful Axis guitars I have ever seen. The neck is full of birdseye, and the back of the neck is just covered in birdseye and flame maple. The top has the most perfect, Amber, straight, deep and curly flame maple from top to bottom, side to side that I have ever seen so far. Almost looks like a one piece top. I consider myself a connesuere (spelt wrong) of exotic woods, and I have been collecting maple top guitars for decades.

The control plate on the back was signed by Eddie Van Halen himself in 1994 ( was on a pre-94 EVH). I got this backplate from a very close friend's wife when he died in a motorcycle accident who actually witnessed the signature. She told me that he would have wanted me to have it. Everyone knows that Eddie does NOT sign guitars, EVER.....but this backplate was placed in a matted, bevelled picture frame without the glass, and that's how he signed it (that's how I received it). You couldn't tell it was a backplate. Well, I just HAD to put it on my guitar, so I had a Lexan plate made to put on top of it so I couldn't hurt it, it worked quite well.

I had it looked at by some serious collectors just in case. The signature has been authenticated by three different people who extensively collect Van Halen signatures and stage passes. It has Eddies signature (with the "laid down" first E and looks to be almost all one word actually. Then in the swirl of the "N" under the signature it has "V H 94" inside the swirl. There was still room at the end of the cover plate, so he wrote "5150" vertically and his recognisable swirl under it too. This was signed with what looks like a white "paint pen", so I am sure it is quite fragile. I was afraid to try and put a coat of Poly over it. I also have his signature on a file card as well from a Celebrity Golf Tournament Eddie played in in 2002. That one has an authentification certificate and a picture of him signing it and an album at the golf course. It is amazing how his signature changed over the years, and is easy to tell which era he signed certain pieces, besides the obvious year written in on a lot of the signatures (albums, cards, magazines, pictures, etc). This guitar (my AXIS) is dead mint perfect, and was built in 1996. I bought it from a friend that just couldn't get used to playing a maple neck, and was not an EVH fan (if you can believe that).....and hates Floyd Roses. He simply left it in the case for almost 10 years........I got very lucky. He has something like 12 guitars, and quickly gave up on the maple neck and Floyd Rose.

I had the frets hand honed and polished to 1/10,000 of an inch from dead perfect by Tom "TK" Keckler (who has been a Luthier for Billy Gibbons, Ace Freihley, Frank Zappa, and several others for over 30 years). This guitar plays better than my custom hand made Les Paul that I put over $3,000 wholesale into......a project that took over a year to build from complete scratch by "TK" (I even picked out each raw wood billett.....every single piece. My Les Paul has an African White Korina two piece back with custom carved neck joint for easy access to the 22nd fret, African Vermillion neck (oil finished), Pao Ferro fretboard, and medium jumbo frets, with LSR 40 to 1 locking tuners (incredible looking), and a PRS style headstock with the Les Paul Sticker under the Nitro Finish. I put a Kahler Tremolo on it because it keeps great tune and divebombs almost as deep as a Floyd, and you can rest your hand on it....been using Kahlers for years now.

However, "TK" told me that when you have a fine instrument like a EBMM with action so low that it melts in your hands, you need to make truss rod adjustments every time the weather changes enough to make a difference.

He is a very busy man, and he told me that this forum is a good place to get the easy instructions from. I am 49 years old, and I have been a professional musician for over 34 years. However, I ALWAYS took my guitars directly to "TK" for any adjustments needed (OK, I was lazy).

OK, here's what is happening..........the guitar has action so low and fast that it has to be set up perfect in order not to buzz.......thus the 1/10,000 inch level frets. Right now it plays the way I like it except I am getting buzzing from the 18th fret to the 22nd (where I play a lot). I will actually fret out completely when I bend a string (G B and high E mostly). Of course I can raise the floyd a little and it goes away, but I know this guitar plays perfect from the nut to the 22nd fret when the truss rod is right........I had it that way for months. HELP!!

BTW, I know you won't believe this, but I play that guitar about 4 hours a day trying to get tweeked on a Maple fret board...................and I have not had to retune this guitar ONCE since I had it set up! The srtings got so old that there was no harmonics left, and the strings were almost black............STILL IN TUNE..........and I use the Floyd extensively because I play a LOT of Van Halen.......his leads are great for the fingers and Floyd techniques........simply incredible.

I will post pics of the signature as well as the guitar as soon as I can! This is a real treat. In a way, I wish it was a Quilt top only because I think quilt tops look the best on this kind of guitar. My Les Paul has a flame top that you will not believe.....I will post pics of it if you want to see it. The AXIS top is really straight curl, where the Les Paul looks like it is more flames as opposed to deep rut-like curls.

Here is a shot of the Les Paul, I have to take new PICS of the AXIS and I will replace it as soon as I have it. )PICS WERE REMOVED BECAUSE OF LACK OF ATTACHMENT SPACE) Look how much fire that top has, and this PIC does NOT do it justice, it's much deeper in real life. BTW, those pickups are the new "Black Back" Neo Demium EVH pickups made in the Duncan Custom Shop.......they sound just like the pre-94 Dimarzio EVH's except they seem to have even better harmonics because of the new magnets. If you ever need new pickups for your Axis or EVH, you should definitely get a matched pair of these, but they list for $300 a pair. You can get them from Ed Roman for about $200, which is a darned good savings. I only tell you this because I understand that Ernie Ball doesn't sell the pickups seperate, right?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[bluebullet]

the floyd should be flat against the body. im wondering if he removed the neck when he did your fret work and didnt get the shim or shims back in the same place or put in more. because you should not have to put the floyd at a angle it should lay flat. that being said if you paid him to do the work then he should set it up correctly i know he is busy and you want to be a nice guy but fret buzz on the higher frets is not a symptom of a neck that needs a truss rod adjustment and he knows that. or he should know that.my guess is that you told him you wanted low action so he shimmed the neck more than he should have and he doesent want to redo it so he told you to adjust the trss rod. it would be nice if we could get jon 's input on this because he knows way more about this stuff than me. HEY JON

 

[Ricco Morialli]

You misunderstood! It was perfect when I got it back from TK. It got out of adjustment from the humidity here after about 5 months. That is why I posted this thread, to get some help. TK is a very busy Luthier, and he told me to come here, and you guys would take care of me. Of course I could have taken it back to him, but he said it was time for me to learn how to do it myself because these guitars need a lot of tweeking if the humidity changes too drastically. So here I am! He put a "stop screw" on the Floyd so it still feels like it is stopping flush with the body. I wouldn't have even noticed if I didn't check it from a horizontal level. The screw is supposed to keep the Floyd from ruining the finish from resting on the body. Maybe I can adjust one spring so it lays flat? It is just a little bit off, about 1/16 or 1/32nd inch.

 

[bluebullet]

your right i was confused i thought you just had the work done recently. my mistake it sounds like you have had several mods done so i cant really say for sure what to adjust.