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Guitar World caught up with Eddie at the Fender factory

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Back in January at Winter NAMM 2008, Fender teased us with a prototype of the new EVH signature guitar. Speaking exclusively to Guitar World, Eddie Van Halen has lifted the lid on the new EVH Wolfgang, due in stores in early 2009.

In the interview, which will appear in the February issue of Guitar World alongside a making-of documentary on the coverdisc, Eddie explains that the guitar is "a culmination of my 35 years of experimenting with guitars.

"Everything that I've destroyed, stumbled onto, learned and experienced in my journey to get to where we are now is in this guitar. And there is a lot more to come."

It's not for money...

Although the guitarist is no stranger to endorsement deals, he insists that the motivation behind this latest deal with Fender isn't all about the dollars:

"I don't need to do this for financial reasons. I could have just stayed at home and built this guitar for myself. I do this because a lot of people ask if they can get what I use. Well, yes you can and what you get is identical to what I use."

"Everything that I've destroyed, stumbled onto, learned and experienced is in this guitar."

"The tolerance of things on this guitar is like NASA standards. It had to be tight, and it had to be quality. Le Mans is probably the most important race on the planet. It's 24 hours – a grueling, brutal race. There's a reason why an Audi R8 won that race three years in a row (2000–2002). Those guys did what we did with this guitar. They paid attention to every damn detail."

To read more, visit the Guitar World website. In the meantime, here's a picture of the production model to whet your appetite: