It was only just last month that EVH Gear rolled out the Wolfgang Standard with a TOM-style bridge, presenting us with a mid-priced and highly shreddable electric guitar for players who can’t be bothered with a Floyd Rose, and now we’ve got another one, the Wolfgang Special TOM.
What can we say that we didn’t say in April? Yes, Floyd Rose double-locking vibratos are great, miracles of engineering, essential for nailing the more pyrotechnic aspects of Eddie Van Halen’s playing, but also a bit of a pain in the backside – especially if you’ve got to retune between songs. This, then, is more of the same.
Except, that it is and it isn’t, because the Wolfgang Special TOM presents us with some upgrades here.
Most notably, these are made in Mexico at Fender’s Ensenada factory (there’s an F on the back of the headstock), and the TOM-style bridge we have here is a fully compensated unit from EVH that comes equipped with fine-tuners on the tailpiece – a little like those you see on the Gibson BB King Lucille’s TP-6 tailpiece, or indeed on the new Lee Malia LM-87 from Jackson.
As Malia told us then, having those fine tuners can be a life-saver when playing live, especially if you’re tuning down. But we’d wager all sticklers for on-point tuning will enjoy this.
Elsewhere, it’s a Wolfgang Special as the man who originally designed te Wolfgang intended. “The neck is carved and rolled to Eddie Van Halen’s exacting specifications and features a hand-rubbed satin urethane finish on the back,” says EVH. All of which promises a very quick and tactile playing experience.
You’ve also got top-quality humbuckers, with a pair of custom-designed EVH Wolfgang Alnico IIs at the neck and bridge, direct-mounted and hooked up to a high-friction 250K Bourns volume pot for your Cathedral-esque volume swells, and to a low-friction 500K Bourns tone pot that is just stiff enough as to stop you from accidentally adjusting it.
You can get the Wolfgang Special in a metallic Oxblood with gold hardware, in Gloss Black and Husk White with black hardware. Cream single-ply binding is applied to the Oxblood and Gloss Black models, black binding is on the Husk White.
The model has an arch-topped solid basswood body (the Standard TOM has a flat-top with a comfort cut), a bolt-on baked maple neck (again, with the EVH-approved shape) and matching fingerboard with dot inlays. You can make quick and easy setup adjustments via the truss rod spoke wheel at the top of the fingerboard.
As with all of the Fender-owned high-performance brands, this conforms to the house style for 12” to 16” compound radius fingerboard, with 22 jumbo frets to navigate.
You can be pretty much guaranteed that the going will be plain sailing... all the way to Panama and beyond. The Wolfgang Special TOM is priced £1,089/$1,299. See EVH Gear for more details.
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