Eddie Van Halen son Wolfgang said in an interview with Total Guitar that he used his father’s original Frankenstrat guitar on new Mammoth album. Eddie lost his battle against cancer in 2020 at the age of 65.
Wolfgang Van Halen said about using his father’s original Frankenstrat on new Mammoth album:
“I played the original Frankenstein on the solo on ‘Mammoth’ and on ‘Feel’.” You feel the history. It’s kind of terrifying holding it, just because arguably it is the most famous guitar in musical history. It’s definitely quite the thing to hold it.”
“When we were pulling it out of its safe, Dad picked it up and he was just noodling with it for a second. He’s, like, ‘Yeah, feels about the same,’ and he tossed it onto the couch. Everyone just gasped when he did that. To Dad, it’s just a little piece of junk that he built himself, but to us, it’s the most famous thing in the world.”
About the tone used on the song, he said:
“That was probably the one area that we made a collective effort to not replicate Pop. We did use a bunch of 5150s mostly, but there were also Marshalls — a red early-’70s 100-watt Superlead, and a ’72 Superlead metal-panel 1959 model. All the Marshall heads were modified with extra gain stages. We used a lot of cabinet variations, with Celestion G12H-30s, G12M-25s, and G12-EVHs just to contrast the sound.”