Re: EVH Striped Series
Amazing guitar, now I have a GAS attack
I also have an EBMM Axis- the former EVH model which many claim is better than the current EVH Wolfgangs. Here's how I compare it to the EVH Striped, considering they are slightly different:
Tone:
The EBMM, with the Dimarzio pickups, gets a more polite sound, possibly because the pickups are mounted farther from the strings. It will give you that singing lead tone with delay, reverb and chorus- basically the F.*.C.K. tone, which is really geared toward being played through a bright Soldano. More versatile since it has the neck pickup. Basically a pretty tone on both positions.
EVH Striped: One purpose, all out b*lls out 80's rock. While the EBMM gives a pretty tone geared towards the Van Hagar era, the EVH Striped, with the single wolfgang pickup, just has a bada*s attitude reminiscent of the early Roth era. Sometimes I instinctively see myself reaching for a pickup selector to get a smooth neck pickup tone- but nope, this guitar won't let it. The Wolfgang pickup appear mounted much closer to the strings than the EVH Wolfgang Specials I've seen in stores, which may lead to the powerful tone. Harmonics jump off the guitar much easier. The guitar is lacking a little low end thump, which is resolved by adding a Brass Big Block to the Floyd, if you desire- it really helps to bring out the low end when using the D-Tuner. The guitar is just a pure fire breather. The clean tone- it cleans up nicely when turned down, but still, it's a bridge pickup clean tone- which you really need a neck pickup for. It can easily got from early Van Halen to modern downtuned metal.
Playability: The EBMM comes stock with Medium Jumbo frets. I had mine refretted and Plek'd with jumbo Jescar 6100 frets. Though I requested a compound radius, the tech stuck with the factory 10" radius. The EVH Striped is far easier to play and bend above the 12th fret with the compound radius. I have zero fret buzz and ultra low action on both, but my EVH came in the shipping box with a setup and fret job just as good as the PLEK job on my Axis (which wasn't stock)
Pickups: The EBMM Dimarzio and the Wolfgang pickups on the EVH Striped are mounted at completely different heights, so you have to take that into consideration. They sound similar, but the Wolfgang pickup sounds much louder, and reminds me a lot of the Dimarzio Tone Zone.
Neck: 2 completely different neck profiles, the EVH Striped is like a perfected San Dimas Charvel shape. The EBMM has a beautiful highly figured birdseye maple neck- both the neck and fretboard, but even with the graphite rods, it is very unstable and needs frequent truss rod adjustments. The EVH Striped has plain quartersawn maple, with graphite reinforcement- so far the 2 Charvel and Jacksons I have with quartersawn necks, as well as my Les Paul with a quartersawn neck have rarely ever needed adjustment over the years, so I expect the EVH Striped to be same or better
For the price, it can't be beat. The EBMM is going for $1799, EVH Wolfgang $2999, EVH Wolfgang Special $1499, and $899 for the EVH striped, which IMO plays the best out of the 4, and gets you closest to that 80's early VH tone, if that's what you're looking for. If you run it with higher gain you're in modern metal territory.
