I want some too

Van Halen - Mean Street - São Paulo, Brazil, 1983

or should that be two?

A couple pieces of rock and or roll history up for sale on teh interweb this last week. Both of which I’d really rather like to have but doubt I can justify the expense but then that describes pretty much every bit of GAS a guitar player gets.

First up is Eddie Van Halen’s 1982 Kramer Frankenstrat, which was used as one of his main touring guitar during the 1982-83 “Hide Your Sheep Tour” in support of their ’82 album Diver Down. And then went on to be used in the recording of the last album with the original line up “1984”.

Eddie Van Halen's 1982 Kramer Frankenstrat
Eddie Van Halen's 1982 Kramer Frankenstrat

Does it look like the Frankie that Eddie used on the South American dates of the Diver tour as seen in the video below from Brazil in ’83?

Next up follows on from that final album with the original Van Halen line up as Dave left after “1984” and hired one of the only people around who could carry the mantle of being Dave’s axeman after Eddie. Steve Vai.

And Mr. Vai’s Marshall JMP amp he used to record Roth’s first solo album “Eat ‘Em And Smile” and the subsequent tour.

Steve Vai's “Eat Em And Smile” DLR Marshall Stack
Steve Vai's “Eat Em And Smile” DLR Marshall Stack

For sale: Steve Vai’s Marshall 100 watt 4 input JMP Plexi & matching “white face” 4×12 cabinets used on David Lee Roth’s “Eat Em and Smile” record and the 1986-1988 David Lee Roth tour.

The 100 watt Marshall JMP was given to Ted Templeman by Steve Stevens during the NYC recording sessions for “Eat Em and Smile.” The amp was then modded to Steve’s liking by Lee Jackson, famous for performing sought after custom modifications to Marshall amplifiers for top artists in the 1980′s and 1990′s. It was Steve’s main amp for the “Eat Em and Smile”sessions and used on the entire David Lee Roth tour. The 100 watt plexi head features an extra gain stage, frequency adjust control, effects loop & master volume. The head has been well maintained in Los Angeles and features matching Drake transformers, KT88 quad-matched power tubes & hand-selected pre-amp tubes to Steve’s liking. eBay blurb

Now it says ’88 in there as well. Do wonder if it was used on the tour for the follow up album “Skyscraper” because I saw them on that tour and Steve rocked that night.

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