Trio of Eddie Van Halen’s Guitars Sell for $422,000

If ever there was a piece of rock memorabilia worth an outrageous sum of money that could easily feed a few starving families for a year, it’s Eddie Van Halen’s guitars. I mean. The dude changed the game forever, sonically and visually: there are very, very few musicians who can be identified via a goddamn pattern, but if you see this…

…your mind goes directly to Eddie Van Halen, 100% of the time, no exceptions.

This being the case, I’d like a moment to express severe envy of the presumably-wealthy person or people who purchased three of Eddie’s guitars this week for $422,000.

The axes, each of which were designed and played by Eddie himself, were sold at Julien’s Auctions as part of their ‘Icons & Idols Trilogy: Rock ‘N’ Roll’ event. The auction also included memorabilia from Kurt Cobain, Elvis, Bob Marley, and Lady Gaga, amongst others.

So what specifically got sold?

The cheapest get was the scaled-down, non-playing guitar and accompanying costume used by child actor Bryan Hitchcock while playing a young EVH in the legendary “Hot for Teacher” video. That sold for a mere $50K. The guitar was signed by Eddie.

A 2004 EVH Charvel Art Series guitar, also signed by Eddie, sold for $140,800.

The item which sold for the most amount of money, though, was one of the guitarist’s iconic “Frankenstrat” Kramers. That instrument a hand-written inscription from the man himself: “Yo – / Bryan / Let’s get / shucked / up / Eddie Van Halen / 5150” (so I assume it was also once owned by Bryan Hitchcock). That fetched a whopping $231,250. As a bonus, the buyer also got an old backstage pass used by Eddie’s ex-wife, Valerie Bertinelli.

So congratulations to whomever purchased these and now never needs a way to start a conversation at a party every again.

Also, congrats to Bryan Hitchcock, who is now nearly half a million dollars richer, minus Julien’s cut.

Eddie Van Halen died on October 6 at age 65 following a protracted fight with throat cancer.

[via Billboard]