Just Thought I'd Share An EVH Anecdote...

**broken9500** · 07.11.06, 09:38 PM

I spent several years working for Guitar Center. This is my favourite in house story about Ed.

Circa 2000, right around when I started, I was made aware of this anecdote. It took place in the Hollywood location. I'll write it out the way it was told to me:

Coworker: HEY, did you hear what happened a few days ago?
Me: no, what?
Coworker: Check this out:

So, this kid walks into GC Hollywood and he tells one of our guys that he's an Ed Van Halen fan and wants to get that sound. The sales guy, not thinking much of this kid, plugs him into some Crate and hands him a Jackson and walks away. A few minutes later, this guy walks up to the kid and taps him on the shoulder. "Hey man, that guy doesn't know what he's talking about. I heard you mention you want to sound like Eddie Van Halen right?" The kid says "yeah." So this guy tells him to sit tight. He walks over, grabs a Musicman, hands it to the kid. Then he walks him over to the Marshall section and plugs him into a JCM half stack. He fiddles with the knobs. Then he tells him to hold on a second while he runs over to the accessory counter where he grabs a couple of pedals and some patch cables. He runs back to this kid, who by the way is only about 13 or so, and sets him all up and says to him "THIS is what Eddie Van Halen uses." The kid says "thanks!"

The guy then walks out the door, but before he does, he says to the manager on duty, "Put it on my tab."

No fan fair, no ego. This was apparently during his first round of cancer treatments so he really didn't "look like" Eddie Van Halen, and the kid didn't recognize him.

So...bottom line, this kid, probably not a lot like most of us, walked into Guitar Center to just kill time and "dream," walked out with a full set up courtesy of Ed Van Halen himself.

I was told the loser sales guy was fired for being such a dick as not to pay enough respect or attention to this kid.

I always thought that was a badass story.

**onefootoutthedoor** · 07.11.06, 09:45 PM

Great story! This is what I grew up thinking Eddie Van Halen was like. No fanfare, easy going, no ego, no big thing. What happened to that Eddie Van Halen?

**AJHV** · 07.11.06, 10:21 PM

i m sure are boy is still the same!

much love and respect to Ed.

**5149.9** · 07.12.06, 12:43 AM

Cool story

. Hope nobody touched those damn knobs!.

**TheArchitect** · 07.12.06, 05:32 AM

Eddie has an account at GC?

**Raldo** · 07.12.06, 07:19 AM

That is a great story!

The fact that the kid had no idea that EVH helped him out is just funny.

**EJC** · 07.12.06, 07:45 AM

That's a cool story... But I have a hard time believing that Eddie Van Halen could be running around in Guitar Center, putting together a rig, without attracting at least a small crowd of people who recognized him... Cancer or no cancer... Especially if he was playing at all...

I hate GC anyway, but if they fired a salesman for NOT trying to sell a $1400 guitar, and $1400 Marshall stack to a 13 year-old, then that's all I need to hear to never shop there again.

**SuckaInA3Piece** · 07.12.06, 07:55 AM

Originally Posted by EJC

That's a cool story... But I have a hard time believing that Eddie Van Halen could be running around in Guitar Center, putting together a rig, without attracting at least a small crowd of people who recognized him... Cancer or no cancer... Especially if he was playing at all...

Not so sure about that. I heard a story along the same lines as this, cept it was just Ed jammin on a guitar/amp in a music store during the 2004 tour. Think it was in Boston. Didn't attract a crowd, and I don't believe the workers at the store even knew it was him.

**ZORBA5150** · 07.12.06, 08:09 AM

I was there last week. There is a huge EVH/Van Halen shrine before you walk in, with about 5-6 guitars, a MA bass, and some band photos from both eras. I got some pictures.- I just don't know how to post them- help anyone?

**EJC** · 07.12.06, 08:15 AM

Originally Posted by SuckaInA3Piece

Not so sure about that. I heard a story along the same lines as this, cept it was just Ed jammin on a guitar/amp in a music store during the 2004 tour. Think it was in Boston. Didn't attract a crowd, and I don't believe the workers at the store even knew it was him.

Maybe so, but I could spot EVH from a mile away... I heard the same story about dimebag.... I bet alot of guys do this... Shit, I traded a PRS Santana SE to a 15 year-old for a black lab puppy outside GC in North Carolina a few years ago... Named the dog "Wolfgang"!

On about 3 separate occasions in the past, I've been jamming in GC and had people come up and ask me if I was George Lynch...! I think it's more because I look like him (when he was jacked-up) than play like him...

Seriously, that's fucked up to fire the salesman... I nailed EVH tone with a Jackson and Crate for years before I could afford the Wolfgang's and 5150's... Which is what Ed was playing in 2000 anyway. I respect the salesman for trying to set the 13 year-old up with an affordable and effective alternative to a $3000+ rig. I hope the manager has since been fired for being a douchebag. Guitar Center sucks anyway..... GC Sales 101 = "Go ahead man, plug it in!".... "You wanna plug that in dude?"... "Dude, are you in a band?"... "Let me see what I can do for you on this man...."

**servoguy101** · 07.12.06, 08:21 AM

would be cool, but I doubt it, the thought of Ed walking around picking out gear, playing, all un noticed.... no way... Ed draws a crowd WHEREVER he goes...urban legand...

**EJC** · 07.12.06, 08:43 AM

Originally Posted by TheArchitect

Eddie has an account at GC?

I hope Ed made sure everything was settled up, and that the GC "Bouncer" at the door didn't beat the kid down checking serial #'s.... If it didn't look like EVH, how did the manager really know it was? What if it was just some scraggly guy who looked like EVH, and Ed's tab got charged for all this gear??? 13 year olds don't walk into GC to buy anything without mommy or daddy, and more importantly, their credit card... Don't you think one of them would have recognized him? Or said "Who is this weird looking guy trying to get my son to rack up 3k on guitar equipment?" What a great story... But the logistics don't seem to match up... If the story was that Ed had walked up to the sales desk and pulled out his credit card, it would make a little more sense...Ed walking out the door, "Put it on my tab?" Someone made a nice commision that day, was it the guy who got fired since he was technically the kids salesperson? Come on... Sounds to me like Guitar Center propoganda to get their salespersons to try and sell more expensive shit... Love the story though..... Did the kid give Eddie a coca-cola and then Ed tosses him his shirt and says "Here, kid...."

**broken9500** · 07.12.06, 09:18 AM

The story is definatley true. I checked it out over and over again with a lot of different people. Apparently Eddie and the general manager of the hollywood store are buddies and he spends, or at least spent, a fair amount of time there. Here in the main Houston store, Billy Gibbons comes in quite a bit. Guys like that tend to be left alone...they don't get mauled or anything like that.

The thing with the sales guy, it's not that they were expecting him to "sell" the kid a bunch of crap, they just didn't like how he blew the kid off as some poser and as not being worth his time. Just because you're not in a store to buy something expensive, or buy something at all, doesn't mean you shouldn't receive a pleasant reaction from the employees there.

I'm sure that an EVH fan getting blown off within eye and earshot of EVH himself didn't help either!