Van Halen's mahogany guitar

[Different Seasons]

[5150rob]

very cool. Always kinda loved the Hog guitar. I also was one of the ones years ago that thought it turned into either the Circles / Unchained or the Rude / Weird Shapes because it was a 2 inch thick body with the same setup as those. Up until a few years ago I realized it was different and in private hands.

very cool,

Rob

[turnbuckle]

With the skill level of the counterfeiters, and replicators that I've seen in these pages, I seriously doubt that is the real Hog.
I think someone got duped.
And why would they add a pick-up ring and a switch to such an iconic guitar?
Where's the COA?

[Jedi McFly]

Even though it was stained, the grain matches pics of the original. It was likely sold or given away after the WACF sessions, so it doesn't seem like Ed had much attachment to it.

Edit: Just saw this on Facebook, illustrating the grain matching with the guitar in the video. I think the diagonal patterns between the humbucker and neck make it really clear too.

[turnbuckle]

Even though it was stained, the grain matches pics of the original. It was likely sold or given away after the WACF sessions, so it doesn't seem like Ed had much attachment to it.

Edit: Just saw this on Facebook, illustrating the grain matching with the guitar in the video. I think the diagonal patterns between the humbucker and neck make it really clear too.

Awesome comparo shots Jedi!
I'm even more convinced it's not the real Hog.
Notice how the grain under the strings, sways to the right, toward the lower horn of the Hog,
whereas the grain sways left, towards the headstock of the imposter.

Dark streaks are easy to emulate with stain, but the light streak left of the low string, is completely missing from the imposter.
Someone did a pretty good emulation, but I'm fairly certain that is not the Hog.

[Jedi McFly]

Dude it’s the same guitar body. There’s zero way somebody could stain another guitar body to match the original so well when you also have to navigate whatever grain would naturally occur in a different body.

[turnbuckle]

Dude it’s the same guitar body. There’s zero way somebody could stain another guitar body to match the original so well when you also have to navigate whatever grain would naturally occur in a different body.

The angle of the Hog's jack plate bisects the Floyd pivot;
the angle of the imposter jack plate bisects the corner of the PU bobbin.

The Hog has dark wood emanating up from the PU;
the imposter has light wood emanating up from the PU.

Anybody can easily make dark streaks, wherever they want to.
Somebody did good job, but that ain't the same chunk of wood.

[garbeaj]

There is zero doubt that this is “The Hog”.

[ejmaes67]

As Mr. Brady would say, "caveat emptor"

[turnbuckle]

If I was building a replica of the Hog, which I'm not,
I'm fairly certain I would put significant effort into getting the grain as close as possible.
How about y'all?

Nothing is impossible, lads

[MF5150]

I’ve looked at that guitar for 15 seconds. Never even heard of it before right now.

Im pretty sure that’s the same guitar body. Nobody knows positively without being in the same room with both, but based on those two photographs the grain matches.

The two pictures are black and white but the white balance is completely jacked on the left pic. Things might not appear to match up to the most finite detail, because of this.

Plus the quality of the pic on the left is shit. The quality of the one on the right is crisp. And you can still make out the obvious grain fingerprints.

Plus the angles of the pictures are different.

At different/certain angles wood grain can/will appear different. You see it constantly with Les Pauls. Mine included.





And now at a different angle...and this angle doesn’t even exaggerate the flame as much as the “right” angles could...







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[garbeaj]

If I was building a replica of the Hog, which I'm not,
I'm fairly certain I would put significant effort into getting the grain as close as possible.
How about y'all?

Nothing is impossible, lads

You can come close, but yes it’s impossible to match the grain that closely. Because the body that Eric Ernest bought is “The Hog” and “The Hog” is the body that Eric Ernest bought. These are not two different bodies. A dark stain was obviously applied to the body after Eddie had it.

[MF5150]

We can say it's the same guitar here. But until you're in the same room with it, we can't be certain.

And even then, forking over a large sum of money at auction for a guitar without any provenance and a very sketchy backstory? The guy he bought it from bought it for $1000 on Reverb and there is no discussion about how the Reverb seller got the guitar from Ed? Was it stolen?

So, if all this guy has are a few pictures to authenticate it, no serious collector worth his salt (not just some billionaire) would fork over that kind of cash for it.

Serious collectors would run, not walk away from this.

[garbeaj]

We can say it's the same guitar here. But until you're in the same room with it, we can't be certain.

And even then, forking over a large sum of money at auction without any provenance and a very sketchy backstory? Doesn't get into how the guy he bought it from got the guitar from Ed? Is it stolen?

So, if all this guy has are a few pictures to authenticate it, no serious collector worth his salt (not just some billionaire) would fork over that kind of cash for it.

Serious collectors would run, not walk away from this.

You would be hard pressed to find a more serious collector than Eric Ernest. There are very few people in the world with as much knowledge as Eric Ernest when it comes to vintage Boogie Bodies and vintage Charvel instruments.

[MF5150]

You would be hard pressed to find a more serious collector than Eric Ernest.

I know. I'm not doubting him, personally. Keep in mind, it's in his best interests to believe the guitar is what he says it is and collectors like him have been taken for a ride with excellent counterfeit guitars. This guitar has no serial number. The neck isn't original. It can't be tracked back to anything except a few photos. It's changed hands multiple times. And multiple times recently, while the Internet existed and the guitar's history would have been known.

Maybe he has more in-depth information as to how this guitar got passed around as much as it did and he has others who are able to authenticate it, but the stuff he mentions in this video does not install much confidence. The guy he bought it from, bought it from a guy on Reverb for $1000 and then he turned around and put it up on Reverb for $50,000 and then settled with Ernest on $20,000?

Where'd the first guy get it from and how did he not know it was one of Ed's guitars? Reverb's been around for less than a decade and this guy wanted to sell it for $1000?

And suddenly the guitar pops up now that Ed's gone. The one guy who could have looked at it and gone, "Y'know what? Yup...that looks like my guitar...." --- And that fact, alone, raises a lot of flags because of the backstory. Because somebody obviously waited until Ed was gone before making this guitar public. Why? This isn't like some of the Kramers we've seen go up for auction recently that have provenance and people are trying to cash-in. Those were guitars that had a direct lineage back to Ed that could be traced.

Maybe this one does and he is just saving that for the auction house? Entirely possible.