First of all......RIP to Eddie Van Halen who passed today at 65 from cancer. He was a guitar god and truly was one of the greats. His music and memory will live forever.
I found this information years ago and this article popped up on one of my feeds today, and thought I would share it here. He goes into technical detail, but it's also a lesson in perseverance and not giving up on what you want......even if you have to build it yourself.
Good find. He was definitely a self-taught engineer of guitars with an inborn ear for music. There is a lot more information about this all over the web.
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Many legendary guitar players made modifications to their commercial guitars or had one custom-built to fit their style. It looks like Eddie really put in the work to make something that would sing and help him stand out amongst the sea of talented guitarists.
Real talent comes from playing what you feel. If current makes and models cannot let you do that, and you want to do it bad enough, you will make it yourself.