To achieve the legendary "Brown Sound", Eddie Van Halen employed a variac to limit the voltage (down to 89v, from the 110v standard) of his Marshall guitar amplifier while still allowing the volume to be at its maximum.

In 2009, Eddie Van Halen announced the release of a new Wolfgang guitar built by Fender but only carrying his own "EVH" brand label.

The original and top-of-the-line model,[13] made in the USA,[14] the guitar featured an arched (carved) top, body binding, two knobs (volume and tone), three-way pickup toggle switch, two Peavey/EVH-designed humbucker pickups, oil-finished bird's eye maple neck and fingerboard with dual graphite reinforcement rods, ten-degree tilt headstock, and Schaller mini M6 tuners (with either pearloid or ivory colored buttons).

Each version could come with either a licensed Floyd Rose tremolo with d-Tuna or a tune-o-matic bridge and hard tailpiece.

Solid basswood Wolfgangs were offered in gloss ivory and gloss black; solid basswood/maple cap Wolfgangs were offered in various transparent figured flame only maple finishes (sunburst, amber, red, purple, blue, green, cherryburst, and black cherryburst) as well as vintage gold and seafoam green.

Peavey and Eddie Van Halen's attempt to make a "budget" version of the Wolfgang that didn't compromise quality in parts or craftsmanship.

It featured a flat top, one knob (volume), three-way pickup toggle switch, two Peavey/EVH-designed humbucker pickups, licensed Floyd Rose tremolo with d-Tuna, oil-finished hard rock maple neck and fingerboard with dual graphite reinforcement rods, straight headstock, and chrome tuners.

Each version could come with either a licensed Floyd Rose tremolo with d-Tuna or a tune-o-matic bridge and hard tailpiece.

Approximately 285 Custom Shop guitars were produced in Leakesville, of which 92 of these were made to fill specific orders while the rest were built for the "Wolfgang Vault".

Peavey had an area at their website for people to "build" (and order) their own Custom Shop guitars.

The Wolfgang Special EXP had a 1/20" quilt only maple veneer top and came in four transparent colors: amber, maroon, blue, and sunburst.

Like the USA Wolfgang Special it featured a flat top, one knob (volume), three-way pickup toggle switch, Peavey/EVH-designed humbucker pickups like USA models, licensed Floyd Rose tremolo with D-Tuna (d-tuner device), hard rock maple neck and fingerboard, straight headstock, and Grover mini tuners (a feature unique to this model).

Some aspects of the Wolfgang Special EXP were different to its USA counterparts: the neck had no graphite reinforcement rods and was finished with a satin polyester layer.

The first Korean guitars do not have the EVH signature printed on the back of the headstock, because the relevant equipment arrived after production had started.

On the EXP models, a low-budget version built in Korea was installed, more similar to a Schaller unit.

The finishing department blamed a mistake on the paint vendor who supplied the gold and consequently changed the supplier after about 50 or so guitars.

One of the examples of this is a dark gloss oxblood finish with a black binding, now owned by an Austin guitar dealer (bearing the patent number but no serial).

South Korean made Wolfgang Special QT models had serial numbers printed in black on the back of the headstock.

A guitar that needed something reworked or was set to the side for some reason would have a later delivery date even though it had an earlier serial number.

During the Van Halen 2004 Tour, the guitarist played a different custom striped Charvel Art Series in a few songs of each concert, later autographing and auctioning them on eBay.

In 2007, under the supervision of master-builder Chip Ellis, a single run of 300 [22] of his original Frankenstein guitar were made available by Fender under the EVH brand, in strict collaboration with Eddie Van Halen.

After the 2007-08 Tour, and once again under the supervision of Chip Ellis, the evolution of the Wolfgang within the Fender group became available to the public, with the EVH Wolfgang® USA Edward Van Halen Signature (in 2008) and the EVH Wolfgang® Special (in 2010), both sporting the "bottle opener" shape,[23] which is owned by Eddie Van Halen, unlike the old Peavey headstock.

From 2020 [25] to the present, Wolfgangs are made in the Czech Republic and the first 800 or so guitars have NOS lettering behind the headstock, indicating the use of advanced materials in older American production.