How Eddie Van Halen's $100 Guitar Launched a Legendary Career

The Humble Beginning of a Guitar Legend

Every guitarist's journey starts with a single significant first step. For many, that step is getting their first guitar. That's true of you, me, and Eddie Van Halen. It is one of the things that bonds all of us in the guitar-playing community. Oftentimes, that first guitar is not what most of us would consider a professional-grade guitar. That was also the case for Eddie Van Halen.

The Instrument That Started It All

Eddie Van Halen's first guitar was a Teisco Del Rey that he had purchased as a child from a Sears and Roebuck catalog. It was that guitar that brought him to his elementary school band, called The Broken Combs, and it was in that band that he first began to sculpt his stage presence and basic guitar chops.

Teisco guitars were built in Japan from 1948 until 1967, but were only available in the American market for the final three years of that span. Eddie got his in 1967 at the age of 12.

The Specific Model That Made History

There were several variations of the Del Rey model, and there is some debate over which model Eddie Van Halen actually had. Eddie has said in interviews that his first guitar had four pickups, although in typical Eddie fashion, he also contradicted himself and said it had three pickups. However, we have photographs of him as a kid holding a four-pickup model, so I think it's safe to say that it was indeed a four-pickup model, which means it was a WG-4L sub-model. That variant featured a vibrato system and switches for each individual pickup.

The guitars in question were reasonably cheap budget-level instruments, but nonetheless fine instruments for a beginner. Eddie claimed that his guitar cost just over $100 when he bought it. There were many young men and women who began their careers with the very same guitar. You can find them available for relatively cheaply on the used market today. Teisco remained defunct until 2018, when it was relaunched by BandLab Technologies. Today, you can still buy new Teisco Guitars.

The Lesson in Humble Beginnings

Eddie Van Halen's humble first instrument serves as a reminder that it doesn't necessarily matter how you start out, as long as you put in the effort to practice your craft. That being said, it is generally better to start out on a guitar that is somewhat comfortable to play, as a guitar that is difficult to play might discourage a beginner. Eddie Van Halen's first guitar was new when he bought it and likely was set up somewhat adequately. Some of you may have started out on old second-hand guitars with action so high that it makes playing nearly impossible.

Just five years after he got his Teisco Del Rey, Eddie would form a band called Van Halen with his brother in 1972. The rest, as they say, is history. It all started with taking that first step by buying his very first guitar.