EDDIE VAN HALEN's 'Hot For Teacher' Guitar Could Fetch Between $2-$3 Million Dollars

[Hardrock69]

https://blabbermouth.net/news/eddie-van-halens-hot-for-teacher-guitar-could-fetch-between-2-million-and-3-million-at-auction

April 10, 2023

The guitar Eddie Van Halen used in the music video for VAN HALEN's "Hot For Teacher" is going up for auction at Sotheby's.

The custom-made Kramer axe has a minimum bid of $1.8 million, and is valued at between two and three million dollars.

According to Sotheby's, stage-used and -filmed guitar was custom made by Paul Unkert of Kramer Guitars for Eddie Van Halen, including important innovations customized for Eddie's evolving guitar technique. It served as one of Eddie Van Halen's primary guitars in 1983 and 1984. The guitar was gifted by Eddie Van Halen to the band's retiring drum tech Gregg Emerson around 1990. Emerson subsequently gave the guitar to his nephew, who sold the guitar to Neal's Music in Huntington Beach, California. Neal's Music then sold the instrument to its current owner.

The guitar comes with a letter of provenance by Unkert, a signed photograph from Eddie Van Halen, its original case with tour and Warner Brothers tags, and the strait jacket and white gloves worn by Van Halen in the video.

Unkert's accompanying letter details the guitar's history: "The 'Hot For Teacher' Van Halen [guitar] was built by me at the Kramer Green Grove Road Plant in Neptune, NJ around 1982-1985/ #CO176. Look for 'Unk' stamps on Neck and Body. It was my last project for Ed and Kramer."

Bidding for the guitar closes next Tuesday, April 18.

"Hot For Teacher" appeared on VAN HALEN's album "1984". The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) objected to the song after its original release, calling for it to be pulled from both the radio and television, due to the track's sexually suggestive lyrics referring to sex with a teacher, and a female teacher stripping in the video, among other issues.

In 2009, "Hot For Teacher" was named the 36th best hard rock song of all time by VH1.

The "Hot For Teacher" video was filmed at John Marshall High School in Los Angeles, California. Because the school had been shut down due to insufficient funds at the time the video was recorded, VAN HALEN not only paid to rent the school for four days of filming but they also contributed money to the city to help get it reopened.

[Nitro Express]

I wonder if that is a JB pickup in it. I built a Metropoulos 68 plexi copy based on George Metropoulos’s 68 Super Lead 100 that is the same circuit as Eddie’s. I set a Variac around 89 volts and dime every knob on the amp running it into a Freyette Power Station attenuator then into an EVH 4x12 cab and it gets that classic VH sound. Once you have the volume past 6 the amp really doesn’t get louder but it distorts more and starts to compress and sustain more.

I have a 72 big box 50 watt Marshall that if you turn it up all the way it farts out. It doesn’t get the sound. It’s good for AC/DC stuff but it won’t do the Van Halen thing. It’s got some NOS Telefunkin tubes in it so I kind of want to baby those by not running the amp hard.

Anyways I get a decent old school VH sound with a JB antiquity pickup and my 58 clone amp.

[Terry]

Someone with more money than sense will buy the thing and keep it encased in glass as an investment, and Wolfgang will take his cut of the profits and invest in a cargo container full of Hostess snack cakes.

[Nitro Express]

Valerie can cook and Wolfgang is evidence she can. That kid has absorbed a lot of grease.

[Terry]

A grease trap on two legs.

[Rikk]

Valerie can cook and Wolfgang is evidence she can. That kid has absorbed a lot of grease.

I can't even imagine a group hug in that family. Eddie must have aimed his head for the ceiling to catch a breath.

[Rikk]

In reality, a guitar like that should be in a museum. It's a piece of history. That said, I don't really think of the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME as a museum...at least not a good one. Not only are they embarrassing themselves annually with their ridiculous nomination choices but I was shocked as shit (when in Cleveland some years ago) at how limited their collection was. Yeah, I salivated staring at Lennon's Rickenbacker and a few other things (a few cool Jim Morrison/Doors things)...but eventually I realized just how many eras of rock 'n' roll they completely avoided. There wasn't even a lot of Led Zeppelin stuff (figures, considering Rolling Stone spent Zeppelin's whole career writing about how much this vital band "sucked")...though my wife was extremely happy to see John Paul Jones' ridiculous flowers-sticking-out shirt from THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME on a wall somewhere in a more obscure part of the museum.

I am a big Elvis fan, I like Springsteen, I think Chuck Berry was awesome and The Beatles, Bowie and The Stones were just amazing...but there is SO MUCH MORE to the history of rock 'n' roll than those artists.

[Rikk]

A grease trap on two legs.

I wouldn't make so many Wolfgang fat jokes if the guy weren't such a lousy, disrespectful human being.

How many shitty Wolfgang albums does the market have to swallow up (like a Twinkie getting lost in his fat layers) before the idiot finally admits there may be something in his father's vaults? If he spent less time attacking fans and more time doing something for us VH fans before we all get our respective cancers or heart disease, I might actually think of him as more than just a fat trust fund baby with average music skills and a big mouth.

I'm need to go down to my studio to hit my drums really hard.

[twonabomber]

In reality, a guitar like that should be in a museum. It's a piece of history. That said, I don't really think of the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME as a museum...at least not a good one. Not only are they embarrassing themselves annually with their ridiculous nomination choices but I was shocked as shit (when in Cleveland some years ago) at how limited their collection was. Yeah, I salivated staring at Lennon's Rickenbacker and a few other things (a few cool Jim Morrison/Doors things)...but eventually I realized just how many eras of rock 'n' roll they completely avoided. There wasn't even a lot of Led Zeppelin stuff (figures, considering Rolling Stone spent Zeppelin's whole career writing about how much this vital band "sucked")...though my wife was extremely happy to see John Paul Jones' ridiculous flowers-sticking-out shirt from THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME on a wall somewhere in a more obscure part of the museum.

I am a big Elvis fan, I like Springsteen, I think Chuck Berry was awesome and The Beatles, Bowie and The Stones were just amazing...but there is SO MUCH MORE to the history of rock 'n' roll than those artists.

It might have changed recently, but the Rock Hall would not pay for artifacts and items to display. They relied on donations and loans of items from inductees. They were competing with the deep pockets of the Hard Rock Cafe and even deeper pockets of EMP (now Museum of Pop Culture) in Seattle. Yoko was only too happy to send the pile of Lennon stuff - including the bag of bloody clothes from the night he was killed.

There is a decent sized EVH display at the very top of the HOF, but it's all current EVH gear and nothing from his personal collection.

[Seshmeister]

They should at this point at least rename it the Contemporary Music Museum to stop irritating rock fans.

[Nitro Express]

A grease trap on two legs.

To his credit. He’s not a drunk or drug addict. He avoided his dad’s vices. But man. That kid was fat when he was in diapers. I mean Valleie’s family ain’t fat. All her brothers were jocks. The Van Halen’s weren’t fat. But I’m sure you didn’t sit around in those homes. Our generation and the generations before played in the street. Throwing balls. Throwing dirt clods. Sticking firecrackers up the cat’s ass. We weren’t eating a bag of Doritos on the couch playing video games all day.

[Nitro Express]

I wouldn't make so many Wolfgang fat jokes if the guy weren't such a lousy, disrespectful human being.

How many shitty Wolfgang albums does the market have to swallow up (like a Twinkie getting lost in his fat layers) before the idiot finally admits there may be something in his father's vaults? If he spent less time attacking fans and more time doing something for us VH fans before we all get our respective cancers or heart disease, I might actually think of him as more than just a fat trust fund baby with average music skills and a big mouth.

I'm need to go down to my studio to hit my drums really hard.

I get you are not going to be in the best mood when your dad passes away but Wolfgang is in his 30’s and it was obvious dad was going to go. Every adult loses a parent. We all deal with it. Wolfgang’s social media posts were a train wreck. He’s a man in his 30’s that acts like a kid. Sure he inherited some natural talent. He’s got the Van Halen genes. He grew up around music with a whole house and studio full of instruments to play. Yeah he should be good. Not amazing but hey he can produce a song that isn’t shit.

[Nitro Express]

In reality, a guitar like that should be in a museum. It's a piece of history. That said, I don't really think of the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME as a museum...at least not a good one. Not only are they embarrassing themselves annually with their ridiculous nomination choices but I was shocked as shit (when in Cleveland some years ago) at how limited their collection was. Yeah, I salivated staring at Lennon's Rickenbacker and a few other things (a few cool Jim Morrison/Doors things)...but eventually I realized just how many eras of rock 'n' roll they completely avoided. There wasn't even a lot of Led Zeppelin stuff (figures, considering Rolling Stone spent Zeppelin's whole career writing about how much this vital band "sucked")...though my wife was extremely happy to see John Paul Jones' ridiculous flowers-sticking-out shirt from THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME on a wall somewhere in a more obscure part of the museum.

I am a big Elvis fan, I like Springsteen, I think Chuck Berry was awesome and The Beatles, Bowie and The Stones were just amazing...but there is SO MUCH MORE to the history of rock 'n' roll than those artists.

I always appreciate people who donate to museums. My mom grew up where they find a lot of Native American artifacts. Our house was full of them. Navajo rugs, big frames full of arrow heads. I would work my uncles farm and every time he plowed a field we would find stuff. He had a huge collection of grinding stones. My mom had a green quartz scraper she was really fond of and a long knapped spear point that was pristine. Usually those were broken. Anyways the really good rare stuff she donated to the tribe and they put it in their tribal museum.

Native artifacts are more valuable now than ever. People hold onto stuff like that because it’s worth money and it’s something that holds it’s value so donating to a museum where you are giving it away so others can enjoy it is very generous.

[Nitro Express]

I like Jay Leno’s view on owning rare automobiles. He views it as being the current care taker.. He views it as a responsibility of taking care of something so future generations can enjoy it.

[Nitro Express]

I wouldn't make so many Wolfgang fat jokes if the guy weren't such a lousy, disrespectful human being.

How many shitty Wolfgang albums does the market have to swallow up (like a Twinkie getting lost in his fat layers) before the idiot finally admits there may be something in his father's vaults? If he spent less time attacking fans and more time doing something for us VH fans before we all get our respective cancers or heart disease, I might actually think of him as more than just a fat trust fund baby with average music skills and a big mouth.

I'm need to go down to my studio to hit my drums really hard.

Ha! Ha! I’m 4% body fat. Wolfgang is going to get heart disease before I do. The only person in my family that ever got cancer was someone who laid out in the sun too much.