Eddie Van Halen’s Unchained/Rasta Guitar

This is perhaps one of the less known guitars of Eddie’s. It was seen around 1981/82, and it originally started out with a black and white finish, and it became known as the “Unchained” guitar – or “Bye Later See Ya” guitar since those exact words were written on the back of the body.

For unknown reasons, Eddie decided to repaint the guitar drawing inspiration from Rasta culture. It seems that he also replaced the pickup with what appears to be a DiMarzio X2N humbucker.

Rasta Retired

Apparently, Eddie thought that the guitar was too heavy, so he removed the neck from it, and it was just laying in the 5150 studio collecting dust for years. In the mid-90s Dweezil Zappa came by and Eddie gave him the guitar.

I was at 5150 (studio) visiting with Edward Van Halen, and it was sitting in a corner. I say “hey, that’s the guitar from Life magazine”, and somehow or another he just said, “I don’t really play that guitar much anymore, do you want it?”

Dweezil Zappa