Eddie Van Halen’s Hot for Teacher Kramer is going up for auction

The custom-made Kramer electric guitar that Eddie Van Halen used in the iconic music video for Van Halen’s Hot for Teacher is going up for auction.

Put up for sale by Sotheby’s (opens in new tab), the guitar has an eye-watering minimum bid of $1,800,000, and is valued overall at between 2 and 3 million dollars. If the guitar does end up selling for anywhere within that range, it would easily become one of the 10 most expensive guitars ever sold at auction.

You can see it in action in the Hot for Teacher video below.

The guitar in question, Kramer CO176, was built by Kramer luthier Paul Unkert, and – according to Sotheby’s (opens in new tab) – served as one of Eddie Van Halen’s primary guitars in 1983 and 1984, until he switched to a similar model made from basswood.

The six-string features a 22-fret, bolt-on maple neck with an “Unk” stamp on the heel, a single double-coil Seymour Duncan humbucker pickup and, naturally, one volume knob and a Floyd Rose bridge with a whammy bar.

The Kramer is also notable in that it’s the first of Eddie’s guitars – Sotheby’s says (opens in new tab) – to feature screw holes on the back of the body for connecting his patented support system for playing the guitar piano-style (opens in new tab).

According to Sotheby’s (opens in new tab), the Kramer 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 Paul Unkert, a signed photograph from Eddie Van Halen, its original case with tour and Warner Brothers tags, and the straight jacket and white gloves worn by Van Halen in the video. Bidding for the instrument closes next Tuesday, April 18.

For more info on the guitar, visit Sotheby’s (opens in new tab).

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