American musician, songwriter, producer, and inventor Eddie Van Halen plays his custom Steinberger guitar at Cobo Arena during Van Halen's "1984 Tour" on April 5, 1984, in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Ross Marino/Getty)
Icon and Image/Getty ImagesThe iconic Eddie Van Halen guitar played during the 1984 album and in the "Hot for Teacher" video is set for auction at Sotheby's with an expensive opening bid to start.
The starting bid is $1,800,000 and is valued overall between $2 to $ 3 million dollars, according to Guitar World. If the guitar does end up selling for anywhere within that range, it would easily become one of the ten most expensive guitars ever sold at auction.
Paul Unkert of Kramer Guitars custom built the guitar, which included customized innovations to compliment Van Halen's innovative style, Sotheby's said in the auction post.
The iconic Eddie Van Halen guitar played during the 1984 Album and in the "Hot for Teacher" video is set for auction at Sotheby's.
Sotheby'sVan Halen, who was classically trained in piano, created a unique style of his (own) with the "two-handed tap" technique, which would soon become his trademark. The Kramer guitar up for auction is Van Halen's first guitar, according to Sotheby's, that features screw holes on the back of the body for connecting his patented support system for playing the guitar piano-style.
The six-string guitar features a 22-fret, bolt-on maple neck with an "Unk" stamp on the heel, Guitar World explains, along with a single double-coil Seymour Duncan humbucker pickup and, naturally, one volume knob and a Floyd Rose bridge with a whammy bar.
For a trip down music history lane, here's the official Van Halen video from the 1984 hit, "Hot for Teacher," which features the iconic Kramer guitar.