The EVH RUDE guitar was one of two ‘Drop D’ backup guitars used on the Fair Warning tour, the other of which being the ‘Unchained’.
Both of these guitars were 2″ thick Mahogany bodies made by Lynn Ellsworth. The term ‘RUDE’, which is painted in the neck pocket, is a reference to Ed’s childhood friend and then guitar tech, Rudy Leiren. It is speculated that Rudy may have had some involvement in the painting or assembly of this guitar in order to earn his name on it, though this is unconfirmed.
The existence of a ‘Drop D backup’ at this time was necessary, as Floyd Rose had yet to develop a fine-tuning mechanism for his tremolos. Given that Fair Warning was the first tour which featured songs in Drop D tuning, Ed needed dedicated guitars tuned and clamped to Drop D, which would allow him to quickly swap tunings between songs as necessary.