Hi Christopher,

I stand corrected, I thought I had read that Eddie used a Paul on the first album but i can't find it now. I may have gotten this confused with the early tour pics of him on his gold top and this pic, Eddie in a studio with a les paul in 1976:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43908441@N00/418097068/in/set-1198559/

this is obviously before the VH records and looks like a rehearsal. There's a cool pic of Alex at the same session too.
While I was unsuccesfully trying to prove my point, I found Eddie's first interview:
http://www.vhlinks.com/pages/interviews/evh/gu072378.php

..it's cool, his outlook is so fresh.

I'm going to edit my original post so no one is mislead.