Frankenstrat
The Frankenstrat is the famous guitar used by Eddie Van Halen from the hard rock band Van Halen.
Overview of the Frankenstrat
The Frankenstrat is an Ash Stratocaster body with a routing that Eddie made to fit in a Gibson PAF humbucking bridge pickup [1], with a single coil neck pickup. The neck pickup was simply for decoration and was never actually wired with the humbucker, due to Eddie's inability to wire the switch properly. It has a maple neck, silver hardware, and red, black, and white stripes. It is a six string guitar with Floyd Rose tremolo.
Building the Frankenstrat
Buying the Body and Neck
Eddie Van Halen bought the Frankenstrat's ash body and maple neck for a total of $130. Both of these parts were from a store called Boogie Bodies, which sold Charvel-made body and necks. The body of the guitar was a "second," called so because it was not cosmetically pleasing. In Van Halen's case, the body had a knot in the wood. He bought it for $50 anyway because he believed it would perform fine. The maple neck of the guitar cost him $80.
Step 1
Eddie got hold of a PAF (Patent Applied For) pickup from his Gibson ES-335. He had the idea to dip the pickup in paraffin wax to reduce microphonic feedback, a technique that has since been employed by major guitar manufacturers such as Gibson.
Step 2
Van Halen painted the guitar black and let it out to dry. After it was dry he put masking tape on it,painted over it in white. Years later, he put more tape on and painted the guitar red then when it was dry he removed the tape.
Step 3
After the body was dry, he attached the neck and attached the tuning keys to the headstock of the guitar.
Step 4
Van Halen got rid of both tone control potentiometers (pots) and wired up the pickups in a simple circuit, due largely to his limited knowledge of electrical circuitry. Van Halen famously used a knob reading 'tone' on the volume control spot. He then put the strings on the guitar and used a vinyl record he cut up to use as a pickguard to cover the controls. He also added a stock Fender tremolo system.
Future Upgrades
The Frankenstrat was so popular by 1979 that Edward was tired of people trying to copy his guitar. So his solution was to pull the vinyl pinstripes that he had added to the guitar and cover it with masking tape and spray red over it. This created the red, white, and black. The Frankenstrat has gone through many necks over the years. He also replaced the bridge back and forth between the '57 Fender tremolo to the original gold Floyd, and the current Floyd. The quarter came from a neck change that required him to place the Floyd in a new position. The bridge didn't want to sit on the body so the quarter was put in place to let the bridge sit flush to the body. The original PAF has long since been replaced.
Variants
Kramers
Kramer was the first official company that Eddie endorsed. It started in 1983, when they built a Frankenstein replica for him. He also replaced his original Frankenstein neck with a Kramer neck. Later, in 1984, Edward was presented with the "Hot for Teacher" guitar (as seen in the video clip for "Hot for Teacher"), and started advertising for Kramer.
The most famous Kramer that Edward had was the "5150", which he built in the Kramer factory. It is widely thought that this guitar was made out of a Kramer Baretta body, but it was actually made out of Prototype Pacer Body. This guitar was used from the 1984 tour, through to the OU812 tour, and was last used in the recording for "Judgement Day". It is now retired.
A number of other Kramers were also built and used by Eddie during these years, the most notable being the "1984" Kramer, while most were simply striped designs without other markings. These guitars were primarily used as backups for the "5150" guitar on the tours that it was played, and were retired at the same time. Some were simply given away to various people, or in cases such as the "1984" Kramer, in contests.
Charvel Hybrid VH2 a.k.a. Bumblebee
Van Halen made another Frankenstrat, this time black and yellow. It was buried with Dimebag Darrell of Pantera, who had asked for a replica Frankenstrat before being shot in 2004. Eddie was actually going to come to dimes house in person and stripe the guitar to make it a little more personal for a huge fan and friend, but he died before that could take place.
The Ibanez Destroyer a.k.a. Shark
This was a dual humbucker guitar with a radical design made from an Ibanez Destroyer. Eddie cut a huge chunk of the wood out with a hacksaw, making it look different. It was used in the videos for "Runnin' With the Devil" and "You Really Got Me" and included a toggle switch. However, because Eddie removed the chunk of wood, he destroyed the sound of the guitar. He was very upset and tried to obtain another, but unfortunately Ibanez had recently been sued for stealing Gibson's "Explorer" model, and as such the Destroyer was discontinued. So ended the "The Shark".
Fender and Charvel
Charvel made a signature model EVH called the "Charvel EVH Art Series Guitar" that sported one pickup, a Floyd Rose locking tremolo, a custom wound pickup, and could be ordered in either black and white; black, white, and red; or black and yellow. The guitars are not reliced like the original Frankenstrat, but share a similar neck profile.
Fender has recently sold 300 replicas of the original Frankenstrat, scratches and all, for $25,000 and is the parent company to Eddie Van Halen's EVH brand. The Fenders are only the black, red, and white.