Notice the black fine tuners, and although the tremolo seems brown in this photo, the tremolo is indeed chrome. The only thing left to do was add the reflectors to the back and, finally, the 1971 quarter to the front. To better understand the complex history of the guitar, this article features a prelude tobrieflycover at the major changes throughout its life. Neck swaps, pickup swaps, and bridge swaps were common, and sometimes even occured on a day-to-day basis. Of course, you can decide to leave it at this point, it is entirely up to you! The Baretta came later, and was heavily based on this guitar, but the Kramer 5150 came first. Read more in this VintageFloydRose.com article on Eddies tremolos, which discusses the history of use of Floyd Rose units on the Frankenstrat (and his other guitars) in great detail. Good luck on your build, and look forward to seeing pics of the final product! But, I already felt like I was teetering on the edge of obsession at times, so I limited myself on just how exact I was going to get. EVH Striped Series Frankenstein Relic - Red/Black/White Solidbody Electric Guitar with Basswood Body, Maple Neck, Maple Fingerboard, 1 Humbucking Pickup, and EVH-branded Floyd Rose with D-Tuna - Red/Black/White 61 reviews Write your review Item ID: FrankSSRBW $ 1,999 .99 Special Financing - Last Day As low as $84 /month with 24 mo. I have fixed this problem now. Thread starter hbucker; Start date Feb 25, 2013; hbucker Senior Member. Strangely enough, according to some sources 3, Ed purchased the guitar neck at a discount with a large knot in the wood as he believed it would perform better. 5-way CRL PA222-674 switch crammed into the middle pickup route. In Eddie's own words: From the January/February 2014 issue of Guitar Aficionado magazine. For the second, we'd like to make our lives easier and use a taping . . The volume is not affected, as the screws used keep the hum bucker at the desired height/distance from the strings as it would be if I had used a pick guard. The square heel neck on the Rasta (unchained) guitar was eventually taken off and replaced with the different painted neck on it today. After playing everything under then sun for a number of years I've finally decided to create my own "FrankenStrat" from scratch. Even better (beyond the chops to play it) is that its iconic black, white, and red paint job is all DIY. There were also 1971 quarters from the Philadelphia mint, but theyre missing the D mint mark to the right of Georges pony tail. 1980 begins with the Frankenstrat mostly in the background This is a continued trend from 1979, where the Bumblebee saw more use than the Frank on the 1979 World tour. cutting was achieved with the help of a jigsaw, some files, a sander and some hand sanding. It is also evident from interviews at the time, as well as some logical analysis, that Ed used the Bumblebee and the borrowed Chris Holmes Destroyer in late 1979 and early 1980 to track Women and Children First, meaning the Frankenstrat saw very little, if any, use on that album. Great Savings & Free Delivery / Collection on many items Buy guitar template products and get the best deals at the lowest prices on eBay! The initial configuration of the guitar immediately after the red paint was applied is seen below. Red paint, white Charvel 8-hole 1-ply pickguard removed, various jack plates added to house electronics. VLANsThe VLAN template disables routing and supports the maximum number of unicast MAC Black/White stripes painted, 1/8 black pinstripes to accent, homemade pickguard re-installed. It was a two-step process which involved a pearlescent undercoat with a colored top coat. Below are fan photos from the MET display which show extreme detail for your liking. Eddie had replaced the original Floyd Rose with a newer model that intoned correctly. Natural Ash body, homemade black single ply 11-hole pickguard. After taping the guitar up on top of the black coat, it is time to spray it white. New. Eddie bought a Strat replacement body and a Strat replacement neck from Boogie Bodies, a guitar shop owned and operated by Wayne Charvel. Notice how the black shows though a little through the red coat? Fig. And, you can still see the black lines under the red, which is what I was going for. Unlike the latter contenders, the Frankenstrat was a true experiment that Ed personally modified and incrementally improved constantly over its 6 year use as his primary guitar, and even beyond its permanent retirement. and THAT gave him the ability to dive-bomb. Routing templates are suitable for many router applications, e.g. Is it really necessary to make it 5 coats each color? 1959 Les Paul standard Routing Templates Full Set 9mm MR MDF. Red paint added late March 1979.Late March, 1979 to ~February, 1980Photo: Young GuitarSeptember, 1979. Kramer Guitar Headstock Templates images on Photobucket Browse. (LogOut/ Did you sand it after primer before the black base coat? Again, you can see evidence of the 70s cast Fender trem, with the chromed block and the hole and stamp pattern which is unique to those units. Red paint, white Charvel 8-hole 1-ply pickguard removed, various jack plates added to house electronics. Its not available anymore, so I used the next best thingDupliColor. This guitar has a single Humbucker in the Bridge position, a single rear-mounted volume knob (with a hidden tone in the rear cavity!) Instead of building an exact duplicate of the man's guitar, this one is not relic'd like so many other clones. These pictures show the red coat during application. Yours turned out sweet. A new bridge is also installed at this time; a 1970s Fender cast tremolo. Well, in class this guitar had been damaged, and I had the idea in my head that it would take a lot to repair. Front White Layer As we enter February, Ed takes his 1961 Sunburst Strat and sprays white lacquer right over the existing nitrocellulose finish. " The Frankenstrat was [Eddie] Van Halen's attempt to combine the sound of a classic Gibson guitar with the physical attributes and tremolo bar functionality of a Fender Stratocaster. Today, it is preset #37 on an old Digitech RP200 or whatever. This incarnation of the Frankenstrat is the last neck, Floyd, and pickup change we will see and can basically be considered the last incarnation of the Frankenstrat. Here is the black coat drying in the spray booth I built out of PVC, plastic sheeting, and duct tape. Taping up the body for the red coat was probably the hardest part of the project. As this is a glorified stratocaster, I will assume you have already built the strat body (or bought one you wish to modify!). I almost forgot to mention the neck! That is to say, the tremolo block doesnt screw to the plate, like on a normal tremolo, but the two are made from one pieceof metal. Dos make any fence to you. With this project, one can go pretty deep reproducing every last nick and scratch and some people do. I have had a few requests for the VH2 BumbleBee Paint Scheme So I have created a tape diagram for it! The Bee was not pictured around this time, and later emerged with aFloyd Rose FRT-1prototype. He was quite likely the first person to receive a prototype Floyd Rose after Mr. Rose developed the very first 2 units for Randy Hansen in late 1978 and early 1979. Late 1985: Tom Anderson neck, Floyd posts moved. There was some blue paint on the back body and some of the reflectors from Eddie leaning the guitar against a freshly painted Van Halen banner. It's called "Frankenstrat or Frankenstein" design. PDF Files. Notice that the Humbucker is mounted on an angle? It ended up with one large hole in the center, three smaller holes, two of which have screws. Its the guitar hes holding on the cover of the first VH record. Required fields are marked *. On switches running the LAN Base feature set, routing values . Zebra pickup on raw wood Frankenstrat. Its possible they were made of USA and Japanese parts. So if you're looking for a relic'd guitar, you will have to do that part yourself. The top is when it was new, the bottom is after some work. Painted black, 1961 Stratocaster mint green pickguard installed. As of present, we only have 2 confirmed shows that it was played at before being painted gloss-black. this involved a little filling and routing, but only for cosmetic reasons. , Hi Zane! Although this was officially the first guitar for me to begin all the way back in Year 9 woodwork, it was the 5th for me to complete.Why did I wait so long? Hey! Buy guitar template products and get the best deals at the lowest prices on eBay! 1: The original Van Halen wiring. The Frankenstrat was [Eddie] Van Halens attempt to combine the sound of a classic Gibson guitar with the physical attributes and tremolo bar functionality of a Fender Stratocaster. Small pickguard fashioned from a vinyl record blank installed. Frankenstrat Stripe Templates. This neck would be put back on the Frankenstrat in 1997 and is currently still on the Frankenstrat today! The neck previously on the RUDE guitar is put on the Frankenstrat. Ed slowly began to rely on the Floyd Rose trem and incorporate it into his style of playing. 11-01-2010, 01:44 PM. Holy crap . 1. Whatsup . 4.4 (71) During the process of staining and sealing, I got to work aging some of the metal parts. Thats because on many of the stripes, one side has a clean edge and the other is rougher just what youd get if you tore strips of gaffer tape apart. Our Story begins in late January, 1977. The Frankenstrat, also known as "Frankie", is a guitar created by Eddie Van Halen. It appears evident that, in the interim between the late February Whisky gigs and the mid March Golden West Ballroom gig, Ed would spray the guitar gloss black and reinstall the mint 3-ply pickguard from the 1961 Stratocaster. I think this was asked a while ago (possibly by you?) Eddie had a chrome locking nut on this neck. Because the guitar was used for a couple years in its black and white configuration, it developed wear patterns before Eddie re-taped it and painted it red. The guitar builder I chose (Mark at Arnquist Musical Designs) was introduced to me by a buddy of mine. With a grueling first World Tour under Eds belt, Edward now had an image: A young, flamboyant guitar prodigy with a visually striking guitar. Below is a list of all necks that have ever been pictured installed on the Frankenstrat, in the order in which they were first pictured affixed to the guitar. Our range of versatile router jigs and templates from INCRA, Woodpeckers and AUKTools speed up the job of shelf pin placement, box joint cutting, forming circles and right-angle moulding and patterned inlays. Mod Garage: The Original Eddie Van Halen Wiring. December 1982: Eddies guitar tech, Rudy Leiren, holding the Kramer Ad guitar. All in all, better than I feared. The material not carried can be challenged and removed. A midsize fixed- or plunge-base router is fine for most template routing. Feb 25, 2013 #1 My friend and I are making 2 Frankenstrats. Eddie sported a gold FRT-4 prototype with vertical fine tuners, which was the first Floyd Rose with fine tuners. As I will be using a Floyd Rose bridge on this guitar (as Eddie uses!) frankenstrat pattern template, frankenstrat guitar template, frankenstrat routing template In order to maintain the template in case it's even needed again, the edges were. 1997 Frankenstrat with the Square-heel Lynn Ellsworth neck reattached, this time with cigarette burn marks on the headstock. By clicking Subscribe, I agree to receive exclusive offers & promotions, news & reviews, and personalized tips for buying and selling on Reverb. The quarter was originally screwed to the body to help keep the original Floyd Rose tremolo (without fine tuners) stay flush with the body when the guitar was drop-tuned. It was painted with a black and white striped design until arriving at its final combination of red background with black and white stripes. . #1. Steps. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Indeed chrome LogOut/ Did you sand it after primer before the black base?! 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