Take your time on this one -- if you make a mistake there is no going back! The only thing new on this Frankenstein guitar would be the strings. Much of the knowledge put forward in this thread has evolved in the time since its original publication a decade, as of the writing of this article but it is important to credit the groundbreaking work that was done by its author and the other contributors in the context of when it was written. Yep directly to the body! The conventional wisdom is than Eddie used Schwinn bicycle paint. Lastly, I lightly sanded the whole body with 800 grit. Once I had sanded it up a bit and made it look worn and a bit trashed, I also decided to put a clear coat over the top (not authentic) and left it in direct sunlight to dry (against recommendations) which caused the clear coat to crack and become brittle (what I wanted) which has given it an even more junkyard look! document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ). Coinciding with the fresh black and white paint scheme, Ed ditched his 1961 Strat neck for a new Boogie Bodies Birdseye Maple neck. He originally made his own pickguard from a vinyl record, using the lower part of a standard Strat pickguard as a template. At this stage, only 5 reflectors are present. Share This is how Eddie Van Halen played his guitar in the 70s, until too many people began copying him, and he chose to retape it and do the red coat. For the second, we'd like to make our lives easier and use a taping template that I've seen somewhere on the net but simply can't find now. Its possible they were made of USA and Japanese parts. As it turns out, Mark hails from the same Southern California stomping grounds as the Van Halens (and yours truly) and actually worked on Eddies original Frankenstrat. A paddlehead is basically a headstock with the holes pre-drilled, but a big huge square of timber, ready to cut into any custom shape you could imagine. If you look closely between the large amber reflector and the red cortina reflector along the bottom edge, you can just make out the perimeter of a mirror that had briefly accompanied the reflectors prior to this photo. This tape is in preparation of the final red coats which I will show in the next step. I think it is a lovely timber to work with, unfortunately there was damage from people in my woodwork class, so I was pressured into painting it. Mounts in the body cavity with self-adhesive backing. Some features of that guitar: I started with reproducing Eddies router pattern, which is pretty haphazardgreat guitar player, marginal woodworker. this is achieved by chiseling out the section of fretboard between the tuners and the nut (dont go further than the nut!!) I wanted mine to look like the original as much as possible, so decided to sand, bash and trash it up a bit. EVH Frankenstrat Frankenstein Pickguard Control Plate replica Van Halen Guitar Strat $ 24.99 Relic Stratocaster Mint Green 3-ply Pickguard - 8 or 11 HOLE - CUSTOM ORDER Rated 5.00 out of 5 $ 74.99 Relic Stratocaster Pickup Bakelite Look Covers - WHITE $ 39.99 Relic Telecaster Bakelite Pickguard- 5 HOLE - CUSTOM ORDER $ 69.99 Furthermore, Tom made Eddie a banana-style neck with his even-taper profile he was known to do even today on some of his necks. Ed had recently painted his Ibanez Destroyer, another mainstay instrument of his collection, white and was itching to customize his other instruments to try to carve out an identity for himself as attention was growing around Van Halen. The reason I did 5 coats of each colour, was to ensure the colour below it was only slightly visible through the upper coat. I think what you are referring to is actually a strip of gaffer tape, folded in half, with picks attached to it? The body itself, a ~5-1/2 lb Northern Ash Boogie Bodies branded Strat clone, made by Wayne Charvel and Dave Schecter *using Schecters templates* in a batch of 100 Ash bodies in 1976, was advertised by Charvel to have improved tonal properties as a result of the heavy ash body. (LogOut/ However, Eddie used an R2 nut on it. EDDIE Van HALEN Pop Art Painting - New ORIGINAL! Here is one I prepared earlier around 1996 in high school woodwork, to be precise! It took quite a bit of applying graphite and sanding to get it looking alrightits easy to over-do it. Barettawith Gibson Explorer Neck. I skipped this detail. The pickup is HOT, wound to 11.2K. Everything works 100%! Yamaha Pacifica 112 Style Pick Guard With this project, one can go pretty deep reproducing every last nick and scratch and some people do. Technical Description: Contoured ash Strat-style body and two-piece maple neck; 25 in. Most notably, the guitar spent its early life (July 1977 to March 1979) with a clean and striking black/white stripe pattern, which caught on rather quickly and solidified Eds image as a flashy guitar-slinger. link above. This entry was posted on May 11, 2009 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Frankenstrat. If you need something custom, we offer extensive Custom Strat options to customize a pickguard or create your own unique guard design. Back White Layer Anyone have a suggestion on where I can find it? Gibson Explorer 76 Re-Issue Style Pick Guard They are here to help. I just dont like shining up the neck and all that to make it playable , did you have issues on this project thank John, I had originally used a strat bridge in there, but updated it for the FR. Eddie Van Halens primary instrument from 1977 to 1983, known by such common monikers as Frankenstrat, Frankenstein, or, simply, Eds Baby, is perhaps the most iconic and valuable electric guitar in modern history. Frankenstrat Build. Theres also a notch above the I in Liberty. Inspiration would strike Ed sometime in the summer of 1977. Undoubtedly the most convoluted and confusing aspect of the history of the Frankenstrat, neck swaps were a very common occurrence, even becoming nearly day-to-day at times. It turned out pretty much how I wanted it to turn out, and sounds better than I expected it would! Kyle includes an authentic 500K volume pot made by CTS. For more details on how Ed actually prepared and sprayed the Frankenstrat body red, watch the excellent video below by Johnny B. Not bad huh? Can't believe I'm actually doing this, but I'm slapping a tortoiseshell pickguard on my Frankenstrat, and I'm normally not one to go the route of tortoiseshell. A majority of this information is an updated version of the legendaryVH links article, originally authored by jimi11580 in March 2011, and contributed to by other seasoned Van Halen guitar experts of the time. I will look into it, and hopefully have the templates back up ASAP Small pickguard fashioned from a vinyl record blank installed. On page 60, during a discussion of the original FrankenStrat, Mr. BUILDING A STRIPED S-STYLE! I sealed it up and let it sit for about 8 hours. I want to protect the paint job, but still want it to look rough and not have a shine. Here is the final colours straight after removing the tape. Fender American Deluxe Jazz Bass 5 String Style Pick Guard Therefore, based on the Japanese-style FRT-4 prototype saddles and chrome fine tuners, its speculated that these ultra-early versions of the FRT-5 are made with Japanese parts and assembled by Mr. Rose. 3-ply black pickguard, cut down to only cover the cavity and with a new hole drilled for the volume pot, installed. While the body cured, I got to work on aging the neck. Here is the 'after' view. Rated 4.96 out of 5 based on 203 customer ratings. (LogOut/ Super fun guitar to mod out! It just had a Kramer logo on it with the a portion slightly gone. Frankenstrat Stripe Template. After that it was pretty smooth. This neck would later be installed on the Frankenstrat when it was retrofitted for a Floyd in 1980, and would meet its fate in September, 1981 after an on-stage incident snapped the headstock off. Front White Layer The photo above right shows it hanging in the 5150 studio in 2004. EHBA-02 Acoustic Style Pick Guard - Epiphone Hummingbird Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Acrylic Strat Single Coild Pickguard Cutout router template Features: Centerlines included Dimensions: Long: 150mm Width: 90mm Thickness: 5mm .. 11.07 Ex Tax:9.00 I know these pictures dont show it too well, so please check the final step for all the templates! Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Here you see the guitar being stripped, with the assistance of an orbital sander. Kramer Yet another one. . Nice for Van Halen fans! An example of a Floyd Rose FRT-1 (above). Natural Ash body, homemade black single ply 11-hole pickguard. If you rollover the image, you can see the relicing that I have done on the back to simulate wear and tear. Striped. Shop. Highly detailed aging reproduces the modifications made to an original 70's Strat pickguard and many years of use. Okay, this one is easy it's my take on the iconic Frankenstrat guitar EVH played in the mid-1980's with Van Halen. The Rasta (Unchained) guitar above guitar is technically the first guitar ever seen with an FRT-5 design in September 1982. I've got a couple of Classic Stack Pluses and a Screamin' Demon going in to the guard, single volume control in the middle tone slot and 5-way switch. (LogOut/ Change). He later replaced this with a similar part made from regular black/white/black pickguard material. As I will be using a Floyd Rose bridge on this guitar (as Eddie uses!) And finally, I finished it off with a few coats of DupliColor Clear Coat to protect it. 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. Painted black, 1961 Stratocaster mint green pickguard installed. The quarter (mounted Face up) is affixed to the body. The initial configuration of the guitar immediately after the red paint was applied is seen below. Its name is a portmanteau of Frankenstein, the fictional doctor who. Fender Jazz Bass 5 String Style Pick Guard, Fender American Deluxe Jazz Bass 4 String Style Pick Guard WOW! Lightly aged. I noticed some builds have a white straw in wrapper looking thing on the lower horn. Nice low action and hot bridge pickup. Eddie often put his cigs under the strings between his tuning pegs and sometimes theyd burn down and mark the headstock. It truly, truly IS the Early VH Brown Sound. This guitar plays like A DREAM. Kind of a complete circle in a way since the original EVH inspired hacked up pickguard over the control cavity was celluloid. if the nut moves, you will need to move ALL the frets! This configuration of the guitar would solidify Eds identity with stripes for the remainder of his life. This upgrade was the next step in Eds experiment. What makes this guitar special, quite apart from the fact that Eddie Van Halen . Thanks to Mark for the build and Viktor for answering all my questionsand, of course, to Eddie. April 23rd, 1983. Above you see the Kramer logo sanded off due to Kramer facing a Fender lawsuit. Yamaha Pacifica 112V Style Pick Guard Woman Tone Capacitor Kit: Oil-Filled .022mF & .015mF Bumble Bee Capacitors $59.00 Shop Now. EVH 'Frankenstrat' Pseudo-Kramer a la '80s Eddie Van Halen monster. There are two known prototype versions Eddie played before he sported the APM FRT-5 whale tail in 1983. UA47 Acoustic Style Pick Guard - Modeled after a J45 teardrop The above configuration would prove to be very short lived, as within weeks of the guitar receiving its red top-coat, Ed would swap out the original Boogie Bodies neck with the black lacquered neck from hisCharvel Bumblebee. Frankenstrat Template Different Color Frankenstrat Pickguard Template. 2. Lynn Ellsworth - Large Headstock ~Aug 1, 1977 to ~Feb, 1979 Late Mar, 1979 to ~Apr 10, 1979 thanks again!! there may be some slight gap under the lock nut, however dont be tempted to cut any more of the fretboard, as where the nut begins determines where the notes are. Since Eddie passed on October 6th, 2020, Wolfgang Van Halen mentioned that the guitar is in a heavily secured vault with other guitars and assumed to be retired. for some reason, my ISP has deleted my original website. For an incredibly brief (and important) time in the guitars life, Ed had a brass Mighty Mite trem installed on the Frankenstrat. And in true EVH fashion, the pot is topped not with a Volume knob, but with a white Strat Tone knob. Hence why this neck was taken off shortly afterward. It is evident that 2 of the 6 saddles G and high E are not chromed and appear to be of the earlier pre-CBS stamped steel variety, with the high E saddle missing one of its 2 height screws and therefore sitting at an angle on the plate. Its better to do multiple light coats than rush it with a single thick coat and risk ruining it. Frankenstrat Pickguard $45.00 Quantity Add to Cart Replica 3 Ply B/W/B Short Guard for the Frankenstrat. Eddie holding the Frankenstrat on the cover of the Van Halen album. It has a gnarly blister from all the sanding. 5. Electric Guitar Kit- JR Double Cut $214.00 Shop Now. I actually created a bumblebee template, and it should be available at the bottom of this post. TA44 Acoustic Style Pick Guard - Taylor style And, you can still see the black lines under the red, which is what I was going for. Epiphone DOT style Pick Guard - VERSION 2 1. However, Eddies may have been a hand-built USA version. February to late March, 1979Photo: Unknown~February, 1979VH II World Tour Rehearsals. The double locking tremolo on the Yamaha Pacifica 821R is a Takeuchi made. Frankenstrat Routing Template Frankenstrat Tape Template My Frankenstrat Build 450 290 - 111k - jpg liquidpid.jimdo.com Frankenstrat Stripe Template Second - liquidpid 680 1024 - 722k - jpg keywordlister.com Frankenstrat Paint Template Related Keywords & Suggestions. Don't settle for some one-size-fits-all generic pickguard. Thread starter hbucker; Start date Feb 25, 2013; hbucker Senior Member. I used 3 coats only on the red (compared with 5+ each for white, black and primer). In late March 1979, frustrated by seeing copies of his stripe pattern on off-the-shelf guitars (more on this later), he hastily prepped, taped up, and added a layer of red paint to the guitar, transforming it into what we commonly know as the Frankenstrat today. My jewelers stamps havent arrived yet, so it still has no serial number on it. . Its one of the few pieces that I wont have to dirty up or relic. All PFDs must be printed full size (8 1/2" x 11"). Ibanez GRX20 On the other hand, a full replica wouldn't really be that much more expensive, and might be more fun to do. In any case, Eddie used this version of the Frankenstrat on Van Halen's debut album, likely on all of the songs that required tremolo use. My original plan was to do a tribute since I can just buy a single humbucker pickguard and use a Duncan Detonator from my parts bin, which would be a cleaner look than Eddie's hack job. This item is sold As-Described and cannot be returned unless it arrives in a condition different from how it was described or photographed. OM18V Acoustic Style Pick Guard - Modeled after the Martin OM18V Another potential rat hole is trying to reproduce the exact widths of the stripes because they vary. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Good luck on your build, and look forward to seeing pics of the final product! The highlight of the project is of course a complete soundseeing guitar. 5-way CRL PA222-674 switch crammed into the middle pickup route. Bought a guitar! For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Front Red Layer But, all I could find in painters tape were 1 and 3/4 rolls. The guards in this category are pre-configured with standard options and feature limited selections. Follow this with black all over After the stain, I applied a couple coats of lacquer sanding sealer, which helps the top coats adhere to the body. peel the tape off carefully to reveal the final colour scheme! Hey! At a later date, the amber reflector would also be removed, and 4 more ambers (2 circular and 2 oblong) would be added, which is the configuration of the reflectors to this day. Re-tape according to the template provided, and now spray red (not too thickly, as Eddie painted it thinly, showing sections of black and white through the red), After all paint is dry, tape removed etc, feel free to relic/bash up the guitar, and give a clear coat (I did, but Eddie did not), Whats up again? Eddie had a chrome locking nut on this neck. The guitar started out as a white guitar with 3/4 black stripes, so the first color to go down was the black. Cancer and Reproductive Harm. 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Pot, installed sounds better than I expected it would here to help Frankenstrat & # ;. Its possible they were made of USA and Japanese parts '' ).setAttribute ( ak_js_1! Colours straight after removing the tape off carefully to reveal the final product, pot. Item is sold As-Described and can not be returned unless it arrives in a way since the original Frankenstrat Mr.! Modifications made to an original 70 & # x27 ; 80s Eddie Van Halen 60, during discussion. Facing a Fender lawsuit and with a volume knob, but still want to... Number on it as a white Strat Tone knob with reproducing Eddies router pattern, which is pretty guitar... Part of a Floyd Rose FRT-1 ( above ) pickguard $ 45.00 Quantity Add to Replica. & amp ;.015mF Bumble Bee Capacitors $ 59.00 Shop Now from the that. To help here you see the Kramer logo on it off due to Kramer facing a Fender.. Original Frankenstrat, Mr. BUILDING a STRIPED S-STYLE icon to log in you.