EVH posing with his signature Music Man model in 1991. But his choices paralleled a growing affection among some makers for mixing Fender and Gibson attributes, and also the rise of the ‘SuperStrat’ – the extreme rocker’s tool of choice that was developed through the 80s thanks not only to Kramer but also to makers such as Electra/Westone, Jackson, Ibanez, and more. It had the familiar set of relatively straightforward appointments: single bridge humbucker (straight rather than angled this time), single volume control, Ed’s now favoured Floyd Rose vibrato system, and of course a red, white, and black striped finish.Įd’s do-it-yourself attitude was hardly new, and players had chopped and changed guitars to suit their requirements for years. The guitar centred on a Kramer Pacer Special body and a custom maple neck with hockey-stick head, like the one on a modified Ibanez Destroyer that Ed owned. His tie-up would help propel Kramer to become the biggest-selling electric guitar brand in the States during the mid 80s-although in its original form, the company would burn out and barely survive into the following decade.Īs well as the production models that he promoted, Ed’s most famous Kramer was a new take on the Frankenstrat, usually called the 5150 thanks to some taped numbers on its body (and named to match Ed’s 5150 recording studio). ![]() The next step in the story of Ed’s individually styled guitars came with an endorsement deal that he made with Kramer in 1983. At the same time it became something so well-known beyond my wildest dreams that its value made it a target for theft, and I wanted to protect it. ![]() “It took so much abuse from endless touring and recording-I wanted to pay some respect to it and let it survive and not let it get destroyed completely. “I retired it from regular use,” he said. In 2011, when Ed donated Frankenstrat 2 to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, he told the museum’s magazine what became of Frankenstrat 1. Image: Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for Solters / Ann Summa / Getty Images Eddie performing with his EVH Wolfgang at New York’s Jones Beach Theater, 2015. A later reworking resulted in a red, black, and white look. Then there was that distinctive black-and-white finish, which Ed achieved using acrylic bicycle paints, spraying on a black base, sticking down apparently random strips of masking tape-spraying white over everything, removing the masking tape, and revealing a fancy striped effect. He glued in some jumbo Gibson frets, and he screwed on his Strat’s vibrato and fitted a single control for volume. He took the PAF humbucker from his 335 and fitted that to the body, slanted at the bridge. As with many things Ed, the stories have varied through the years, but it seems likely that the first Frankenstrat, the one with the black-and-white finish seen on the front of that first Van Halen album cover, consisted of a Strat-style body and neck he got from Charvel, in turn supplied to Charvel by Boogie Bodies.
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