![]() The story, as Ed tells it, involved him hanging around Wayne Charvel’s shop, as usual, and spotting an Ash Strat style body down on the floor. However, this was a temporary and last ditch attempt to modify this guitar before something very important would happen. As we enter February, Ed takes his 1961 Sunburst Strat and sprays white lacquer right over the existing nitrocellulose finish. This platform was an immediate success for Ed, and would become the basis for all of his primary instruments for the remainder of his life – A tremolo, bridge humbucker, and master volume everything else was secondary.Įd 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. Edward has been playing a modified 1961 Stratocaster for some time, likely purchased from Wayne Charvel in 1976, equipped with a few humbuckers over it’s tenure, wired directly to the master volume and out to the jack. Below is a concise summary of the evolution of paint on the Frankenstrat. Many newcomers, therefore, seem to get unrelated Kramer guitars confused with Ed’s Frankenstrat, or simply misunderstand the relationship between Ed and most of his guitars. Note that Ed had over a dozen red/white/black guitars during his time with Kramer – none of which were painted by him, and are NOT to be confused with the Frankenstrat. 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. Most notably, the guitar spent it’s early life (July 1977 to March 1979) with a clean and striking black/white stripe pattern, which caught on rather quickly and solidified Ed’s image as a flashy guitar-slinger. ![]() It’s important to recognize that the Frankenstrat went through several ‘stages’ of paint, which lasted from merely days to over a year. ‘Jimi’ has continued his search to uncover the history of the guitar in the years since his VH links thread, and has contributed major portions of the information to this article as well, along with Don Ward, Logan Schenk, and countless others who have contributed to the public discourse. Much of the knowledge put forward in this thread has evolved in the time since it’s 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. A majority of this information is an updated version of the legendary VH links article, originally authored by ‘jimi11580’ in March 2011, and contributed to by other seasoned Van Halen guitar experts of the time. To better understand the complex history of the guitar, this article features a prelude to briefly cover at the major changes throughout it’s life. This page is a collection of all history of the guitar, accepted/established and theorized alike, from its first days in Van Halen’s LA club gigs to its final live show on at Van Halen’s legendary ‘US Festival’ concert. Neck swaps, pickup swaps, and bridge swaps were common, and sometimes even occured on a day-to-day basis. 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. It is the guitar most associated with Eddie Van Halen through his career, particularly in his early years, only rivaled by the Kramer 5150 and his later ‘Wolfgang’ models. ![]() Eddie Van Halen’s primary instrument from 1977 to 1983, known by such common monikers as ‘Frankenstrat’, ‘Frankenstein’, or, simply, ‘Ed’s Baby’, is perhaps the most iconic and valuable electric guitar in modern history.
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