Is this the real Frankenstrat?

rsvmark

 Hi there folks. I am on hold with the family and snuck away for an hour and slid into the Hollywood guitar centre. This was in a case ....

i am aware there were several originals but wondered if this was one of them?

https://flic.kr/p/2h3nDiU

Thanks 

sweepy

If it isn’t, it’s the best copy I’ve seen 

impmann

‘Several originals’?

Not really, there is only one Frankie. It’s worn a couple of different necks (the original BB one and a Kramer one). It’s been white and black, then oversprayed with the red. Originally it had a Strat trem a full sized pickguard with the PAF from Eddie’s wrecked 335 suspended from it. Later this was cut down and the same pickup mounted onto the body directly and that neck pickup half fitted.

IIRC, there were some clones made about 10 years ago that were so close to the original Eddie himself said he found it hard to tell the difference. I imagine it’s one of those.

randella

There was a very short run of reissues made some years ago by EVH, I think - they went for some crazy money.  They were accurate even down to the year of the silver dollar used to keep the Floyd bridge flush.  Here's one on Reverb if you have a few holiday spends left over

https://reverb.com/item/14717132-eddie-van-halen-frankenstein-replica-electric-guitar-only-300-made

Either way, that's a very cool guitar you spotted! 

axisus

Can't you just ask them?

Way cooler than anything Eddie used since.

I'm amazed at how narrow the string spacing is at the nut??

Doodlegame

rsvmark said:

 Hi there folks. I am on hold with the family and snuck away for an hour and slid into the Hollywood guitar centre. This was in a case ....

i am aware there were several originals but wondered if this was one of them?

https://flic.kr/p/2h3nDiU

Thanks 

It's an amazing copy if it's not the original.....  I thought there was only one red black white frankenstrat and there was the yellow/black and the pickguard one....?? 

Jackobean

Fairly sure the original is presently on display at the metropolitan museum in New York, part of the 'play it loud' exhibition.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/752454?&exhibitionId={d4024ef6-623f-4770-a626-a38b90c25b64}&oid=752454&pkgids=569&pg=0&rpp=20&pos=22&ft=*&offset=20

Winny_Pooh

Doodlegame said:

rsvmark said:

 Hi there folks. I am on hold with the family and snuck away for an hour and slid into the Hollywood guitar centre. This was in a case ....

i am aware there were several originals but wondered if this was one of them?

https://flic.kr/p/2h3nDiU

Thanks 

It's an amazing copy if it's not the original.....  I thought there was only one red black white frankenstrat and there was the yellow/black and the pickguard one....?? 

IIRC the yellow/black one pictured on the back of VH with the strat trem is the same body before being repainted and floyded.

Doodlegame

Winny_Pooh said:

Doodlegame said:

rsvmark said:

 Hi there folks. I am on hold with the family and snuck away for an hour and slid into the Hollywood guitar centre. This was in a case ....

i am aware there were several originals but wondered if this was one of them?

https://flic.kr/p/2h3nDiU

Thanks 

It's an amazing copy if it's not the original.....  I thought there was only one red black white frankenstrat and there was the yellow/black and the pickguard one....?? 

IIRC the yellow/black one pictured on the back of VH with the strat trem is the same body before being repainted and floyded.

That's my education for the day done!  I'd love to see how he went about doing that DIY...  Went to a Jorge Tripps clinic the other week, he talked a bit about how he almost ended up with Eddie's shark guitar...  Some very interesting stuff about his gear and pedals..

rsvmark

Jackobean said:

Fairly sure the original is presently on display at the metropolitan museum in New York, part of the 'play it loud' exhibition.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/752454?&exhibitionId={d4024ef6-623f-4770-a626-a38b90c25b64}&oid=752454&pkgids=569&pg=0&rpp=20&pos=22&ft=*&offset=20

If there was only 1 original, by definition either The Met or the Guitar Centre has a fake! 

rsvmark

Some further googling suggests more than 1 guitar. There was another partscaster strat which has 5150 stickers behind the bridge and also a guitar appears to have been buried with dimebag. My bet is that it’s one of those replicas from a few years back. Iirc there were 3 ‘grades’ and all were quite expensive

Eartrumpet

No idea about the OP, but found this interesting. VH talks about his guitar making experiments from about 15 minutes

flyingv

The One I built a few years back for my nephew - spent several months sourcing parts, mostly from the U.S
he wanted it as close as possible whatever the cost - I loved spending his money

https://i.imgur.com/WBpiYJi.jpg

axisus

flyingv said:

The One I built a few years back for my nephew - spent several months sourcing parts, mostly from the U.S
he wanted it as close as possible whatever the cost - I loved spending his money

https://i.imgur.com/WBpiYJi.jpg

Wow, superb job!

flyingv

Cheers @axisus Found a video clip of my lad giving it a whirl ???
https://i.imgur.com/aMxHqil.mp4

mudslide73

http://www.vintagekramer.com/5150f.htm

There are a few - gives you an idea of how many stripes there are/were. 

randella

flyingv said:

The One I built a few years back for my nephew - spent several months sourcing parts, mostly from the U.S
he wanted it as close as possible whatever the cost - I loved spending his money

https://i.imgur.com/WBpiYJi.jpg

@flyingv - that's absolutely superb work.  Does it play as well as it looks it should?  From what I've seen on Reverb for those EVH reissues you should be billing your nephew in the region of £17,000

andy_k

Ed's son owns the original, all the ones in museums etc are part of the fender run of 100, more recently, they also did a run of 78 of the white version, which was the same guitar before it got the red paint.
The original bumblebee is buried with Dimebag RIP.

flyingv

randella said:

flyingv said:

The One I built a few years back for my nephew - spent several months sourcing parts, mostly from the U.S
he wanted it as close as possible whatever the cost - I loved spending his money

https://i.imgur.com/WBpiYJi.jpg

@flyingv - that's absolutely superb work.  Does it play as well as it looks it should?  From what I've seen on Reverb for those EVH reissues you should be billing your nephew in the region of £17,000

Cheers @randella it does play really nice, and sounds spot on ( check out the video clip above )it’s got an early SD Custom custom pickup in it, as did the original . the necks fantastic.... we had it made to order by  musikraft  to the original spec, frets, radius inc rosewood dot markers! Believe it or not he hardest parts to find were the truck reflectors on the back. Think after import duties on most parts, total build was just under a grand.

cosmiccarrot

rsvmark said:

 Hi there folks. I am on hold with the family and snuck away for an hour and slid into the Hollywood guitar centre. This was in a case ....

i am aware there were several originals but wondered if this was one of them?

https://flic.kr/p/2h3nDiU

Thanks 

I'm of the belief that Ed doesn't let the original out of the 5150 studio and all the others seen in various places, are the Chip Ellis fender copies.

There was only one Boogie Bodies guitar and it's thought he sprayed it black originally in the earlier club days, 74 onwards. He taped it up much later but pre '78 and sprayed it white, as featured on the first album. Later he sprayed red on after it was getting scratched (the yellow and Black strat was a different guitar).

He only had one of the strat shaped guitars but Kramer did make a direct copy of frankie that he used on the 82/84 tours. Later Ed did use loads of Kramer pacer shaped guitars with the red/white striping and 5150 logos, there were lots of those built by Ed and kramer.

This is a good over view of the guitar (starts at 2.30)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LnXW5cQKug