Frankenstrat is a guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

 created by Eddie Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen

Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...

.

Overview of the Frankenstrat

The Frankenstrat represented Van Halen's attempt to combine the sound of a classic Gibson

Gibson

Gibson may refer to:* Gibson Amphitheatre* Gibson Appliance* Gibson Girl* Gibson Guitar Corporation* Gibson * Gibson Generating Station-Places:In the United States:* Gibson, Arkansas* Gibson, Georgia* Gibson, Iowa* Gibson, Louisiana...

 guitar with the physical attributes of a Fender

Fender

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, commonly referred to as simply Fender, of Scottsdale, Arizona is a manufacturer of stringed instruments and amplifiers, such as solid-body electric guitars, including the Stratocaster and the Telecaster...

. It was originally made from an ash Stratocaster body, with pickup routing that Eddie altered to fit a Gibson PAF humbucking

Humbucker

A humbucker is a type of electric guitar pickup, first patented by Seth Lover and the Gibson company, that uses two coils, both generating string signal. Humbuckers have higher output than a single coil pickup since both coils are connected in series...

 bridge pickup. It had a maple

Maple

Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...

 neck and fretboard, and chrome hardware. It developed through several early paint schemes ultimately into the now famous combination of red, with black and white stripes. It is a six-string guitar with an original Floyd Rose

Floyd Rose

The Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo, or simply Floyd Rose, is a type of locking vibrato arm for a guitar. The first of its kind, Floyd D. Rose invented the locking vibrato in 1977, and it is now manufactured by a company of the same name...

 tremolo

Tremolo arm

A whammy bar, tremolo arm/bar, or vibrato arm/bar is a component of a guitar, used to add vibrato to the sound by changing the tension of the strings, typically at the bridge or tailpiece...

, which Eddie helped to develop.

Body and Neck

Eddie Van Halen bought the Frankenstrat's ash body and maple neck for a total of $130. Both of these parts were procured from Wayne Charvel, who sold Boogie Body-made bodies and necks. The body of the guitar was a 'second', so called because it was not cosmetically pleasing. In Van Halen's case, the body had a knot in the wood. He bought it at a discount ($50) because he believed it would perform fine. The maple neck cost $80.

Bridge

Eddie originally used a Fender Tremolo System from his '58 Fender Stratocaster. The Floyd Rose was added later.

Pickup

Eddie originally equipped the Frankenstrat with a PAF (Patent Applied For) pickup he removed from his Gibson ES-335

Gibson ES-335

The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial thinline arched-top semi-acoustic electric guitar. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES series in 1958, it is neither hollow nor solid; instead, a solid wood block runs through the center of its body...

. He potted the pickup in paraffin wax to reduce microphonic feedback, a technique that had been popular before machine-winding. He screwed the pickup to the guitar in the bridge position, slightly sideways to compensate for the different string spacing between Gibson's pickup and Fender's bridge. The pickup was later replaced with a Seymour Duncan humbucker.

Controls

Van Halen got rid of both tone control potentiometers and wired the pickups in a simple circuit, largely due to his limited knowledge of electrical circuitry. Van Halen famously used a knob reading 'tone' on the volume control spot. He then used a vinyl record he carved as a pickguard

Pickguard

A pickguard is a piece of plastic or other laminated material that is placed under the strings on the body of a guitar, mandolin or similar plucked string instrument...

 to cover the controls. Later, the pickguard was changed to a real pickguard that had been similarly hacked. A strip of double-sided masking tape was also added near the pickguard, on which he would place several picks.

Paint and Finish

Eddie painted the guitar black. After it was dry he put strips of masking tape on the body and painted it white. This would create the classic version of the Frankenstrat. Due to companies selling guitars with similar finishes, he stopped playing the guitar in public, instead using the famous black and yellow "bumble bee" guitar (pictured on Van Halen II

Van Halen II

-Personnel:*David Lee Roth - lead vocals*Eddie Van Halen - electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals*Michael Anthony - bass guitar, backing vocals*Alex Van Halen - drums-Production:*Producer: Ted Templeman...

). In 1979, after much disappointment with the performance of the black and yellow guitar, Eddie re-taped the body of the original white and black Frankenstrat, and painted over that with Red Schwinn Bicycle paint. As Eddie said, "The Schwinn Bicycle paint gives it pop."

Later upgrades

The Frankenstrat has gone through many necks over the years. The bridge has evolved from the '58 Fender tremolo to original Floyd Rose bridges with and without fine tuners. The placement of the 1971 quarter was a spontaneous addition when it was recruited to keep the Floyd Rose bridge flush on the body. He also attached truck reflectors to the rear of the body purely for amusement value.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, many guitar companies tried to capitalize on Van Halen's popularity by manufacturing Frankenstrat lookalikes. In an attempt to mislead such companies, Edward Van Halen installed a red single-coil pickup in the neck position of the red, black, and white Frankenstrat, but it remained non-functional. To confuse imitators even further, Van Halen screwed a three-way switch into the empty middle-pickup rout in the guitar's body. Like the neck pickup, it was purely decorative, intended to do nothing but keep observers guessing.

Kramers

Kramer was the first company that Eddie officially endorsed. It started in 1983, when Kramer built a Frankenstrat replica for him. During this time, he replaced his original Frankenstrat neck with a Kramer neck. In 1984, Edward was presented with the "Hot for Teacher

Hot for Teacher

"Hot for Teacher" is a song on Van Halen's album 1984.The sexually suggestive song was best known for its long opening drum solo, near motorcycle-like drum fills and its music video featuring the band as both adults and young students in a high school...

" guitar (as seen in the video clip for "Hot for Teacher"), and started appearing in Kramer advertisements. Paul Unkert, "The Guitar Guy" and of UNK guitars, worked on the Frankenstrat and put his own "Unk" stamp on it.

The most famous Kramer that Edward had was the "5150", which he built in the Kramer factory. It is widely thought that this guitar was made out of a Kramer Baretta

Kramer Baretta

The Kramer Baretta was a guitar manufactured by the Kramer guitar company originally located in New Jersey. The guitar was introduced in 1984. The Baretta featured a Floyd Rose locking tremolo system and one Seymour Duncan JB humbucking pick-up. The Baretta was discontinued in 1990 when the...

 body, but it was actually made out of Prototype Pacer

Kramer Pacer

The Kramer Pacer is a guitar series made by Kramer Guitars from the beginning of the Kramer wooden neck period to the company’s bankruptcy in 1990. -The types:...

 body.
This guitar was used from the 1984

1984 (Van Halen album)

1984 is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen. One of the band's more popular albums , 1984 is to date the final album featuring singer David Lee Roth before he left the band in the spring of the following year.-Background and recording:Eddie Van Halen,...

 tour through the OU812

OU812

OU812 is the 8th studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1988. The album title is allegedly a joke on Van Halen's previous lead singer David Lee Roth's 1986 album Eat 'Em and Smile . However, "OU812" was also seen in the 70s sitcom Taxi written on a wall...

 tour, and was last used in the recording for "Judgement Day", for the album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is the ninth studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released in 1991 through Warner Bros. Records. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart and maintained the position for three weeks...

. It is now retired.

A number of other Kramers were also built and used by Eddie during these years, the most notable being the "1984" Kramer, while most were simply striped designs without other markings. These guitars were primarily used as backups for the "5150" guitar during the tours, and were likewise retired at the same time. Some were simply given away to various people, or in cases such as the "1984" Kramer, in contests.

Charvel Hybrid VH2 a.k.a. Bumblebee

The second Frankenstrat that appeared in time for the Van Halen II LP and tour was the black and yellow striped guitar. It was buried with Dimebag Darrell

Dimebag Darrell

Darrell Lance Abbott , also known as Diamond Darrell and Dimebag Darrell, was an American guitarist. He was best known as a founding member of the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan. Abbott also contributed to the album Rebel Meets Rebel, a collaboration between Pantera and David Allan Coe...

 of Pantera

Pantera

Pantera was an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas. Formed by the Abbott brothers, Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell in 1981, bassist Rex Brown would join in late 1981 with vocalist Terry Glaze. Looking for a new and heavier sound, Pantera had Terry replaced in 1987 with Phil Anselmo as...

, who had asked for a Charvel Art Series replica before they were released. Eddie instead presented the original guitar at his funeral.

The Ibanez Destroyer a.k.a. Shark

This guitar was a dual humbucker instrument that was created from a korina

Korina

Korina may refer to:* Korina language, an Arauan language of Brazil and Peru* Korina Sanchez , Filipino journalist* Terminalia superba, also known as Korina in the US, a large tree native to tropical western Africa....

 Ibanez Destroyer

Ibanez Destroyer

The Destroyer is an Ibanez brand electric guitar model manufactured at the FujiGen-Gakki musical instrument factory for the Hoshino-Gakki Company. The Destroyer model was first introduced by Hoshino-Gakki in 1975 and was based on the Gibson Musical Instruments' Explorer design...

. Eddie removed a large chunk of the wood with a hacksaw, giving it an open jaw-like shape. The name "Shark" was given to it because the chunk he cut out was serrated and gave the appearance of shark teeth. This guitar was used in the videos for "Runnin' With the Devil

Runnin' With the Devil

"Runnin' with the Devil" is a rock song and the first track from Van Halen's 1978 eponymous debut album. The song lyrics were inspired by the Ohio Players song "Runnin' from the Devil". In 2009 it was named the 9th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1....

" and "You Really Got Me

You Really Got Me

"You Really Got Me" is a rock song written by Ray Davies and performed by his band, The Kinks. It was released on 4th August 1964 as the group's third single, and reached Number 1 on the UK singles chart the next month, remaining for two weeks...

". Unfortunately, the removal of the wood destroyed the sound of the guitar, which resulted in its retirement.

Fender/Charvel

Charvel introduced a signature model EVH called the "Charvel EVH Art Series Guitar" that was equipped with a single custom wound pickup, a Floyd Rose locking tremolo, and could be ordered in white with black stripes, black with yellow stripes, or red with black and white stripes. The guitars are not relic'ed, but feature a neck profile similar to the original Frankenstrat.

300 relic'ed replicas of the red with black and white stripe Frankenstrat were painstaking created, scratches and all, and offered under Van Halen's "EVH" brand for $25,000.

Guitar Hero: Van Halen

The design of this guitar was used as the box art for Guitar Hero: Van Halen

Guitar Hero: Van Halen

Guitar Hero: Van Halen is the third and final band-specific rhythm video game in the Guitar Hero series. As with the previous games Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: Metallica, the game features 25 songs from Van Halen along with 19 additional songs from selected artists that have been...

, and it appears in-game numerous times as well, including as a transitional effect at the end of songs (the stripes appear, one by one, in rapid succession, and then are removed).