Frankenstrat

Its name is a portmanteau of Frankenstein, the fictional doctor who created a monster by combining body parts of the recently deceased, and the Stratocaster, a model of electric guitar made by Fender.

The Frankenstrat was Van Halen's attempt to combine the sound of a classic Gibson guitar with the physical attributes and tremolo bar functionality of a Fender Stratocaster.

In April 2019, the Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed the Frankenstein guitar as part of the "Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock and Roll" exhibit.

Van Halen bought the factory second body at a discount price of $50 due to a knot in the wood in the lower cutaway.

The $80 Boogie Bodies neck, which was acquired around summer 1977, had jumbo frets and a brass nut with a large Strat headstock.

Van Halen removed both tone-control potentiometers, wiring the pickups in a simple circuit largely due to his limited knowledge of electronics.

The guitar was used in this state from approximately February 1977 until July 1977, when he put strips of masking tape around the body in a criss-crossing stripe pattern before repainting it white, creating the classic Frankenstrat paint scheme.

Frustrated by people beginning to copy his flair, Van Halen chose to refinish the original black and white Frankenstrat with an additional layer of red paint at the end of March 1979.

The white undercoat, which was part of the Schwinn bicycle lacquer's 2-part candy-color formula, caused the red paint to erode into a pinkish hue with time.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, many guitar companies tried to capitalize on Van Halen's popularity by manufacturing Frankenstrat replicas.

Although the 5150 reappeared on the 2004 reunion tour with Sammy Hagar, the guitar upgraded with a Charvel neck and EVH Wolfgang humbucker, it was subsequently retired.

The second Frankenstrat, appearing on the Van Halen II LP and tour, was a 1979 Charvel hybrid VH2 "Bumblebee" black-and-yellow striped guitar.

Anecdotally it was buried with Dimebag Darrell of Pantera in a Kiss Kasket,[6] who had asked for a Charvel Art Series replica before they were released; Van Halen was said to have presented the original guitar at his funeral.

Van Halen himself has stated that the red-black-white Frankenstrat replicas feel and sound better than the original guitar built in the 1970s.

[13] In 2013 Van Halen's brand, EVH, released a line of Fender USA-manufactured replicas based on previous Frankenstrats.

EVH also sells a Frankenstrat replica pickup, which they claim was wired to the same specs as Van Halen's original PAF.

Van Halen modified the Frankenstein several times. This photo shows the guitar in its final state, with red-over-white-over-black paint job. The top two pickups have been replaced with company electronics: the center one with a selector switch and the upper one with a red single-coil made in 1931, pickup. The bridge slot contains the only working pickup, a slightly misaligned Gibson PAF humbucker with black plastic bobbins. A fragment of the original pickguard remains under the control bank. The volume control was functional, though capped with a knob labeled "TONE". An adhesive strip on the lower bout was used to store spare picks. The original Fender bridge and tremolo system has been replaced with a Floyd Rose tremolo system, which also required a new neck, fitted with a matched Floyd Rose locking nut.
Van Halen playing an early configuration of the Frankenstrat. Here it has the paint seen on the cover of the debut Van Halen (album) , before it was repainted in red. While it still only has a single functional bridge humbucker, the holes for the other two pickups have been covered by a solid black pickguard. This pickguard would later be removed when the guitar was repainted, and he would stuff non-functional electronics into the exposed pickup slots. This iteration also uses a Fender tremolo arm.
The Kramer guitar made by Eddie Van Halen
A 2018 replica of the Frankenstrat in its original "Eruption '78" configuration.