The Legend itself on view at The Legend Category: Product News 9 Nov 2009 - 16:07 by Carel

Seldom if ever in the history of rock can monumental change be attributed to one single person whose individual contributions amount to nothing short of an astounding re-imagining of the instrument's possibilities and whose playing abilities and innovations are so utterly dazzling as to be considered truly revolutionary. Such is the case with Eddie Van Halen. From the mind and imagination of this extraordinary individual comes a truly iconic instrument, widely regarded as a legendary guitar. Overview of the Frankenstrat The Frankenstrat is Eddie's attempt to combine a Gibson and a Fender. The Frankenstrat is an ash Stratocaster body with a routing that Eddie made to fit in a Gibson PAF humbucking bridge pickup, with a single coil neck pickup. The neck pickup was simply for decoration and was never actually wired with the humbucker, due to Eddie's inability to wire the switch properly. It has a maple neck, chrome hardware, and red, black, and white stripes. It is a six-string guitar with an original Floyd Rose tremolo. Body and Neck Eddie Van Halen bought the Frankenstrat's ash body and maple neck 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 anyway because he believed it would perform fine. Pickup Eddie got a PAF (Patent Applied For) pickup from his Gibson ES-335. He had the idea to dip the pickup in paraffin wax to reduce microphonic feedback, a technique that has been around since pickups were invented, and the way they were made before machine-winding. He screwed the pickup to the guitar in the bridge position slightly sideways to allow for string spacing differences to the pickup's magnetic pole spacing. 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 be the black and white "classic" version of the Frankenstrat. In 1979, Eddie put more tape on the body and painted over that with Red Schwinn Bicycle paint.As Eddie said, "The Schwinn Bicycle paint gives it pop." Controls Van Halen got rid of both tone control potentiometers (pots) and wired up the pickups in a simple circuit, due largely 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 cut up to use as a pickguard to cover the controls. Bridge Edward also added a Fender Tremolo System from his '58 Fender Stratocaster. The Floyd Rose was added later. Fender and Charvel Charvel made a signature model EVH called the "Charvel EVH Art Series Guitar" that sported one pickup, a Floyd Rose locking tremolo, a custom wound pickup, which could be ordered in either black and white; black, white, and red; or black and yellow. The guitars are not reliced like the original Frankenstrat, but share a similar neck profile. Fender - as the parent company to EVH - has recently sold a limited series of only 300 replicas of the original Frankenstrat, scratches and all! Paul Bothner Music - the other legend of the music industry - is the proud owner of one of these limited 300 models. As part of our Guitar Month celebration, we have decided to tour this beauty around Cape Town for you to view. Times and dates: it can be veiwed at any of the following free Guitar Month Workshops during November 2009. Wed 11 @ 18:30 - Featuring Wayne Bosch on Jazz Guitar (Plumstead Branch) Sat 14 @ 12:00 - Featuring Stereo Zen on Role of Guitar & Bass in Progresive Funk (Claremont Branch) Sat 21 @ 11:00 – Paul Bothner Music staff: Guitar Month ‘Sound & Style’ (N1 City Branch) Sat 28 @ 11:00 - Dan Patlansky (Globally renowned): Get Your Hands on Gritty Blues Tones (Somerset West Branch)