Frankenstrat

Frankenstrat

The Frankenstrat is a guitar created by Eddie Van Halen. The name is a portmanteau of Frankenstein, the fictional doctor who created a monster by combining body parts of the recently deceased. A copy of the guitar is housed in the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C.

About Frankenstrat in brief

Summary FrankenstratThe Frankenstrat is a guitar created by Eddie Van Halen. It was made from a Northern Ash Stratocaster body, with pickup routing which he modified to fit a Gibson PAF humbucking bridge pickup. The name is a portmanteau of Frankenstein, the fictional doctor who created a monster by combining body parts of the recently deceased. A copy of the guitar is housed in the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C. The guitarist originally used the Fender tremolo system from his 1958 Fender Stratocasters, adding the Floyd Rose later. In April 2019, the Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed the guitar as part of the \”Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock and Roll\” exhibit. The guitar has a maple neck and fretboard, chrome hardware, and was painted with a black and white striped design until arriving at its final combination of red background with black andwhite stripes.

It has six strings and a Floyd Rose tremolo. The bridge has gone through a number of necks over the years, and its bridge has evolved from the 1958 Fenders tremolo to original Floyd Rose bridges. The placement of the 1971 quarter was to keep the FloydRose bridge flush with the body when he would drop tune during live songs, and VanHalen attached bicycle reflectors to the rear of the body so he could flip the guitar over to reflect the large screw eyes onto the crowd. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, many companies tried to capitalize on the guitar’s popularity by manufacturing replicas. In 1981, he replaced the original black pickguard with a white pickguard and covered the back with a cut up black vinyl record and cut up a 3-ply piece of a Mighty Molic coil with a single phenolic coil in the neck position, a single coil for the neck, and a red foil foil for the fretboard.