FRANKENSTRAT (Frankenstein Guitar): Get to know Eddie Van Halen’s Guitar, the First Superstrat. EVH Gear: Amp and Guitars.
One of the first to imagine and build a guitar with Superstrat features was Eddie Van Halen. The guitarist managed to create a hybrid instrument that suited his needs.
Van Halen was looking for a bright Strat-style sound, with plenty of power and without the noise problems of single coil pickups at high gain levels.
To do this, Van Halen fused Fender and Gibson style features, while also adding new features such as the use of Floyd Rose tremolo. Halen was looking for a bright Stratocaster-style sound, but with more power and without the noise problems at high gain levels caused by single coil pickups.
Noise-free power in the style of Gibson models, but without the thick tone characteristic of this brand, to achieve a high-gain sound with more brightness, provided by the woods, and especially by the long scale 25.5-inch of the Stratocaster models.
Frankenstrat: The First Superstrat
His “design” was based on an ash body, a Stratocaster-style Charvel maple neck, a Floyd Rose bridge and a Gibson Humbucker double-coil pickup. Something that turned out to be the perfect potion, using a Stratocaster-style structure but with a Gibson high-output pickup, and with the touch of the Floyd Rose Tremolo.
The guitarist was one of the first musicians to use this type of tremolo bridge, with which he explored the new possibilities that the system offered for performance.
Only the bridge pickup works, as Eddie failed to connect the single coil pickup in neck position, but that’s where it’s left off. He also didn’t complicate his life with tone controls, given Eddie’s limited knowledge of electronics, so it only has one volume control and off it goes.
This design is still used today in many guitars of this type, and many models feature a single volume potentiometer, maintaining the simplicity of the Van Halen design.
The strap attachments are two large, closed socket. The only way to attach a leash to a eyelet would be by tying it or using a carabiner. The advantage of this is that the strap is left with no chance of escape.
Modify the pickup height would be impossible, because it is screwed directly to the wood. The truth is that everything was very botched. For some reason it ended up being known as Frankenstrat or Frankenstein. The First Superstrat in History.
Halen was a great guitarist, who searched for and found a great sound, but with very little essence of craftsmanship.
EVH Gear: Amp and Guitars
Van Halen collaborated with Fender to launch his own brand called EVH (short for Eddie Van Halen), to build reliable versions of his legendary equipment, such as the EVH 5150 amplifier. Replica of the legendary Peavey 5150 amplifier, now renamed the Peavey 6505.
Frankenstrat Reissues
EVH Stripe Guitars
Within the EVH ranges, we have the Frankenstrat Reissues in the Stripe series, with a basswood body, maple neck and fingerboard, and in different finishes. The truth is that this one looks much better than the one built by Halen.
EVH Wolfgang Standard
There is also the Wolfgang model, which was the guitar that Eddie Van Halen later began to use. In this serie we have the Evh Wolfgang Standard, with a basswood body and mixed radius fingerboard, or the Evh Wolfgang Special, with a quilted maple top.
The EVH D-Tuna is a device that attaches to the Floyd Rose bridge, and allows us to lower the note of the sixth string a whole step, for example from E to D.
