Question on black/white Frankenstrat

npminard · Post by **npminard** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:31 am

Was the original black/white Frankenstrat pictured on the VH1 album cover later modified into the red/white/black Strat w/the Kramer banana neck and the neck single coil?

mightymike · Post by **mightymike** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:32 am

He has several red black and white striped guitars, but the one known as the Frankenstrat, with the quarter in the corner of the bridge, was the formerly White and Black Guitar from the first album.

npminard · Post by **npminard** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:00 pm

Yep, the one w/the quarter. Okay I see now, thanks for the info. So EVH constantly modifying his gear, just decided to change the b/w Strat, interesting.

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:15 pm

That guitar was responsible for alot of great playing and tone. Wish he would get Fender or somebody to make an exact relic copy of that guitar like he had it from around 75 or 76 to 79 when he painted it again. Not for marketing purposes, but for himself. Then he could pull out those old Marshalls and pedals again, and really "Play" again. The Charvel EVH is really like the Black and yellow Strat ( the first rear loaded strat I ever seen) . Charvel, by no means duplicated the origional stylings of his #1, or in it's second coming, as the red,black and white one. They basically used that Black and yellow striped one (Floyd, no pick guard) as the template.

nitro · Post by **nitro** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:19 pm

Also not to forget is that the EVH charvels are made of basswood huge difference in tone vs northern hard ash thats what the original frankenstrat was made out of.

Tone Slinger · Post by **Tone Slinger** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:03 pm

Exactly ! Northern Hard and Southern soft. Same tree, different climate. The southern grows faster so it has more space between the rings and so is a little less dense than its Northern counterpart, which has a shorter growing rate, which gives denser wood. The sound of the two is very similar though. Fender pushes the swamp ash (southern) cause of its slightly lighter weight. I often tell people who want to know how different wood sounds, to go to thier favorite guitar shop and play a ash American standard Strat and then play the alder version. The ash one will have more of a bright presence to the sound, almost to the extreme in the bridge, whereas the alder one will be a little darker, but fuller sounding in the bridge position. To put a humbucker( what Ed did) in the bridge of that hard ash strat, gave the fatness of the humbucker but almost retained an almost single coil edge to the sound, due to the natural brightness of the wood. A humbucker in a same build alder strat will still sound good, only less bright and muddy in comparison IMHO.Charvel, or Eddie's Idea for Basswood (lightest,softess wood) may be due to the fact that over many years of that hard ash strat (75-83) banging his bone there at the waist wore it out. His bone that is. Basswood is light, but has no sonic character.