Metropoulos Forum

Recent interview with Eddie where he said Franky had a PAF in it.

There have been conflicting reports about the humbucker in the original Frankenstrat, could you clarify what guitar it came from?

“Yeah, it’s from a [Gibson ES-]335. Actually, if I had my phone here, I’d show you a picture of me playing that guitar. Somebody just sent me it, it’s the only picture that I have of myself playing it.”

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ ... ear-641564

Eddie said pretty much the same thing in his 1979 interview with Jas Obrecht:

"See, what I do mainly is I use one a year. Like the first year, supporting the first album, I used the black-and-white-striped one. That was actually the original. It was not rear-loaded. It had a pickguard which I cut out myself, and it had an old Gibson P.A.F. The thing I always do to the pickups is I pot them. You dip them in paraffin wax, which cuts out the high, obnoxious feedback. It’s kind of a tricky thing, because if you leave it in there too long, the pickup melts [laughs]."

http://jasobrecht.com/eddie-van-halen-c ... interview/

@megaro how close did you have the Super 70 to the strings? Those pickups can really push an amp, though in a different way than a ceramic. When I had a vintage Destroyer, I thought the pickups sounded like they were pushing the amp but more of a distortion pedal way than a ceramic way, if that makes sense. For sure pretty raw. But messed around a lot with pickup height. Can't remember what I did....

fivecoyote, that is a really good point. My pickup is just barely peeking out over the ring. I will jack that thing up and have a go at it again. I really like your website by the way -- lots of good stuff there.

I think I made a mistake in one of my posts on the previous page assuming that Ed was using a hotter pickup when he used a Mighty Mite. Some of those old Mighty Mites were just PAF clones.

What's in the guitar and what's on the records is what it comes down to. Do you trust your ears or trust your eyes.