VAN HALEN RELATED PROJECTS

I saved the money from delivering papers for two and a half to three years, and bought my first real guitar, which was a '68 Goldtop Les Paul with single-coil P-90 pickups. So what do I do? I take the chisel to it right away! Because I wanted a humbucking pickup! But in Pasadena, there were no Les Pauls with a humbucker in them. There was one store in northern Pasadena - a Les Paul came in and they called me right away 'Hey, we’ve got a Les Paul!' I walk in and I go, 'Ah, sh!t! It ain't the kind Clapton plays!' It didn't have humbuckers. So, of course, I hunted down a humbucker, took a chisel and made the hole bigger and crammed it in there. I was lucky enough to solder it back properly, then I painted it black and added binding.

I did all kinds of crazy sh!t to it. The funny thing is, I only changed the bridge pickup and left the P-90 neck pickup. Since my right hand was covering the bridge pickup, when I played people were going, 'How the f#&k's he getting that sound out of a P-90?!' Because that's all they could see. Little did they know that I'd stuck a humbucker in there!

FENDER EVH 5150 STRATOCASTER
FENDER EVH STRATOCASTER -Maple T-
Under construction...

Van Halen's 1964 (or 1958?) L Series Fender Stratocaster
front of EVH's Fender Stratocaster
Fender Stratocaster face close-up with 5150 etched close-up back
Hagar and EVH (with Strat) playing "Finish What Ya Started" circa 1988

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photographed in the 1990s
EVH playing the "1957 Stratocaster" with the Tele neck at 5150 in early 2007 before the Roth reunion (Andrew Bennett) 1 2 3




FENDER EVH 77 BLACK STRAT
This one has to be one of the least expensive projects I've ever put together.

This axe is modeled after the black Strat EVH used in 1976-77 right before recording the band's first album and heading off on that first tour (1 2 3 4 5). In fact, there are some EVH guitar fanatics who believe this guitar was used to record some of Van Halen. And there are even some theories out there about this black body eventually being taped up and painted white - with a new maple neck added. Yes, we're talking about the famous white/black VH1 model Frankenstein.

Well, after seeing a few pics of this classic axe (and potentially first edition of the most recognizable rock guitar ever!), I decided to build a tribute model. Around the same time, I had a $50 gift card to Best Buy and while browsing through the store's new music instrument section, I saw that they had black Squier Strats with rosewood necks for $120! Sure, it was a cheap piece of garbage, but I thought I could get it into pretty good playing shape. So for only $70, I bought a black basswood body, a 21-fret rosewood neck, and a white pickguard. Everything else would be replaced.

The first thing I did was to sand the Squier decal off the headstock and add a new Fender waterslide in the same place EVH did. I then had to re-drill the tuner holes to accept some 10mm locking tuners. I lightly sanded down the back of the neck and rounded the edges to give it a broken-in feel. Mission accomplished. Next was the pickguard, I took my Dremel and opened up the bridge single-coil slot for a humbucker with roughly the same pattern EVH had (sloppy!). I gutted the electronics, but left the unwired stock neck and middle position white single-coil pickups in there for looks. I'm not sure if EVH had these two hooked up on his black Strat (the 3-way switch is visible on his, so maybe?), but he sure didn't on his Frankenstein.

Then came some new parts from GFS. I added a set of chrome locking tuners, a new Strat tremolo with a heavy brass block, and one of their zebra VEH humbuckers (I also have one in my Kramer EVH 1225 guitar.) I wired the humbucker to a new 500k pot straight to the output jack, and I even have the pickup screwed straight into the body - not the pickguard. I had to add some wood to the body's bridge pickup cavity to get it at the right height, but it was easy. I also added a chrome Fender neck plate and chrome Schaller straplocks. I wasn't sure what kind of knob he used on his black Strat, but since I used a Carvin mini pot, I went with a chrome Carvin mini knob. (I since saw better pics that seem to show he used a standard white Fender knob - as he did on his Frankenstein... hmmm.) Also, a close-up of the black Strat shows EVH placed the single volume control in the bottom hole on the Strat pickguard (Tone 2), but I'm using the middle (Tone 1) placement.

Last, but not least, I decided to lightly relic the body, tremolo, pickups, tuners, pickguard, and headstock. And that's always a lot of fun! So for some easy coin, I turned a POS into an obscure EVH replica. And believe me - the GFS VEH humbucker smokes!

May 2010

UPDATE: February 2016

A pickup swap! To make a short story long, I needed an F-spaced humbucker for my Charvel EVH Pine Tele-Wolf, so I found someone selling what I thought was an F-spaced DiMarzio FRED. But it was only a regular-spaced humbucker - ugh. So I remembered that this Fender 77 had essentially an F-spaced GFS VEH in a slanted position, so... I swapped out the zebra GFS for the zebra DiMarzio so I can use the GFS VEH in the other axe, which isn't slanted. Whew! I hope that makes sense! I also wired in a new pot and went with a standard white Tone knob, keeping it in the middle (Tone 1) position on the pickguard. The FRED is a really focused-sounding pickup - not as open as the VEH, but it smokes!




FENDER EVH FRANKENSTEIN BARITONE
This guitar is not even close to the official EVH Frankenstein that Fender makes (EVHgear.com), but I had to do something with all the extra parts I had.

For years I was working on my Firebird guitar and I just couldn't get the right action with the neck I was using. I actually ruined a Mighty Mite, Jackson-style neck by taking too much wood off of the heel while trying to get it in the Firebird's body joint. Anyway, I gave up and sold the Firebird body on eBay. So that left me with a chrome Ping Floyd Rose and a pair of Golden Age black humbuckers (neck and bridge). I used the neck humbucker in my Duotone Standard guitar project (great tone from Golden Age, by the way), so now what? I could have sold the Floyd and extra pickup, but one day in September 2009, I came across a Fender Squier Stratocaster body that someone had done a nice EVH paint job on. Even relic'd it, too. So I decided to go down that road.

First off, there was some differences (see below) from the eBay body and the real deal, but that's fine – this one is more like a version of the Frankenstein Fender would put out if they made a $1500 version in Mexico (without the flight case). Thankfully, this body was drilled for the Floyd posts, so it just required a neck and some miscellaneous hardware. In October, I ordered a nice 22-fret, flamed maple Strat neck from Warmoth, and once again, I have to say Warmoth necks are the best. Anyway, in keeping with the Fender theme, I tracked down a chrome Fender neck plate and a set of chrome Fender - made by Schaller - tuners to go with the Fender-used Ping Floyd. (The Frankenstein had a 22-fret, Strat neck on it for most of the 1982 Diver Down tour.)

To make an EVH Frankenstein, there are some other parts required. Luckily, I hand most of these laying around. I had a 1971 quarter that I drilled up and aged (fire works nice). I took a white Tone knob and aged it up. I had a chrome Strat jack plate that I aged by scratching it and burning it. I had a black Strat pickguard that I cut up and scratched up to match EVH’s original partial guard. I had a nice 5-way switch that I broke up and aged for the middle pickup cavity. And I even had an old single-coil pickup and a red cover. I cut the cover top on and super-glued it to the top of the single-coil pickup. I then aged it by scratching it, burning a little bit of it, and rubbing wax on it to dull it.

To age the Ping Floyd Rose, I took it apart and scrated it up – especially the fine tuners. I swapped out the stock Ping trem block, and attached a 42mm brass Big Block from FU-Tone.com. Big difference! And I had a lot of fun aging the Golden Age Overwound humbucker. I scratched it, filed it, burned it, and rubbed wax on it and I think it looks pretty good! I then wired it up to a 500k pot I had laying around and I was in business. Because the pickup cavity on the Strat body was pretty deep, I had to add a bit of wood in the humbucker cavity so the pickup could be screwed into real wood.

I even aged the neck just a bit by sanding down really good and adding some random cigarette burns to the headstock. I aged the Fender tuners by sanding/scratching some of the finish off the buttons, and I lightly sanded the Floyd Rose lock nut screws (clamp and through-neck). The assembly was very easy and the Warmoth neck fit very nicely on the Strat body. I added the appropriate set of eight reflectors to the back of the body, although I didn't age them like the original. The Golden Age Overwound humbucker is a beefy PAF-sounding pickup and is a great value for the money. And seriously, this is what Fender could do to put out a much cheaper version of the $25k EVH Frankenstein! Cheaper alder body, cheaper pickup, Ping Floyd, no Schaller tuners, less time relicing the body to perfection.

October 2009

UPDATE: April 2010

Note that the majority of the above description was based on this guitar having a 22-fret, 25 1/2"-scale neck (1 2) and before I got my Charvel EVH Frankenstein (which is A LOT closer to EVH Frankenstein). My original plan with this in 2009 was to use a Warmoth Tele baritone neck to make it really unique. So in March 2010, I broke down and ordered a Warmoth maple baritone neck with a Tele headstock. A baritone guitar with a Floyd Rose? How cool is that! This baritone guitar is tuned B E A D F# B - low to high - just like my Warmoth Baritone axe. The only issue I had was the low B string was too thick at the ball end with the winding to fit through the tuner hole (I wind all my Floyd guitars ball-end at the tuner down to the bridge), so I had to drill out the one tuner to accomodate the .062 string. And the Warmoth flamed maple neck went toward my Kramer EVH Pacer Sustainer guitar (see below). So add this major modification to the above list of how this is different than the $25k EVH Frankenstein...




PEAVEY EVH PLUS
In my quest to build an "EVH prototype" Peavey guitar, I first had to track down the right Peavey neck, as my goal was to build something that resembled the Peavey EVH used in VH's 1998 "Without You" video - a transparent red Peavey Wolfgang with a rosewood neck and P-90 pickups. I wanted a Peavey neck that had the same headstock shape and truss rod wheel as the Wolfgang guitar, but some of these Peavey models were 25"-scale guitars. That wouldn't work. I soon discovered that the Peavey Predator Plus guitar has a 25.5" scale, so I began to look for a used one on eBay.

For the body, I saw an Ernie Ball Music Man EVH-style body (VW) on Warmoth's Thrift Shop page in November 2000, so that took care of that. The body is mahogany with a flamed maple top. I paid $275 for the body, but I thought it was a deal, since it was already finished - black back with a red transparent top. I was drawn to this body because it was routed for two P-90s and a hard-tail bridge. I didn't want the typical EVH "two-humbucker, locking-trem" setup on this guitar.

I finally found a used Peavey Predator Plus guitar on eBay in January 2001, from a shop in Madison, WI, for $200. Upon arrival, I took off the 21-fret neck and sold the body with all the guts on eBay, getting back some of my money. I sanded off the Predator part of the headstock logo, and pressed on an EVH in its place, making it an EVH Plus.

As far as the guts, I was a bit limited as to the type of pickup I could use, so I went with a pair of Gibson P-100s. The P-100s differ from P-90s in that they are dual-coil pickups, not single coil. They still have the really dirty P-90 sound, but without the hum. I added one volume pot and a Gibson-style, 3-way switch.

When it came to the bridge, I went with a black Gotoh hard tail, with the strings loading through the back. The installation was a breeze. I replaced the stock saddles with a set of Graph Tech String Saver saddles that I had from a previous project. To stick with the black hardware theme, I went with black Schaller straplocks and locking tuners. I even splurged and got the official Peavey EVH Wolfgang gig bag, complete with red, black, and white stripes.

Overall, this guitar is fun to play and it provides me with a tone that I did not previously have. This guitar is the main guitar in the mix on Over Now (bikini). And yes, the serial number I gave this guitar, 82397, is August 23, 1997 - a day of epiphany frozen in my mind.

April 2002


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