ORIGINAL "KRAMER EVH VENTI" DESCRIPTION

now the Kramer EVH Blue Frankenstein

Where do these ideas come from? And to think I don't even drink coffee.

This project started in March 2008 when I bought my EVH 81 -Bye Later See Ya- guitar from Jerry Lica. It came with a 21-fret maple Warmoth neck that I used for my D4 project, along with another maple neck – a Custom Woods 22-fret, Kramer classic-style neck. (And Jerry even included a chrome neck plate, serial number 61071, which is the serial number on EVH's original Frankenstein.) The solid maple neck was totally unfinished and very lightly colored, so I thought I would stain it a bit before sealing it. Around this same time, my parents were in town visiting and I had some coffee in the house for them, so one evening I made a very strong cup, dipped a rag in it, and used the coffee to stain the neck. I then sealed it with lemon oil. It looks nice and smells even better! I then tracked down an old-school Kramer vinyl decal and it was ready – but for what?

I decided that I would do something similar to the EVH Frankenstein, but not in those colors. I hadn't really done anything in the brown/cream color scheme, so I went with that. Besides, I thought it would match the stained neck. I then had the idea of putting a Starbucks decal on the body. I found a guy on eBay who could make a Starbucks vinyl decal (Exotic Coffee For Men) in any size or color, so I ordered on in brown. My idea was to stick it on the body face behind the tremolo, in the same place where EVH put his 5150 decal on his famous Kramer 5150.

So all's I needed was a body. Over the summer, I bought a body off eBay that never came. And still never came. It was a terrible experience and I had to fight to get my money back. I did, and then ordered an ash Frankenstein body from KnE guitars. Should have done that to start with. Anyway, the body came and the first thing I noticed (and I still notice!) is how HEAVY it is – wow! It's basically a typical top-routed, two-piece Strat body, but for a Floyd Rose and the middle single-coil route is whacked to mimic EVH's route. Very good quality and I'm impressed with KnE a lot. The Floyd Rose pivot screw holes were drilled for the old-style screws, so I re-drilled them for the modern posts/bushings. A little piece chipped off the treble side hole, but I glued it back in and strengthened it with a tiny screw. Can't tell by looking at it.

Anyway, so now it was time for painting. I decided on four colors – white, cream, brown, and black – in that order. I first gave it a coat of white primer and then sprayed it white. I taped some lines and some shapes on it, and then sprayed it cream. I peeled off the tape and applied some more lines and triangles and sprayed it brown – a nice chocolate brown. I peeled off the tape again and then applied the Starbucks decal. I had left a nice white/cream spot for it by the tremolo. I then taped it off exposing a bunch of different triangles and sprayed it black. After peeling that final layer off, I then had a brown guitar with white and cream stripes and shapes with black triangles on top of that. Very cool. I applied the word venti (20 in Italian, as in 20 ounces) to the back, 20 oz below the Starbucks decal, and a 20 along the inside of the upper body horn. I then sprayed a few coats of clear and let it dry. Very nice looking guitar body – very original take on the EVH design.

As far as hardware, I went with black Schaller tuners. I swapped out the black washers for some chrome ones and the six black set screws for chrome (used the chrome set with black washers/screws on my D4 project) to give it a cool black/chrome look. I also ordered some custom walnut tuner buttons from England which give it a smooth, light-brown look. The old-style Floyd Rose string retainer bar is chrome with black screws, and the Floyd Rose R2 locking nut (used the 1 5/8" on a 1 11/16" width neck) is black with chrome string clamps. I tracked down a 1980s black Floyd Rose on eBay and cleaned it up really nice, and added a chrome arm (chrome arms for black Floyds!) and an EVH d-tuna. I had an EVH-style black partial pickguard and I used a cream Tone knob. Black Schaller straplocks, of course.

I went with a zebra DiMarzio Virtual PAF humbucker (recently discontinued) and screwed it into the bridge cavity at an angle. I wired it up myself. I had a rusty old black single-coil pickup lying around, along with a Strat 5-way switch, so I mounted those in the neck and middle cavities, as EVH did with the original. For kicks, I added a small sealed bag of 20 Starbucks roasted coffee beans and taped it in the control cavity. I know, that's bizarre. I don't even like coffee, but I love the smell.

Everything aligned pretty well, although I had to level a few frets. Not sure about the Custom Woods neck, as it doesn't have the consistency of a Warmoth. Overall, it looks totally cool and is a wild take on EVH's original. Cool colors and the Virtual PAF has a nice mellow, overdriven tone. And the first thing you notice when you pick it up is, wow – it this thing heavy or what?

September 2008


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