There’s no arguing that the EVH Frankenstein has great looks, sound, and playability, but with its loud red-white-and-black striped colorway, there was no escaping its ties to Eddie Van Halen when others slung one over their shoulder.
Recognizing that some players prefer a little subtlety, EVH broke from the striped tradition when it made the instrument available with relic’d and monotone colorways last year. Those finishes essentially separated the pre-existing color palette, with red, white, and black one-color models released.
The firm has now gone one step further by offering the iconic axe in fresh drips that belie its heritage via Vintage Sunburst, Blueburst, and Silverburst finishes.
Beneath their new coats of paint, the guitars still carry the essence of their predecessors – that’s to say their spec is exactly the same as last year’s models, which in turn echo Eddie’s original creation.
That means the neck pickup is a mere prop, and the middle pickup nought but a gaping wound. The only pickup it provides then is a high-output Wolfgang bridge humbucker that’s carefully designed to “nail Eddie’s classic tone.”
However, those slots can be used for functioning pickups if players feel a partner to the Eddie-esque growl of its humbucker is warranted.
After all, as Joe Satriani said when modding his EVH Frankenstein for the ongoing Best of All Worlds tour, Eddie was a modder and would have reveled in seeing what players did with his six-string canvases.
The Frankentein’s wooden skeleton is comprised of a worn-in, relic’d basswood body blended with an EVH modified C backshape-profile svelte quartersawn maple neck. The maple theme continues to its fretboard, which serves up 22 jumbo frets and a 12-16” radius.
All that, EVH says, amounts to a guitar that delivers “unmatched tone with lightning-fast playability.”
In no surprise to anyone, Eddie Van Halen’s innovative D-Tuna Floyd Rose tremolo and whammy bar are also in place for divebombs and elephant tricks.
The D-Tuna gizmo juts out of the sixth string saddle, helping guitarists effortlessly swap between standard and drop-D tunings without needing to adjust the floating bridge every time.
Other hardware specs include a brass tremolo block, a 1.69” locking nut, and EVH Gotoh tuners.
EVH and Fender are no strangers to making scarily accurate Frankenstein replicas. Fender's 2007 copy proved so convincing the man himself mistook it for his original.
Eddie's son, Wolfgang, would later use the original guitar on his debut album. He admitted that "it’s kind of terrifying holding it," but pushed on as he wanted to honor his father.
The new EVH Frankenstein Relic Series models are limited edition and fetch a reasonable $1,549 each.
Head to EVH Gear for a closer look.
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