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5150 Frankenstrat Guitar

Here's a guitar that should need no introduction.  Inspired by the great Edward Van Halen himself, this guitar is a replica of his famous 5150 frankenstrat guitar. 

The project started with a white Kramer 1984 reissue guitar.  I replaced the stock pickup with a Seymour Duncan '78 Custom Shop humbucker to best reproduce that 'brown sound'.  I also replaced the existing volume knob with an original MXR knob.

I painted this guitar myself in the garage using canned automotive urethane spray paint and a catalyzed urethane clear coat.  I used the guitar painting techniques described in the 'Paint Your Own Guitar' book series by John Gleneicki (see the link below).  I also got a lot of information from the eddievanhalen.com guitar building forums.

This is the first guitar project  that I had ever attempted to paint.  Although it's not nearly perfect, I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  This is actually a good guitar for a first attempt paint job as any minor flaws or 'mistakes' give it a little more character....the reliced vibe.

The guitar looks and sound great!  It's hard to resist doing Van Halen-esque finger tapping, dive bombs, and harmonic squeals when playing this guitar.  Gotta love it!