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Ed Roman has been first introduced the Custom Frankenstrat Guitars in 1986 at
the NAMM Show
Kramer themselves never offered the 5150 or Frankenstrat to the public.
Legally Ed Roman is grandfathered in before any trademarks were ever issued on
the paint job.
If you have any legal concerns
Refer to the cover of our 1986 Catalog where the Frankenstrat &
5150 is pictured & priced.
Kramer Facts
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99% of the people who are building The EVH 5150 paint job guitars are
using Cheap Japanese Kramer's as the core for the job. In fact Kramer never made
a non tilt headstock in the USA. The only ones that came with the non tilt
headstock are the Korean made Strikers and 1 model Japanese Focus. I have seen
some of these guitars and they are far from accurate. So be careful if you are
considering buying one of those.
Floyd Rose Installation Secrets
I have been installing Floyd Rose Tremolos since 1983 in fact I was
installing them when you actually had to buy them directly from Floyd himself.
Over the years I have learned some neat installation tricks. In
fact many people who install Floyds (including some major companies)
simply
aren't aware of how to install one the correct way.
For example many companies don't install the locking nut
as tight as it should be. I have seen some installations where the locknut
is ever so slightly loose. This creates tuning issues and can throw a
guitar out of tune.
An easy way to spot to spot this problem is to push down on the tremolo bar
and let it come back again. If you notice a slight movement in the nut this
will definitely affect your tuning. Those art series EVH Charvel's all came
through that way. We had to remove every nut and true up the shelf. Then we
super glued it in so it would not move.
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If you Like the Kramer Beretta styled guitars
you have to check out the original
J. Frog Guitars
Kramer guitars came several years after J Frog.
5150
Original Frankenstrat
this was a custom guitar it was never a Kramer
Kramer affixed the brand name after the fact.
I took this photo immediately after Eddie jumped off a 9 foot stage
He literally landed on me !! He fell to the floor, someone is
helping him up.
I never would have got this amazing photo if I hadn't been waiting to get
one on stage
When he took us all by surprise and jumped !!!!
It was a real rock n roll moment, You had to be there !!
Ed Roman
Eddie Posing with my Girlfriend "Chrystal"
After the show
Valerie, Eddie & Ed "1984"
Photo By Chrystal Ball
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Note From Ed Roman
I am looking for people who would like to contribute to this website in a
positive way. So I am publishing this short little gem of information from
Mike McGuire.
Michael McGuire (Hey Mikey) has been a long time Van Halen
Freak, He used to come into the store with his dad when he was just a kid.
He would order special parts made up so he could build copies of these
fabulous guitars that he loves so much. Eventually he came to work at the
store. Mikey became one of our prodigy builders, He caught on quickly and was
soon building much better than average guitars. My opinion is that a guitar
has to be loved from it's inception to be more than just a block of wood
with strings on it.
People like Mikey, have a real passion for this. He studies every scratch
& ding, on all of Eddie's guitars and has built numerous awesome
instruments. Today he no longer make these copies due to legal
ramifications between Kramer, EVH, Charvel, J Frog, Steinberger and anyone
else who had any design input into the original guitars of Eddie Van Halen.
There are a number of used ones out there that are available. We have kept
track of people who have bought them and perhaps are selling them.
Call for Information, We will put you in touch directly with the
owners of these guitars.
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The
Axology of Edward Van Halen
By Michael McGuire
2007
The easiest way to identify
Eddie Van Halen’s guitars is to associate them with the
corresponding Van Halen Album.
Eddie is not only famous for his unique talents, experimental
techniques, or his rehab career,
but for the unmistakable way he makes his guitars. Eddie has been modifying
and sometimes destroying guitars from the very beginning of his career.
His guitars are as famous as his music. Not only did Eddie define an era of
rock music, he also defined an era of rock guitars. You can’t listen to
Eruption without seeing him play that Black & White striped guitar. |
Eddie’s
most famous guitars
the albums for which they are known.
Van Halen I
 Obviously
the guitar best well known for this album is the original Black and White
Frankenstrat. This heavily valued guitar started out life as a $130.00,
factory second, fire wood, neck and body which Eddie bought from a company
called Boogie Bodies. He took it home and immediately
sprayed it black with a can of Schwinn bicycle paint. He also made a
pickguard for it. Eddie loved the sound of an old PAF. humbucker, so
he chiseled a hunk of wood out of the body so the pickup could fit. He also
liked the strat tremolo but had trouble keeping it in tune. He installed a
brass nut, had to keep it lubricated, and turned the ball end of the string
in sync with the turning of the machine head as he tuned the instrument. The
guitar ended up getting the stripe pattern as he masked off the guitar and
sprayed white, keeping only what he wanted to be black.
Today's Pickup manufacturers all
offer some type of pickup that they call their EVH Clone. Ed Roman has done
extensive research on this and offers several different versions with his
kits.
Interesting
Footnote: The CBS strat headstock has a
Gibson logo, and the very fine black stripes are actually electrical tape. Today his pickups are custom wound. Contact Ed Roman
for Custom Wound duplicates or get the special Tom
Holmes pickups that emulate the 50's PAF.
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Van Halen II
  This guitar was featured in the
artwork of the second album. It was finished and delivered just
in time for the photo shoot. Although Eddie used this guitar live during the
tour, he never really used it again unlike most of the other guitars.
Not venturing far from the
first guitar, it features a single humbucker pickup, one volume control,
maple neck and a tremolo. This guitar did have one new feature, the locking
tremolo which was developed by Floyd Rose.
Soon, almost every guitar he had will use this system.
Interesting Footnote:
This guitar was made famous again when Eddie laid the guitar to rest with
the late Dimebag Darrell.
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Women & Children
First
(The
Shark)
 This
guitar was used on many of the recordings of the first three albums. Anytime
you don’t hear a dive-bomb or tremolo, chances are that Eddie was using this
guitar. He loved it. The guitar was originally an Ibanez
Destroyer which was
only made for a few years. Our corporate friends at Gibson Sued for design infringements.
Features
include two humbuckers, two volumes, and a selector switch which Eddie used
for another little trick. Just listen to “You Really Got Me” and you’ll know
what I’m talking about. As you can probably
assume, Eddie couldn’t leave this one alone either. Armed with a saw, he
transformed the original shape into something resembling a shark’s jaw.
Hence the nickname, “Shark”. He then proceeded to stripe and paint the
guitar with white and red metallic colors.
 Exact copies of this guitar are rarely available because they are hard to
make and you have to destroy a very expensive Ibanez guitar for it to be
exact. However they are available
from Ed Roman. Ed Prides
himself in having all the impossible to get models.
Interesting
footnote: Three of the tuners are chrome
and the other three are gold.
Abstract Shark
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Fair Warning (Unchained)
 Eddie
only used this guitar live for the song Unchained. He needed a guitar
that was already tuned to “Drop D” since it is difficult to do so live with
a locking tremolo. The alluring
features of this guitar are the various circles and the fact that it has not
been well photographed. I guess Eddie was getting
tired of just the stripes so he decided to go with a rather bizarre look for
this one. Otherwise it is a pretty standard Eddie guitar with all of the
right ingredients.
This guitar is still
available because no one ever trademarked the design. Contact Ed
Roman.
Interesting Footnote:
Eddie has patented a device that instantly drops the low E string to a D for
locking tremolos aptly name the “D tuna.
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1984
"Frankenstrat"
This is the most famous &
recognizable guitar Eddie ever made. What can I say about this guitar. It’s
the shit!!!
Normal people look at
this thing and have to think it is the ugliest thing they have ever seen.
Guitarists look at it and think the exact opposite.
Eddie has played this on
every tour & it has the battle scars to prove it.
Eddie broke the original
neck which led him to replace it a handful of times.
Most of the guitar doesn’t even work! The
neck pickup is dead and disconnected. The selector switch is not doing any
switching. And the pickguard is not guarding any picks. Probably the most
useful thing on the guitar is the 1971 quarter placed under the bridge as to
keep it from pulling backwards. And to top it all off, Eddie put truck
reflectors on the back of the guitar. Why?? Because he
thought it looked cool.
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1984
Version 1 |
1984
Version 2 |
1984
Version 3 |
Interesting Footnote: At one point the
guitar had a Hockey stick or “Banana” headstock neck which was originally
designed by J. Frog. Kramer made it famous.
J. Frog, is the designer genius from the early 80's who
built George Lynch's Skull N' Bones guitar. He also built several other
famous signature guitars check it out.
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5150
Probably
the second most well known of Eddie’s guitars is the 5150. This
became his main stage guitar after he retired the Frankenstrat. The guitar
was actually a backup on the 1984 tour. Eddie seemed to demote and
promote guitars regularly, but never lost interest in what was suitable for
him. Built much like the other guitars, the 5150 was made by a little known
company called Kramer. Kramer built many 5150 style guitars that
were given away to friends or contests. The only
really interesting features on the guitar are the “Space Tape” numbers
and stars.
Interesting Footnote: Eddie split the
headstock at the sixth tuner and had
Ernie Ball fix it. The company put a Music Man logo over the Kramer logo.
(Note from Ed)
That was a really slimy
thing to do. I never liked the people at Ernie Ball. Kinda like, what ESP
did to J Frog for the Dokken Videos. ESP also removed and therefore ruined
all of George Lynch's original Kramers by taking off the original necks and
replacing them with imported ESP Necks. The people at ESP also blatantly
ripped off the George Lynch Skull N' Bones and to top it off it was probably
one of the worst made ESP guitars I have ever seen.
Honorable mention:
The “1984” guitar has all of the same features with a slightly different
stripe pattern. This was used as a backup to the 5150.
OU812
Definitely,
one of Eddie’s most bizarre guitars. Eddie always likes new and interesting
things. The Steinberger caught
his attention. The features on this guitar were very futuristic; Active EMG
humbuckers, Fiberglass neck and body, no headstock, and a tremolo that
seemed nearly impossible to comprehend.
The Trans Trem system is
unique in that it transposes and locks the strings so that it is still in
tune. Eddie loved it. But there was still something missing. The Red, White
& Black stripes.
When I saw Eddie the first time he played these (He had several of them
Interesting Footnote: Eddie made
it cool to play a Steinberger.
Note from Ed
This of course is nowhere near all of Eddie's Guitars, He
has lots of really cool and interesting guitars. some old 79 Dean V's a lot
of Steinbergers, He has LSR number 2, I built it for him in the mid
nineties.
The guitars in this article are the signature guitars
that made him famous. I personally have a copy of every one of them in my
collection. And I know where some of the original high quality
copies are. Contact me directly if you are looking for any particular model.
I have a line on most of them.
The Ernie Ball, Peavey & Charvel Guitars were cut from a totally different
cloth. Don't get me wrong, some of them are pretty good. But they don't
qualify as the real deal.
Eddie's Famous Guitars
| Album &
Era
|
Name |
Identifying
Markings |
| Van Halen 1 |
VH-1 |
Parts Gtr. White With Black Stripes
& Pickguard, Clean & New Looking |
| Van Halen II |
VH-2 |
Charvel Black W Yellow Stripes,
Gloss Finish Eddie Hated This Guitar. |
| Women Children First |
The Shark |
Ibanez Destroyer Silver & Red
Hacked Up Body (His Favorite) |
| Fair Warning |
Unchained |
Parts Guitar Custom Made White Black Circles & Stripes |
| 1984 1 |
Frankenstrat |
Fender Hdstk Broken Guard,
Red White & Black |
| 1984 2 |
Frankenstrat |
Kramer Cutball Hdstck Broken Guard,
Red White
& Black |
| 1984 3 |
Frankenstrat |
Kramer Hockey Stick Hdstk Broken Guard,
Red
White & Black |
| 5150 |
5150 |
Kramer Hockey Stick, Space Tape 5150,
Red White & Black, |
| OU812 |
OU812 |
Red White & Black Steinberger |
Interesting
Footnote: The OU812 Steinberger was also used on 5150, You
can hear the trans trem
You can own the whole collection for about $30,000.00
I am looking for other people who would like to
contribute to this website in a positive way. So I am publishing this short
little gem of information from Mike McGuire.
Michael McGuire (Hey Mikey) has been a long time Van
Halen Freak, He used to come into the store with his dad when he was just a
kid. He would order special parts made up so he could build copies of these
fabulous guitars that he loves so much. eventually he came to work at the
store and became one of our prodigy builders, He caught on quickly and was
soon building much better than average guitars. My opinion is that a guitar
has to be loved from it's inception to be more than just a block of wood
with strings on it.
People like Mikey, have a real passion for this. Mike studies every scratch
& ding on all of Eddie's guitars and has built numerous awesome
instruments. Today he can no longer make these copies due to legal
ramifications between Kramer, EVH, Charvel, J Frog, Steinberger and anyone
else who had any design input into the original guitars of Eddie Van Halen.
The only two exceptions are the ones least sought after. The Shark and the
Fair Warning. No one ever bothered to trademark those two. So they are
still available, I hope you liked Mike's article
BTW; there are hundreds of crappie copies out there.
Most of them are made on cheap plywood imported Kramers and most of them are
pretty cheesy. We usually have knowledge of used ones floating around.
Kramer Holoflash
Ed Roman Is Now Doing The Holoflash Finishes
