Van Halen put a Gibson decal on the headstock, emphasizing the "cross-pollination" between Gibson and Fender.
Van Halen painted the guitar black, and when it was dry he put strips of gaffer's tape on the body and repainted it white, creating the classic Frankenstrat. The simple circuit consisted of a single humbucking pick-up, an A500k potentiometer (the volume control) and a 1/4-inch output jack. A strip of double-sided masking tape was added near the pickguard, on which Van Halen placed a variety of picks. Although it has five mounting holes (one drilled by Van Halen), it was installed with only three screws. This pickguard was later replaced by a real, similarly shaped pickguard. He placed a knob marked "Tone" on the volume-control pot, then used a vinyl record that he'd shaped into a pickguard to cover the controls. Van Halen removed both tone-control potentiometers, wiring the pickups in a simple circuit largely due to his limited knowledge of electronics. This pickup was later replaced by a Seymour Duncan humbucker. He then screwed the pickup to the guitar in the bridge position, slightly offset from perpendicular to the strings, to compensate for the different string spacing between the Gibson's pickup and the Fender's bridge. He equipped the Frankenstrat with a PAF ("patent applied for") pickup removed from his Gibson ES-335, potting the pickup in paraffin wax to reduce microphonic feedback. The guitarist originally used the Fender tremolo system from his 1961 Fender Stratocaster, adding the Floyd Rose later. Luthier Donny Ward concluded that Ellsworth, who was primarily a furniture maker, was in no position to mass-produce the first 100-body order from Charvel, and so received help from the Schecter guitar factory in the San Fernando Valley. The $80 neck had jumbo fret wire, and its truss rod was adjustable at the heel. Van Halen was able to purchase the factory second body at a discount price of $50 due to a knot in the wood. Van Halen bought the Frankenstrat's northern ash body and maple neck (which was a factory reject) for $130 from Wayne Charvel and Lynn Ellsworth, who sold Boogie Body bodies and necks. A copy of the Frankenstrat is housed in the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. In April 2019, the Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed the Frankenstrat guitar as part of the "Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock and Roll" exhibit.
It has a standard six-string setup and a Floyd Rose tremolo. The guitar has a maple neck and fretboard, chrome hardware, and was painted with a black-and-white striped design, then black and white stripes on a red background. An early version of a Superstrat, the guitar was made from a Northern Ash Stratocaster body, with pickup routing which Van Halen modified to fit a Gibson PAF humbucking pickup in the bridge position. The Frankenstrat was Van Halen's attempt to combine the sound of a classic Gibson guitar with the physical attributes and tremolo bar functionality of a Fender Stratocaster. Its name is a portmanteau of Frankenstein, the fictional doctor who created a monster by combining body parts of the recently deceased, and the Stratocaster, a model of electric guitar made by Fender. The Frankenstrat, also known as " Frankie", is a guitar created by Eddie Van Halen. The original Fender bridge and tremolo system has been replaced with a Floyd Rose tremolo system, which also required a new neck, fitted with a matched Floyd Rose locking nut. An adhesive strip on the lower bout was used to store spare picks. The volume control was functional, though capped with a knob labeled "TONE". A fragment of the original pickguard remains under the control bank.
The bridge slot contains the only working pickup, a slightly misaligned Gibson PAF humbucker with black plastic bobbins. The top two pickups have been replaced with non-functional electronics: the center one with a selector switch and the upper one with a red single-coil pickup.
This photo shows the guitar in its final state, with red-over-white-over-black paint job. Van Halen modified the Frankenstrat several times.
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