Project: Frankenstrat

I'm recreating Eddie Van Halen's 1982 Frankenstrat guitar. I'll update as I go along.

tl;dr, just look at the pictures.

Eddie designed the guitar to be a combination of a Fender and a Gibson, the two most famous manufacturers of guitars. Both companies make nearly entirely different guitars, but both are praised for their quality. Most other companies replicate their designs. Gibson's iconic guitar is the Les Paul, while Fender's is the Stratocaster.

The Goal:



The guitar features a Fender Stratocaster body, and a Gibson PAF humbucker pickup in the bridge (bottom) position. The other pickup near the neck (top) of the guitar isn't wired, and is just for show. It also an original Floyd Rose tremolo (whammy bar).

This is what I'm starting with. It was my first electric guitar that my uncle gave my dad (who doesn't play) and he just gave it to me when I started playing.


Since you have to sand a guitar to repaint it, I'm just going to sand it and get all the dents and such out.


Front is sanded. The grey is primer that was their already. I only sanded away what part of the wood was going to show after I relic it. (make it look old)


Back


The humbucker came in the mail. It's as close of a replica you can get. The original PAF humbucker goes for upwards $3,000 now.
http://www.guitarfetish.com/VEH-Vintage-Extra-Hot-Black-The-BROWN-SOUND-Bridge-Position_p_786.html


Chiseled out the top two pickup cavities. The single-coil I have wouldn't fit so I had to chisel it down so it would. After I chiseled it I decided just to fill the two cavities. It's not the same as the original but it will play the same as he only had the one pickup that worked.


I'm filling up the top two cavities with wood filler. I have to do it slowly because if I just fill it all up at once it will take like 2 weeks to dry completely.
What also prompted me to fill it is that the neck cavity is rectangular, not elliptical. It was impossible to make an exact replica to start with, so I decided to deviate a little. The guitar will look similar to this (click here) when I'm done. Mine's going to be better and more accurate though.

 

Support I don't know much about the insides of guitars but this looks pretty awesome hahaaa