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For the second, wed like to make our lives easier and use a taping template that Ive seen somewhere on the net but simply cant find now.

Anyone have a suggestion on where I can find it As it is, you can see that we can do it without.

What this gives the VH fan is greater harmonic response and upper-mid sizzle.

It was his primary instrument throughout the making of Van Halens history-making first 5 records, and was his main touring guitar for this period, too.

In other words, its easily one of the most famous electric guitars that have ever existed.

A young Ed wanted the tremolo of a Stratocaster but the harder, bigger sound of a Les Paul, all in one instrument.

Buying parts from a young Grover Jackson at Boogie Bodies, Ed then robbed a perfectly nice Gibson ES-335 of its bridge humbucker and used it in his freshly purchased S-type guitar body.

Instant masterpiece This is the guitar everybody sees on the cover of the first Van Halen album.

The locking Floyd Rose tremolo and additional red paint came later, as Ed continually made improvements and changes.

Yes, the Frankenstein and the Black and White guitar are in fact one and the same.

Since then, there have been a few tributes and replicas made, normally with extremely high price tags attached.

Well-heeled Eddie fans have been able to buy a piece of the Eruption dream for themselves.

Earlier Striped Series guitars brought the ubiquitous look to the masses, but this model goes for a much more direct tribute to the Frankenstein guitar itself.

Considering that this is a relatively affordable production line guitar and not a custom one-off museum piece, the level of authenticity is staggering First off, the basswood body has the correct striping, its worn away in the right places and the bare wood sections are realistically aged.

As you may already know, the only functioning pieces of hardware are the bridge pickup, the volume control (its a tone knob, since thats what Ed has) and the tremolo.

The pickup selector and neck pickup are dummy units, as per the original.

The electronics inside the middle pickup cavity have all been aged to retain the look of the guitar, and its a job well done.

Ed is very specific with every element of the design process, but the neck and the pickups are perhaps the most scrutinised.

The neck is a modified C shape, which to us means slim and very comfortable.

This means that the neck blank is sawn from the lumber at an angle, which is more costly but uses the natural grain direction of the wood to provide more strength and stability than normally sawn necks.

When you watch videos of Van Halen live in the 80s, youll understand why this is a priority for Eddie.

In this case, the radius is already relatively flat to begin with at 12.

This gradually flattens out to 16 at the top frets, allowing for all manner of appropriately pyrotechnic left-hand techniques to be successfully executed.

We must remember how ridiculously influential he was after Eruption was released: every Rock guitar player in the planet wanted what Eddie had.

The only working pickup on the original Frankenstein was his aforementioned ES-335 PAF pickup, which Ed dipped in wax and soldered into his axe.

This unit uses the same Alnico II magnet as PAF-style pickups, but slightly ups the ante in the output.

Frankenstrat Stripe Templates