EVH Tribute

ninjaking67

ninjaking67

Ambassador of Good Will
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As with most of you, I was shocked and saddened by the seemingly sudden passing of Edward Van Halen. I have been a fan, both of his incredible playing and his inventiveness, for many years.
Years ago I built a 85% accurate replica of Eddie's Frankenstein. It was tons of fun to make and I had a blast playing it. Much to my family's horror, I sold it several years ago to fund another project. Here is a photo:

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This was built entirely from parts that I had just laying around from various failed or never started projects.
Before one of you EVH experts chimes in, it was meant as a tribute and definitely not a "replica" of the guitar that morphed into Frankie.
The body is a Music Man Axis-style from Tone Bomb and has been several different colours already. The neck was from a different project and had a very strange headstock. What you see is the best I could come up with to replicate an EVH Wolfgang headstock without having to plug and redrill tuner holes. It does have the spoke wheel at the heel for adjustment, just like the EBMM, Peavey and EVH models.
 
ninjaking67 said:
Thank you Robert.
Due to the grief and abuse I got from my kids for selling the Frankie, I have slowly been amassing the parts over the last year or so to bulid another, more accurate copy. With Ed's death, it seems a more urgent project.
Click to expand...

As I recall, Ed switched to a fine tuner Floyd Rose in 1982. Brad Gillis was known to keep his original, non-fine tuner Floyd Rose's even to this day.

Tell you what I would like to see...and I even considered building one myself, except I promised myself that I would build no more guitars, as I find them to be a huge distraction from playing and working.

I would like to see an EVH inspired build, rather than an EVH duplicate. I also prefer shiny new builds, as opposed to "falsely reliced" models.

I am getting to where I really like the H-S-S configuration in actual use.

I would like to see a factory-fresh EVH paint job with a rear-routed, H-S-S configuration.

Something in the bridge like a DiMarzio Super 70 in the bridge, with a custom stacked, screw-type pole piece pickup in the middle and neck position.

Probably one of the Titanium Floyd's on a 22 fret neck with a 12" or 14" radius.

Maple neck with a rosewood board....
 
I'm really trying to stay out of doing another build, because I get really carried away with it...

Von Herndon Headstock Freehand Sketch (1).jpg

Von Herndon Headstock Patent Applied For Drawing.png



Von Herndon Neck Plans - 2 (3).png

The one on the left (#14) belongs to Rockabilly Guitar Legend Marty Stuart. I built 27 guitars under the Von Herndon name before coming to my senses...

Two Stagecrafters.jpg

I even built a doubleneck in 2017 before B.Hefner went under... :-(

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Wire Harness.jpg
 
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And my first try on building a 24.75" scale, 12" radius Strat....It was a disaster...at least from a dimensional standpoint. I didn't get the bridge posts in the right spot and I could never get acceptable intonation. Built from parts custom-ordered from the now defunct, B.Hefner in Whittier, CA.

Von Herndon Number 1.jpg

Session Crafter Number 1.jpg
 
ninjaking67 said:
This was built entirely from parts that I had just laying around from various failed or never started projects.
Before one of you EVH experts chimes in, it was meant as a tribute and definitely not a "replica" of the guitar that morphed into Frankie.
The body is a Music Man Axis-style from Tone Bomb and has been several different colours already. The neck was from a different project and had a very strange headstock. What you see is the best I could come up with to replicate an EVH Wolfgang headstock without having to plug and redrill tuner holes. It does have the spoke wheel at the heel for adjustment, just like the EBMM, Peavey and EVH models.
Click to expand...


Excellent work Will! Like it all! SHWEEET!!
 
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