Widely regarded as the most recognizable electric guitar ever, Eddie Van Halen’s iconic and revered Frankenstein now comes your way with a price tag the everyday musician can afford in the form of the EVH Striped Series Frankenstein Frankie Guitar. Sporting Eddie’s famed red with a white-and-black-striped paint job and a worn-in reliced look, the all-new Frankie features a basswood Stratocaster-style body paired with a graphite-reinforced quartersawn maple neck. An oiled finish on the back of the neck allows for hours of playing comfort, while the 12 to 16 inch compound radius maple fingerboard with 22 jumbo frets was designed for fast and furious playing styles. Routed for an HSS pickup configuration just like Eddie’s original, Frankie features an EVH Wolfgang humbucking bridge pickup with a dummy Strat neck pickup and a dummy five-way blade housed in the middle position. A sturdy and dependable EVH-branded Floyd Rose locking trem and Floyd Rose locking nut work in tandem for precise tuning even with extreme changes in pitch, while the EVH D-Tuna retunes to drop-D and back with strict accuracy at the flick of a finger.

Bolt-On Quartersawn Maple Neck with Eddie Van Halen's Modified C Backshape

Bolt-on is a type of neck construction that joins the maple neck to the body of the guitar with screws or bolts, resulting in a bright tone with more control. The quartersawn grain runs the length of the neck and as well as being visually appealing is less susceptible to shrinking, warping, or splitting. Graphite-reinforcement rods flank the truss rod for even more increased neck stability, while your fretting hand will feel right at home on the modified C-shape neck, which has a .790-inch thickness at the 3rd fret and .825-inch at the 12th fret.

12 to 16 inches Compound Radius Maple Fingerboard

The innovative 12 to 16 inches compound radius maple fingerboard design gradually flattens toward the heel from its smaller and more rounded profile at the nut for unparalleled comfortable chording and riffing near the nut and seamless bending near the heel. Maple is a dense wood that produces bright, snappy tones, articulate notes with bite, and a tight low end.

Eddie's Famed Frankenstein Pickup Mods

To throw imitators off his scent, Eddie faked people out by hacking into his original Frankenstein guitar and screwing a three-way switch sideways into the middle position, and housing a non-functional singlecoil pickup in the neck position. The Frankie guitar follows suit, featuring an EVH Wolfgang humbucking bridge pickup with a dummy Strat neck pickup and a dummy five-way blade housed in the middle position. The direct mount EVH Wolfgang bridge humbucker with Alnico 2 magnets is hotter and delivers rich harmonics, cutting highs and snarling mids.

Unique Cosmetics and Appointments

Other standout appointments of this fan favorite include a sliced red with the white-and-black-striped paint job, reliced hardware, custom black pickguard, top-mount Strat-style output jack, and white skirted Strat-style single volume control knob labeled Tone.

EVH-Branded Floyd Rose Locking Trem, R3 Locking Nut, and EVH D-Tuna

Eddie Van Halen was the first player to popularize the innovative Floyd Rose locking tremolo, even advising Floyd Rose on his early designs to integrate round disc finger-type tuners that you would see on a cello or violin. Now universally embraced, the EVH-branded Floyd Rose bridge features EVH logo stamped on the bridge plate, steel saddles, and a solid brass block. The Floyd Rose bridge and R3 (43 mm) locking nut is a professional-grade double-locking design that secures the strings in the saddle and nut, providing ultimate tuning stability and dynamic tremolo action. Standard equipment on Eddie’s personal guitars since the early ‘90s, the EVH D-Tuna is a unique patented device that enables players to drop the E to D and back, in an instant.