At it again...this time it's an EVH Frankenstrat

[John Nicholas]

I think the whole "women don't like Rush" thing is a little overstated. When I saw them there were tons of women in the crowd (very happily so!), and if you watch any of their concert DVDs you'll see quite a few too, singing along and everything! Also, if you check out the main Rush fan forum, they have an entire sub where the ladies go gaga over old photos of Alex .



Ha! I hadn't noticed that before! They probably just needed some extra footage to fill in, but with VH it's probably also a distinct possibility that the video editor was partying and didn't care too much about continuity .

On a related note, if you watch the concert scenes in This is Spinal Tap you'll see the on-stage microphones' pop filters constantly disappear and reappear. I noticed that a few years ago and now I can't not see it every single time! I think it's during "Stonehenge" that I notice it most, but I haven't watched TiST in over a year so I forget exactly.

It's not that I don't think women like Rush, it's more like I rarely meet "super fan" women. I sort of considered myself a Rush fan, but you know far, far more then I do... most likely due to the fact that I'm a more "fair weathered" fan!

My illusion is you got to see the Rush documentary. Did you see it in a theater?

That clip of EVH looks like it was shot on another night... they probably messed something else and put that in, thinking most folks would never see it. After multiple viewings it took until the 5th or 6th time to notice it!

This is Spinal Tap was a very low-budget film. It's not surprising that there are many "goofs". Some of the Rob Reiner interviews talk about how they shot the film... there is about 180 hours of footage!!

 

[John Nicholas]

I would whole heartedly recommend this. My life got a lot better when I got one of those. Remember that no matter how much it costs, it is cheaper than dealing with silicosis, emphysema, etc.

Out of curiosity, which model did you buy?

 

[John Nicholas]

Not to steal OP's thunder but since I needed a neck anyway, I just got a screaming deal on an Allparts that was too good to pass up. They have their KEO banana headstock necks on clearance (12" radius, Floyd nut shelf and ebony fretboard) and I just pulled the trigger. Only $104 shipped (originally $240 direct from AP), if anyone wants to get in on that deal! I figured OP and everyone else in this thread would appreciate the banana headstock .

WOW! That's a fantastic deal!!

My only issue is the ebony fingerboard... not really a fan when they're on EVH styled guitars!

 

[Cat MacKinnon]

It's not that I don't think women like Rush, it's more like I rarely meet "super fan" women. I sort of considered myself a Rush fan, but you know far, far more then I do... most likely due to the fact that I'm a more "fair weathered" fan!

My illusion is you got to see the Rush documentary. Did you see it in a theater?

That clip of EVH looks like it was shot on another night... they probably messed something else and put that in, thinking most folks would never see it. After multiple viewings it took until the 5th or 6th time to notice it!

This is Spinal Tap was a very low-budget film. It's not surprising that there are many "goofs". Some of the Rob Reiner interviews talk about how they shot the film... there is about 180 hours of footage!!

I did see it of course, but not in the theater. I thought about going, but I just don't like going to movie theaters very much. I'm a huge Rush fan as far as the music goes, but I'm not one of those people that collects all the memorabilia or goes to every single show (although in hindsight I really wish I HAD gone to more of their shows! You'd probably be shocked at how few times I actually saw them live.)

WOW! That's a fantastic deal!!

My only issue is the ebony fingerboard... not really a fan when they're on EVH styled guitars!

Yeah, I was originally planning on either maple or rosewood and more of a "classic" Pacer look (w/ beak headstock) rather than a strictly EVH-inspired one, so the ebony wasn't a deal killer. Besides, there was no way I could pass up that price! I'm really looking forward to it and frankly I'm enjoying the idea of having something other than a standard Fender-style headstock for the first time in a good 15 years. Don't get me wrong, I love the Fender headstock shapes, but it'll be nice to switch it up a little. And if worse comes to worse I can always just go all-black because I love black guitars!

 

[John Nicholas]

I did see it of course, but not in the theater. I thought about going, but I just don't like going to movie theaters very much. I'm a huge Rush fan as far as the music goes, but I'm not one of those people that collects all the memorabilia or goes to every single show (although in hindsight I really wish I HAD gone to more of their shows! You'd probably be shocked at how few times I actually saw them live.)

Yeah, I was originally planning on either maple or rosewood and more of a "classic" Pacer look (w/ beak headstock) rather than a strictly EVH-inspired one, so the ebony wasn't a deal killer. Besides, there was no way I could pass up that price! I'm really looking forward to it and frankly I'm enjoying the idea of having something other than a standard Fender-style headstock for the first time in a good 15 years. Don't get me wrong, I love the Fender headstock shapes, but it'll be nice to switch it up a little. And if worse comes to worse I can always just go all-black because I love black guitars!

The only time I got to see Rush was in 1981 during the Moving Pictures tour... so I get it. In the same boat as you when it comes to memorabilia and other stuff....

In fact I never ask for autographs or selfies when I meet anyone well-known. If the person I'm meeting is cool, then it's an opportunity to get to know them as a person, if time allows... so no matter how much a band, musician or celebrity means to me, no collecting of anything for me.

Did you get your neck yet?

You really inspired me to look into buying a neck, so I found this on e-bay.

Get this, it cost me $35.13 including shipping from China!!!

You know this is going to be great quality at that price!

(link removed)

Seriously, for that price if nothing else it will make a great template....

Of course, now it's off to the races... since there will be two necks, it's easy enough to make another body. Right?

Since it was so difficult to decide whether to make a "replica" of Franky, or to make one as if Eddie knew what he was doing (sort of...) at this moment in time, I'm gonna make TWO!!

 

[I_build_my_own]

Yeeehaw!! 2 Frankensteins coming up!

 

[Cat MacKinnon]

The only time I got to see Rush was in 1981 during the Moving Pictures tour... so I get it. In the same boat as you when it comes to memorabilia and other stuff....

In fact I never ask for autographs or selfies when I meet anyone well-known. If the person I'm meeting is cool, then it's an opportunity to get to know them as a person, if time allows... so no matter how much a band, musician or celebrity means to me, no collecting of anything for me.

Did you get your neck yet?

You really inspired me to look into buying a neck, so I found this on e-bay.

Get this, it cost me $35.13 including shipping from China!!!

You know this is going to be great quality at that price!

(link removed)

Seriously, for that price if nothing else it will make a great template....

Of course, now it's off to the races... since there will be two necks, it's easy enough to make another body. Right?

Since it was so difficult to decide whether to make a "replica" of Franky, or to make one as if Eddie knew what he was doing (sort of...) at this moment in time, I'm gonna make TWO!!

Oh, I totally forgot to update! So I ordered the neck from AP, but a day or two later the order was cancelled by them (my fault, I'll explain.) I had a few Visa gift cards from Xmas but AP's site doesn't allow splitting payments. Instead, I bought two AP gift certificates, because I knew I could apply multiple gift codes to a single order. Well, apparently AP's system flagged that as fraud (probably because I bought both certificates in a row and then placed the neck order shortly afterwards. In hindsight I should've known that would've happened, but oh well.) Nothing lost though, I just had to wait for all that stuff to be credited back to those cards so I could figure out a new plan. In the meantime, I thought about the fact that this was going on my main guitar and I'm rather clumsy, and I started realizing it might not be the best idea: hockey stick headstocks are a little more prone to breakage, especially with clumsy people like me who always seems to be bumping my guitars into stuff and knocking them over. I ended up going back to my original plan and ordered an Allparts SRO neck from Stratosphere instead: Strat head (which I plan on "beaking" ala Kramer or Suhr), rosewood fretboard, 12" radius, 22 jumbo frets. Basically the same specs, just a different fretboard material and headstock shape. This is the neck I'd been planning on buying for the past few months.

I'm still going to Floyd the whole thing out. I love the Gotoh Wilki VS100 trem, but I'm just kind of tired of dealing with tuning issues, even minor ones. Everything's setup great and it'll play fine for a month, then something gets worn down or whatever, and one or two strings stop cooperating. I'm not laying on the trem like Vai or SRV, but I guess I use it just heavily enough to run into tuning problems and it annoys me. Locking tuners and a GraphTech nut certainly help, but they're just not quite as effective as a Floyd for how I play, I guess.

Next up will be a Gotoh licensed Floyd, Arkansas MusicWorks has the complete kit (including locking nut) for $125 shipped, and the Gotoh Floyds are outstanding for the price (there's a reason Suhr and a few other makers switched to them over the past couple years.) I will have to route the nut shelf myself (no big deal), but this way I can still use the neck in a non-locking configuration until I get the Floyd hardware. Hopefully in the spring I'll also get a Pacer-style body from KnE, so I'll basically end up with a modern version of a Pacer Imperial.

I still really want to do a banana headstock guitar one of these days, but I just don't think I want it on my main guitar. Besides, I kind of came to realize that if I was going to do that, an all-maple neck really is the way to go.

 

[John Nicholas]

Well it's been a while since this thread got an update!!

Too many projects, very limited time, means some cool projects get shifted onto the back burner... this is one of them.

Well, the Chinese neck heel was far too oversized for the body and the neck is not the greatest, so it was back to working on the original neck. One issue with this neck is the headstock was HUGE!! It looked comically large!

So the one use for the Chinese neck was for a headstock template!

Drilled the headstock for the Fender tuners that have been sitting in my parts box for years....

Drilled the holes for the locking nut and traced the lines for the neck carve.

After hours of rasping, filing and sanding, the neck was carved!!

 

[John Nicholas]

So back to finishing the guitar....

First I painted it white, because I had read somewhere that it was easier to do it this way. Then I looked through the paint templates and thought it was a dumb idea! So I painted black over the white!!

Then I didn't like the idea of the screw holes for the pickguard or 6 screw tremolo, so I glued in some dowels and used bondo to smooth it all out.

Then I painted it black again...

This is going to have a lot of paint on it!!

Once the black was on, it was time to start the taping process...

I had a bunch of research materials hanging around... just in case...

Taping, taping, taping... hey. who's that bald dude in the lower right corner...

Then it was time to spray the white over the black with all the tape on it... somehow no photos were taken, so you only get photos of the body after the tape was removed!!

 

[John Nicholas]

More for your viewing pleasure!

Had to do the headstock too... which I took great liberties with... meaning I didn't have a template and just made it up as I went along...

The guitar sat like this for months!

Since it was starting to get cold in these here parts and only a few days of nice enough weather to paint, last night the taping process began anew....

Damn... there is a bunch of tape on this guitar...

***WARNING***

Photo taken in daylight...

 

[John Nicholas]

Even more photos...

Oh yeah... that pesky headstock...

After the hours of taping and taking photos it was time for the red paint...

The only place for me to paint is in the great outdoors... so that's where it was done... at least there was sun today!!

There is something very strange about this step... you don't really see what you've done... it's all just red. Worse there is no way you want to redo that crazy finish!

Once it's on... it's staying on!!

 

[John Nicholas]

Time for the unveiling... only let the paint dry enough to the touch, then remove the tape, if you leave it on too long, it will be very difficult to remove... wait until I try to uncover the fingerboard that's been taped up for months!! Yikes!

Hey, it looks like a Frankenstrat!!

Even the headstock looks pretty good...

.... yes I know, the red paint bleed under the tape... it has to look at least a little bit like Eddies backyard paint job!!

Whoa... now why would John leave a bit white space on the headstock?? What is he crazy??

Yup....

Then I sprayed some clear on everything, not enough to bury the tape line ridges, just enough to keep it looking a bit shiny and to slightly smooth the ridges...

 

[John Nicholas]

The body really does look pretty good...

I'll let this dry for a while, then it'll be time to assemble the thing.

And no, it will not be reliced!! Everything will be new and shiny chrome!!

 

[I_build_my_own]

You show this to us because you invite us to do some lawn care, right. What’s with the brown spots?

Ok more serious this came out really nice. Eddie would be proud of you!!

 

[John Nicholas]

You show this to us because you invite us to do some lawn care, right. What’s with the brown spots?

Ok more serious this came out really nice. Eddie would be proud of you!!

We don't water the lawn here, because the water is so expensive... if it rains, it gets watered. If not, brown spots... besides who has time for lawn care when you could be building guitars instead!!

You think Ed would be made because I didn't buy the $25,000. Fender replica??

 

[richa]

Fascinating process. Well done sir. That looks great!

 

[John Nicholas]

Fascinating process. Well done sir. That looks great!

Thank you!

 

[Mat UK]

Great result

 

[John Nicholas]

Great result

Thank you Mat!!

 

[Bristlehound]

Genius!