I have posted maybe a handful of times on this forum throughout the years; you may or may not have seen my replies, but the Van Halen bug is burning inside me again. I don't want to take up too much time sharing my entire life's story, but my obsession with Eddie and the Frankenstein/Frankenstrat started late into middle school when I began to play guitar. I have never been that great of a guitarist, but soon after, I found myself obsessively collecting vintage equipment, and my fascination over that red, white and black guitar that Eddie van Halen played grew. I would get home after my high school classes let out and study that guitar for hours when I was a member of the FrankenStrat forum and so on. Fast forward here I am about ten years later, having done the amount of research equivalent to a P.H.D. on that guitar, and I am currently in the process of moving to Boston for Medical school. I have been working on a 1959 Bartlett Les Paul replica, but that project is more of an actual woodworking project, and I don't have the space for all that equipment; I will sell my 59 materials and put them into the Franky build when I have downtime. I will post updates as much as I possibly can, but I am in medical school, working a part-time job, and I have about two years left on my contract with the Army reserves, so I may go extended periods of time without posting, but I will keep everyone updated to the best of ability. So with that out of the way! I just purchased a set of correct Gotoh crown heads, and a prototype Floyd rose arm that will be attached to the 80's west German Floyd rose. Like most, I genuinely believe the neck was a Boogie Bodies. Im not sure about the body, but whatever, it was "branded" at the end of the day; Charvel, boogie bodies..etc., were all using the same templates made by Dave Schecter. I have a body that James Duffy made me from the #0022 Azusa body that will be templated and transferred over to a new ash body blank. I have picked out a piece of lumber in the weight range, will have the correct W grain pattern and even has a "knot" that will be glued in the correct location.
Most of these small details don't matter, but all I care about at the moment is accurate and correct. I bought a 1960 Gibson P.A.F. on eBay about eight years ago with a broken coil; it will be sent to Seymour for a rewind. The paints I will be using will be mixed using the correct Schwinn formulas, and to throw the icing on the cake, a genuine Boogie Bodies neck matching all the specs of the neck on the current Franky. I became good friends with Lynn about ten years ago when I was in high school. I found Dave Schecter's contact email and began a conversation with him, and not too long after; he gave me Lynn's Phone number so I could call and order a guitar from him. Lynn made this neck for me about five years ago, and I have cherished it ever since. Again, I will post as much about my build over the next couple of days. I cannot wait to show my progress and if you have any criticisms, certainly let me know because it will be a long, drawn-out project
Lynn is now older and, unfortunately, very sick; I plan to take a week off work and visit him and his wife, Dianne, soon. I will post pics here on the forum as soon as I plan to visit him. If you guys have any questions for Lynn, he said he wouldn't mind talking about Charvel and boogie bodies and answering any questions in a video.
I look forward to posting my build; I have put blood, sweat tears into it!
I wont be home for some days, I will post some pics of the body and neck when able, attached two pics of the Floyd arm and Crown Head tuners. Every nut, screw and bolt will be as accurate to the time period and patina as I possibly can make it to the original Franky as possible!
