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[Chistopher]

I took apart my EVH 78 to put a Super Distortion in the bridge and thought y'all would be interested to see what's under the pickguard. It's the Frankie rout minus the neck and middle pickups. I think it looks cool, I'm debating putting a half pickguard on it, or perhaps custom order a half black half trans pickguard for it. Notice the part that doesn't see light has yellowed to form a pickguard shape.

More importantly, I've always had a theory, and it's been backed up by a few sourceless anecdotes I've heard, that Frankenstein was not actually the best guitar. B stock budget tier body, budget neck, made by a high schooler with no trade experience, etc. But this instrument has made me realize something else. The way Eddie would have mounted the humbuckers in the Frankenstrat (screwed directly to the wood) leaves little room for height adjustment. They put a small piece of foam under the pickup so you have about 2mm of height adjustment, but the sweet spot is having it screwed all the way to the wood. Judging from his other handiwork, I would bet Eddie just had his screwed directly in with no adjustability. I don't think he increased the depth of the rout either, but I couldn't tell you.

Anyways, I was unable to install the Super Distortion because the taller magnet made it so that the strings were WAY too close to the strings and the thing was way too loud. Which I think is the same theory Mr. Van Halen came across as well.

Also, a question I had for the bigger EVH nerds. Where did the 1/8th black stripes disappear to when he added the red coat of paint?

 

[Ashurbanipal]

Interesting, I thought they were like the original. I'm also inclined to agree he just screwed the pu in without minding any height adjustment, certainly the mystery black pu in there now doesn't seem to be shimmed. The bottom of the cavity seems to be uniform (you can find pics from when it was exhibited at the Met), so Ed probably went to the same depth as the original routes when enlarging the space for the hb.

Regarding the original guitar, well, I don't think there's much doubt it was trashy in various respects. Perhaps one of the more egregious issues it had was the fact that when a Floyd Rose was put first put on it, it was too far back, so the guitar never tuned properly, yet Ed played it like that; the problem was corrected by Tom Anderson in the 90s, well after it was retired.