EVH Gear has launched a trio of limited edition finishes for its Frankenstein Relic Series, offering the Eddie Van Halen signature guitar in Blueburst, Vintage Sunburst and Silverburst.
These factory-fresh but battle-scarred electric guitars follow in the footsteps of the solid red, black and white colour finishes that EVH Gear unveiled in September 2023.
The so-called ‘civilian’ finishes rework Eddie’s Frankenstein S-style in a look that is for any mere mortal who understandably might feel a little self-conscious about the prospect of picking up a high-performance guitar in red, black and white stripes. After all, there is an expectation that comes with that finish. People are going to want to hear Eruption.
Of course, if Eddie Van Halen fretboard pyro is the goal, this is a guitar that is purpose-built for the job. This will give you the tone, courtesy of a single Wolfgang humbucker nested in a solid basswood body at the bridge position, and it will give you the feel. “This guitar is born to shred,” says EVH Gear. Tell us something we don’t know.
Well, what you can’t see from the pictures is just how shreddable this is. We’ve got a 12” to 16” compound radius maple fingerboard topped with 22 jumbo frets, and an EVH Modified C profile – in other words, it’s quick.
The EVH-branded Floyd Rose vibrato offers a typically solid double-locking platform for hitting a harmonic and divebombing it into the turf, and if features a D-Tuna, so you can pop it into Drop D tuning on the fly, a classic Eddie Van Halen power move. Note: it is setup to divebomb only.
It’s kind of fitting that EVH Gear is a Fender-owned brand, because the shared DNA with the Fender Stratocaster is what gives the Frankenstein so much of its mojo. It is the world’s greatest guitar player turning the world’s greatest guitar into a monster.
The neck has a Strat headstock and it is bolted onto a Stratocaster body. This is a production model but there’s still something homespun about it all, the aftermarket modded guitar you can buy at the store.
Heck, it’s only got a single volume knob – again, a skirted Strat-style dial – mounted on a cut-off custom pickguard. The neck single-coil is a dummy, just for show (though you can actually wire it up if you wanted to). Is thing really new?
Yes, yes it is. Elsewhere, we’ve got EVH-branded Gotoh tuners, Heavy Relic lacquer, oversized guitar strap buttons and it ships in a gig bag, y’know, to protect the finish.
Ordinarily, when we see a Silverburst, the first thought is in pricing temperature-controlled rooms to store that beauty in – but that’s the beauty of relic’d guitars. EVH says “born to shred” and that’s the truth.
This is one you don’t mind playing heard straight off the peg. The price is not too bad either. Priced £1,479/$1,549, these limited edition Frankenstein Relic Series models are available now. For more details, head over to EVH Gear.
