After Eddie's passing I have been watching a lot of youtube videos, I was always fascinated by his playing and how he could make sounds no one else could. In several interviews he talked about his Frankenstrat guitar and how he got the sounds out of it.
He was a real innovator, something he says he learned from his father, he combined elements of a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Stratocaster into one. He started with a two piece Ash body, that was made by Boogie Bodys in Puyallup. It was a factory second because it was made from two pieces and it had a knot in the lower horn.
Anyway, he first played the guitar in plain wood (with nothing but a sealer for finish). He then painted it gloss black with some Schwinn lacquer bicycle paint
Later he taped it off and painted it with Ford Wimbledon white paint, he also swapped out the sling attachments for eyebolts, he had a problem with the strap coming loose due to his playing style
Then on a rainy day in late March 1979, while upset over several things (concert tour dates, the rain, who knows what else) he taped the guitar off again and sanded parts of it, then added a pearl white base coat and the transparent flame red Schwinn bicycle lacquer.
This is the original, picture take at the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art last year where it spent several months on display. This gave the general public a chance to get a good look (and detailed pictures) of the guitar.
There have also been a few dozen or so tribute guns painted in the Frankenstrat style.....but none of them tried to accurately capture the haphazard way in which the guitar was painted
I am going to attempt to mimic the look of the original with all its flaws. I am going to do this by painting and aging the stock, just the same way in which the original guitar was...
I am starting with this beech wood 10/22 wood stock
Now there have been thousands of tribute/clones built over the years, including 300 very close replicas from Fender, but most of those builders never got a chance to see the guitar like we can now.....
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As you can guess I will be posting this project on my blog....eventually, so I made an intro graphic
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BTW, this guy from Canada has investigated this guitar and how it was painted down to some very minute details, even the paint, which Eddie bought from a Schwinn bicycle dealer near his home in Pasadena....he was still living with his folks at the time
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While the paint was drying I went to work on collecting the other parts
As stated above, the Frankenstrat used eyebolts for the sling
so I picked up some small eyebolts, that will look the part
only problem is these are too shiny, I needed to remove the zinc coating
I used muriatic acid to remove the zinc
They look authentic now
next I went through my 10/22 parts and found a butt plate, screws and an old aluminum barrel band that had some good wear on it
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Sun Oct 18, 2020 1:11 pm
TINCANBANDIT
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Location: Mohave Valley Arizona Joined: Fri May 20, 2011 Posts: 13371
Real Name: Casey
The black paint is dry, now time to make some stripes...Just as Eddie did, I am using regular size masking tape and 1/8" pinstripe masking tape
We wont be able to duplicate exactly the stripes on the guitar due to the stock having different curves and hardly any flat space, not to mention much less surface area. So I try to get most of the key elements
next goes on the Wimbledon White paint
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I started to remove the tape, but the paint wasn't fully cured yet, I'll give it a few more days
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Then I start sanding out the tape marks and add some wear....Eddie had it painted white with black stripes for a year and 1/2
Wet sanding with 2000 grit sand paper....also using some 600 grit
I purposely sanded through the paint in some areas
next step is to tape it off again, this time using gaffer's tape (like duck tape, only a different backing and leaves no sticky residue) and paint the red
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Progress is being made, this is after about 6 or 7 light coats.
As you can see there is still black stripes visible under the red.
This was also the case on the original guitar
I probably should have used more pearl white base and just left some areas with a light base coat. A few more coats and I should be close
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