I wonder why Eddie van Halen built a Strat from scratch

Back when Van Halen was first getting going in the mid to late 70s, it was possible to buy a good quality Fender Strat. However, unlike today, you could not get one with a built-in humbucking pickup in bridge. They came with single-coil pickups in all positions, which is fine if those make the sound that you're going for. EVH liked the feel of a Strat and its whammy bar, but its single-coil pickup was not capable of making that fat and mid-rangy sound that you would get from a humbucker in the bridge on a Gibson Les Paul. So he bought Strat parts from companies like Charvel and built himself a Frankenstrat with a humbucker in the bridge like he wanted. Back then I don't think you could buy an after-market humbucking pickup. I think he actually cannibalized one from a Les Paul. The rest is history. He was able to get that tone he wanted from a Strat, which was the type of guitar he felt most comfortable playing.

However, he could have done it much more simply. He could have just gotten himself a Strat made by Fender and then removed its bridge single coil pickup and replaced it with a humbucker. It would have required routing out that bridge position, but that's no big deal. I think EVH had to rout out that position on the Charvel body anyway, as it was designed for the single coil pickup also. Untold numbers of guitar players have done it this way.

Nowadays if you want, you could just buy a Fender Strat with a humbucker in the bridge. You could not do that back then, but the replacing of that one pickup in the bridge would have been considerably simpler than the custom build he did from scratch. Has anyone heard any interview with EVH where he explains why he did a from-scratch build instead of doing a simple pickup replacement?

because he was Eddie freaking Van Halen, that's why.

I think he was just into building guitars. I haven't heard a reason on why he built this one from scratch, but I heard that he had a sea of parts. Like a guitar cemetery and just grabbed a neck here, a body there etc. Between sawing and painting and routing and wiring, plus the quarter. lol. it was what he was in to. I think he was doing the same with his amps in those early days. Mechanical from a young age. But the Frankenstrat is really an amazing piece of work. The most famous and recognizable guitar in the world. And pretty much a mess which is the beauty of it.

A few things i recall from back in the day, the original guitar pictured on the first album was built for around $130. The pickup was from a Gibson 335 which he dipped in wax to prevent feedback. The tremolo bar was off of a stock Stratocaster which if I am not mistaken had a brass nut which he would put 3 in 1 oil on so the strings would come back to their original position when he was doing multi-step dive-bombs with a bar. Mind you there we're no Floyd Rose or locking nuts at the time. He basically wanted a Gibson sound out of Stratocaster

Big_D said:

I think he was just into building guitars. I haven't heard a reason on why he built this one from scratch, but I heard that he had a sea of parts. Like a guitar cemetery and just grabbed a neck here, a body there etc. Between sawing and painting and routing and wiring, plus the quarter. lol. it was what he was in to. I think he was doing the same with his amps in those early days. Mechanical from a young age. But the Frankenstrat is really an amazing piece of work. The most famous and recognizable guitar in the world. And pretty much a mess which is the beauty of it.

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He was a tinkerer at heart the guitar on the front of the women and children first album he ruined when he cut a large chunk of wood out of it. It would not be uncommon to walk into his hotel room in the middle of the night and be welcomed buy hundreds of parts all over the bed floor Etc and no one knew what went to what except 4 Edward