Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstein

05/25/2011
. (Gibson) Earlier this year, a replica of Eddie Van Halen's "Frankenstein" guitar was donated to The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. The guitar god recently talked to Smithsonian Magazine about how the guitar initially came about.

"The original Frankenstein was a result of me tinkering and experimenting with different elements of electric guitars that I liked," he said. "I created an instrument that wasn't offered as an 'off the rack' guitar by any manufacturer at the time."

Although Van Halen still has the first Frankenstein guitar, he doesn't tour with it anymore. "I retired it from regular use. It took so much abuse from endless touring and recording; I wanted to pay some respect to it and let it survive and not let it get destroyed completely," he said. "At the same time it became something so well known beyond my wildest dreams that it's value made it a target for theft and I wanted to protect it. I still play it every now and then. It's priceless to me." more on this story

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