So, shortly after the legendary Eddie Van Halen died last October, I got a request to make a mardi gras beaded version of his iconic Frankenstein guitar…the heavily self-modified and painted strat style guitar that had created the music of my childhood, and inspired generations of guitarists. Awesome. Yes, of course I would love to. And as a guitar fanatic myself…how perfect.
Many years ago…early in my days as a mardi gras bead artist, I came across a photo of an artist in new orleans who’d made a kind of primitive cut-out beaded piece of an electric guitar. I’d always thought that was really cool, and told myself that I would love to do a similar one…I’d even cut out the photo, and it’s sat next to my desk for probably 15 years (but at the moment I can’t find it). But either way, never got around to it. Here was my chance.
As a side note, we’d taken our kids in the spring to NYC 2 years ago, and there just so happened to be an exhibit at the Met called “Play it Loud”…where they displayed the actual original instruments that built Rock n Roll…Elvis’ Martin acoustic, Jimmy Page’s double-neck Gibson, Keith Richard’s tele, Joan Jett’s Melody Maker, Jimi Hendrix’s Flying V, Bruce Springsteen;s telecaster…and Eddie’s Frankenstein strat. There. In person. The ACTUAL guitar. It was a stunning, unbelievable experience.
SO….needless to say, I was excited.
I was given a specific instruction. It had to be 60” long. All the other dimensions I had to figure out myself. And honestly, the toughest part is getting the proportions to look correct. So I looked at tons of pictures of his guitar (including the ones I took at the Met), and measured my own ‘74 stratocaster…
But one interesting thing about Eddie’s guitar is that there were a lot of little details…his modifications..that made it what it is. One unique aspect, I thought, was that he took all three pickups out, and replaced them, routing out the bridge for a bigger humbucker. As a guitar-lover, I felt that was important so it influenced my design of the piece. I sketched out the guitar body (at 1.55 scale for those of you who care), and then cut out the pickup cavities..careful to get every edge and irregularity correct. Then I cut out a second guitar body and glued it underneath the first…
Knowing I wanted to lucite-coat the guitar to make it glossy, I had to think about how I was going to coat it. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, lucite is an epoxy that I mix and then pour over and work into a piece that when dried gives a hard, glassy appearance. BUT, it will go everywhere….and how will I keep it from just filling up the pickup cavities?
So I decided to build each of the PICKUPS first from separate pieces of wood (and beads), and lucite coat them individually. Then I carefully coated the pickup cavities with a super thin brushed-on layer of lucite. Then eventually, after everything was finished, glued the pickups into the cavities.
Still, it was a little nerve-wracking that if I tried to coat the whole piece at once, all of the liquid lucite would run into the cavities and fill them up with lucite. Might be cool…but still it’s not what I wanted. So, when I was done with the beading, I carefully coated a few layers of beads around the pickup cavities and let them dry (to create a kind of barrier around the cavities). Then I came back a few days later and coated the rest of the piece.
Thank god it worked.
I’ve always been kind of a realist at heart, and really fixated on making whatever I’m making look accurate and “real”….which has held over into my artsy endeavors these days too…despite working in one of the most unrealistic mediums ever. Beads.
So I spent a lot of time trying to replicate every little detail of Eddie’s guitar…down to each exact stripe and screw, every little ding where the wood showed through, the strip of tape where he stuck his extra picks, and even to the cigarette burn on the headstock.
And….as one final little detail, true to the original, I drilled out and inserted eye-bolts on the upper horn and the butt of the guitar, where he would have clipped on his guitar strap before walking out on stage…
(And for those who care - those too are the correct proportions…1.55 scale. ;) )
I’d like to think Eddie would be proud. Long live rock n’ roll.
