Frankenstein Project

A few weeks ago I bought a crappy stratocaster copy at a junk shop for $30. I figured it would be perfect opportunity to tear it down and paint it up EVH Frankenstrat style. The guitar is a Behringer strat copy. It’s shape is not exactly that of a Fender Stratocaster but it’s very close. The tremlo bar was broken off at some point and the bridge end of the bar is still in the bridge which contributed to the guitar’s low cost. I suppose I could replace it with a cheap strat bridge at some point.

Behringer Strat Copy

Overall the guitar is in OK shape. It was a bit dirty so I cleaned it up a bit, replaced the strings and it actually sound pretty good. Not as good as my Fender Mexican Stratocaster but better than $30. I let my 8 year old plunk away at it a bit. He seemed to like it’s extremely low weight. It’s super light, featherweight even. The wood must be polina or basswood or some other super light weight wood.

A trip to home depot resulted in a few sheets of sandpaper, 3 cans of valspar ( red, white, and black) and a can of clear coat. After prying the guitar from of the clutches of my 8 year old I decided it was time to tear it apart. I stripped down the body and sanded it just enough to rough up the finish so the new paint would adhere nicely.

Behringer Before first coat

I first painted the entire body black using Valspar Satin Black. I waited several hours in between coats until I had a nice even coat. After that I used masking table to mimic the design of Eddies famous 78 version of the Frankenstrat, see image below, and then applied white paint. Again I used several coats and waited a few hours between coats. I hadn’t though of blogging about this when I was painting it or I would have taken more pictures of the masking process.

I did not stick to the exact layout of the stripes as you will notice on my finished version, however I tried to get the same general “feel” with mine. After the white paint was dry I removed the tape and applied more tape. This time using the 84 version of the Frankenstrat as my guide. Here’s Edward’s guitar.

And finally here’s a few pictures of my finished Behringer EVH. After paint and before final assembly.

Here’s a shot with the bridge, pickguar and neck resting in place.

And finally with strings tuned up and ready to play. Which I am happy to say still plays as nice as it did before I tainted it’s stock appearence.

As you can see it’s not an exact replica of the EVH Frankenstrat but it has the same feel. Although mine is alot cleaner and not quite as road-worn. I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I did painting it.