Modifying A Guitar To Van Halen

[Tim]

My nephew has recently become interested in Van Halen. He is repainting his guitar body to match Eddie’s paint design. I went with him to pick out a set of Seymour Duncan SH4 humbuckers. My nephew would also like to purchase a Floyd Rose bridge/tremolo and a maple neck. He also wants to pull out the middle single coil pickup and use only the bridge humbucker and neck single coil.

All this mod work is being completed on a Squire Affinity guitar. I told my nephew that he is spending a lot of money on a low brand guitar and it really is not worth it. Save the money and buy a good guitar with the accessories you want. He wants his guitar too look like Eddies’ before the concert in Pittsburgh in 2 months.

So can anybody recommend a good Floyd Rose bridge/tremolo and maple neck to install on a Squire Affinity?

Oh yea, does anybody know how to wire this bad boy guitar up like Eddie’s?

[oldguy]

He might want one of these..

http://www.legendarytones.com/evh%20pickup.html

FWIW, Eddie generally used only one pickup, next to the bridge, wired to a volume control, nothing else, on the guitar most people try and copy.

If he wants some insight into EVH early equip. this is interesting. It touches on some things like the wiring on the pickup, the necks/bodies used, etc.
http://www.legendarytones.com/brownsound.html

I would think the original Floyd Rose to be the best, but you might ask around as I don't have a Floyd axe. Marnold could prob'ly help, he's a Floyd guy.
As to the neck, it would depend on the fretboard radius, headstock, etc. and how much the budget will be. You can find them on e'bay for less than new $$$, unless he's got to have it right away. I think several aftermarket suppliers make the Kramer style neck if he wants a EVH Frankenstrat lookalike.

[oldguy]

You might want to check this out, as well as the links at the bottom.
It's pretty thorough on building a Eddie guitar clone.
http://www.shredaholic.com/frankie.html

Thanks for the question, Tim.........
I'm havin' a good time! Started lookin' this stuff up and kinda got lost reading about it.

(Hey, you sure you're not building this for you???)

[LagrangeCalvert]

if he cannot afford the EVH Custom shop pup....I use a Seymour Duncan "pearly gates" and its also an alnico 2 pup AND has a punchy midrange and lots of top end sparkle....its a great rock'n pup as well... I also have a SD Alnico 2 pro flat strat pup also on the same guitar....great combo IMHO....we do rock with gain and stuff. Also, if he wants a more dynamic pup (besides bypassing the tone pots) he could go for 1MEG pots instead of 500K this also gives you more low end AND more high end. Just some thoughts. Dont forget a graph tech nut IF he doesn't go for the Floyd Rose...and Graph tech saddles. No more string breakage with bends /trem dips and a more "opened up" sound as well....

Just some thoughts

Joshua / LC

Josh / LC