EVH Striped Series Frankie Review
Review of EVH Striped Series Frankie Eddie Van Halen signature guitar I purchased this guitar November 2020. This was just after Eddie Van Halen passed away. I have always admired Eddie as a player and guitar pioneer. So decided to purchase this guitar and set about learning all the tracks off Van Halen 1. Setting a tough challenge for myself. Arguably Eddie changed the way guitar is played more than any other guitarist. I have waited until now to review the guitar. This is due to when you have something new it’s not until a while later you can give a fair opinion. This is a totally unbiased review of the guitar.
Availability Issues
I ordered this guitar from Professional Guitar Technology (PMT) The guitar was out of stock everywhere else that I had tried. It was showing stock on their website. So I called them to check it was in stock. I then ordered the guitar on Friday evening and it arrived on Monday morning. The customer service I received from PMT was 1st class. I paid £1399.00 At the time of writing this there are still issues with availability in the UK.
Unboxing
The guitar arrived in a well packed cardboard box. The guitar has a reliced red finish with black and white stripes. Reliced guitars have a love them, or hate them opinion from most guitar players. My view on this has always been why buy a guitar that looks like its been played to death. My gigging guitars get that look without trying or even wanting that look. However with that said, this guitar feels like you have been playing it for years.
The guitar was not set up when it arrived. So I had to spend some time altering the springs in the back of the guitar, in order to get it into tune. I know most guitar manufactures are trying to cut costs, but with guitar of this price I would normally expect a hard case. You do not get a hard case or even a padded gig bag with this guitar.
Playability / Body
Personally I have to bond with a guitar and feel comfortable with it to get the best out of it. Over the years I have purchased some very expensive guitars, that I have never bonded with and rarely get played. This guitar felt comfortable from the start. The guitar is lightweight, and with the relic finish you feel like it should be played. Due to the relic finish you do not need to be too precious with it.
Neck
The maple neck is graphite-reinforced. This helps protect against adverse temperatures and changes in humidity. It has 22-frets, with a standard 25.5” Fender scale length that has a 12″ to 16″ compound radius. This means the neck flattens out the higher you go up the fretboard. The oil finish feels great and is very comfortable and fast. The jumbo frets are also second to none for getting those harmonics.
Pickups
There are two visible pickups on this guitar. The neck single coil pickup is a dummy pickup and isn’t wired in. I have been informed that this pickup works if it is wired in. The other pickup is a EVH Wolfgang Humbucker. This pickup makes life easy to get those pinch harmonics singing giving you that authentic Van Halen sound. I have to say this pick up is amazing. You can also clean up the pickup by just rolling the volume down. It has one volume control that’s marked as Tone. This is the same as Eddies Frankinstrat.
D-Tuna / Floyd Rose
The Floyd Rose should ideally be set flat to the body this is the same as Eddie had it set up. There is no carve out below it so this means you can not raise the pitch only lower the pitch. I set this up as the guitar wasn’t set up when it arrived. The D- Tuna is a great idea you pull the lever on the low E string and this then drops the tuning of this string to D. Saving having to retune the whole guitar and getting your Allen keys out if you want to play anything in drop D tuning. The guitar also has EVH-branded Gotoh tuners. The tuning is very stable which is a big plus.
Let’s Have a Listen Then
Here is a video off my YouTube channel of me putting it to the test against Atomic Punk
Conclusion
The EVH Striped Series Frankie Eddie Van Halen Signature Guitar absolutely rocks like you would expect it too. This is a rock guitar! It was designed for playing rock music. So if you are looking for a guitar that Rocks then this would be a good choice. This Guitar has been well thought out by Eddie to do the job. Please take into consideration the guitar needed some setting up, and where the scratch plate is cut off produces a sharp edge that my little finger seems to catch on. That maybe down to my own playing style. The lack of a hard case may or may not be of concern to you but I would have expected better from Fender on that front.
Would I buy This Guitar Again? Yes I would. I think that is often the best recommendation anyone can give. However due to the lack of set up and versatility this guitar is not for beginners. It is for more experienced players.
