Frankenstrat Mark I

After finishing the black and white paint work for the Frankenstrat, I decided to build two. One in the original form from the Van Halen I era.

This was the guitar that Eddie eventually painted red and turned in to the Frankenstrat. I ordered a black pickguard and installed it.

The end result came out like this.

Not too shabby for a first build.

Frankenstrat Black & White Edition

After masking off the black base coat with painters tape, I sprayed on the white coat. If you want really precise lines, go to your local auto parts store and buy some pinstriping tape. In my case, I just cut the painters tape to size.

Using the template picture from the previous post, this is what it looked like after peeling off the masking tape.

Now, to be honest, I'm a little torn. This one looks really cool and I wouldn't mind keeping it this way. Aha, I've got a solution, I'll build two of them!

First round of paint

Here's the first round of paint. Start with solid black lacquer (that's what Eddie used). You might have a hard time finding lacquer paint; auto parts stores are a good place to look.

After the black, it's time to tape it off for the white coat.

I layed down the thick pieces first and then cut the fine pieces and added them.

Here's the image I used as a template. This is the Frankenstrat in it's original form before Eddie added the red paint.

As a lifelong fan of Eddie Van Halen, I've decided to build a Frankenstrat replica. I've always wanted one of these and, in my early years, copied his ideas by masking off and painting stripes on my candy apple red Ibanez Destroyer (my first real guitar). There are official remakes of Eddie's original but I'd rather make my own in the spirit of EVH.

There are tons of tutorials and images out there that you can use for reference. A quick google for Frankenstrat will turn up bunches of them. I figured I'd add to the reference info by showing how I'm building mine.

Eddie's version was a Boogie Body which was a copy of a vintage Strat with three single coil pickups. He opened up the bridge cavity to accomodate a humbucker and had to widen the middle position as well since he decided to stuff the 5-way switch down in there. The original body was Swamp Ash which is what I ordered from byoguitar.com.

You can see where the bridge has been set up for a standard strat tremolo. Since Eddie used a Floyd Rose, I need to fill those holes before the first coat of paint. In keeping with the do it yourself vibe, I took some skewers that we use for making shish-ka-bob and filled the holes in with those and a little bit of wood filler.

The last part before painting is to widen the original pickup cutouts to match the Frankenstrat. Eddie used a hammer and chisel which is why they look so gouged up on his original. In my case, I used a handy dandy router to speed up the process.

You'll want to recreate the angle of the bridge position because EVH tilted the humbucker a bit when he installed it. He also opened up the middle position since that's where he eventually installed the 5-way switch.

Costa Rica Vacation - Day 8

I booked a fishing trip with BlueFin Charters on our last day in Manuel Antonio. I'd done a few searches while we were in San Jose and picked these guys because their web site looked decent. The boat left the dock at 7:30 so I ordered a small breakfast and left the villa at 7:00. The drive to the marina from Manuel Antonio took about 10 minutes. All recreational fishermen in Costa Rica need fishing licenses. You can buy one at the marina in Quepos for $25 USD that's good for a year. The marina is currently being reconstructed so all of the boats are tied up at moorings.
I waved to the Captain of the BlueFin II and he pulled over to pick me up at the dock. We were fishing for Pacific Sailfish which run north along the coast of Central America from February through April. I'd only ever been on a boat one other time when a billfish was caught and I was really looking forward to catching a Pacific Sail.

The boat was rigged with a single fighting chair and outriggers. All of the reels were Peen 30s spooled with 80 pound test on typical stand-up rods. That's plenty of tackle for the average Pacific Sailfish. They're usually in the 5 to 6 foot range and can weigh up to 200 pounds.
We headed west out of Quepos for about 20 miles looking for a break in the water temperature. It had been unseasonably warm for several days and the surface temperature had gotten high close to shore. Once offshore, we spotted a large school of spinner dolphin. I would guess that there must have been 200 to 300 dolphin in this pod. They swam along the surface chasing bait fish and would spiral up out of the water spinning with these incredible jumps. I've never seen anything like it. The Captain thought there might be some Tuna ahead of the school so we put out some ballyhoo and trolled along in front of them. There didn't seem to be any interest so we pulled the reels in and got back underway.
The water was calm with an easy swell that made the boat ride comfortable. The mate and I rested while we were underway to the fishing grounds. About 9:00 am, the Captain slowed down and we rigged up to get ready to fish. The outriggers were deployed with large teasers. On the trolling rods, we rigged a combination of ballyhoo and feather jigs. We started trolling along the temperature break waiting for something to happen. There were birds diving here and there but no concentrated activity that I could see. Given what I'd read about the Pacific Sailfish run, I expected we'd have a hit as soon as the baits were out.
There were no other boats in sight but the Captain was on the VHF so I guessed he must have been talking with other boats in the area. We trolled for a couple of hours without any action. I'd booked a 6 hour trip which meant we'd be back at the dock at 1:00. It was about a 1.5 hour ride back to the dock so I knew we didn't have much time left to fish.
We passed by a small piece of red plastic about the size of a garbage can lid. There were a few bait fish hanging around underneath so we put a couple of small feather jigs out on a planer from one of the outriggers. Within a few seconds, we pulled in two small bonito on the jigs. The Captain saw some fish behind the boat and told the mate to rig one of the bonito and let it back. We bridled the bonito with a circle hook and dropped it back. Within a few seconds something hit the bait and took off. The Penn 30 was screaming as line peeled off of it. I sat in the fighting chair, seated the rod and watched as the spool went back and forth. I knew it was a decent fish based on how much line it was taking.
That's when I heard the Captain screaming from the flying bridge "Blue Marlin, Blue Marlin!". I wasn't sure what we had until I looked up and saw the big Blue jumping about 100 yards behind the boat. It was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. I couldn't believe the dream had come true and sat watching it for a few seconds not sure what to do. I knew that we weren't geared for a fish of this size and started to worry as the spool got smaller and smaller. The Captain put the boat in gear and we started backing down the fish while I reeled as fast as I could. I've never been in a position where I really needed a two-speed reel but this chase made me understand why they come in handy.
We regained some line and then the fish sounded and the real fight began. Knowing that the tackle wasn't up to the task, we had the drag set light to keep from breaking the fish off. The rod wasn't rigged with roller guides so keeping the line on the top of the rod was a careful balance of tension and rod height. I've been fishing for most of my life and have caught some decent fish over the years but I've never felt anything like 400 pounds of angry fish on the other end of the line. I worked as hard as I could pumping and reeling to regain line. After making some good progress, the fish turned again and started peeling line off the reel. It came back to the surface, jumped three times and then went back down. With the Captain chasing it down, we got the fish relatively close to the boat but couldn't get to the leader before it turned and ran again.
This fight went on for an hour and a half with the fish taking line, the Captain chasing it down and me reeling as fast as I could. After a while, my hands, arms and legs were all cramped and my back felt like a coiled spring. I've never worked on something so physically exhausting in my life.
After 2 hours, the fish sounded again and this time didn't seem to be coming back up. I couldn't regain any line no matter what I did. I'd raise the rod tip as high as I could, drop it down fast and try to crank just a little bit of line. At this point, the mate suggested that maybe the fish had fought to it's death. We worked the line onto the reel slowly and when we got the fish to the boat, the mate's prediction was true. At some point, probably on it's last set of jumps, the fish had gotten tail-wrapped and must not have been able to get enough oxygen through it's lungs.
I was both ecstatic and sad at the same time. I believe in catch and release and hated to see my experience with this fish end in it's death. Had we been using stronger tackle, we might have gotten it to the boat more quickly for a clean release. I would rather know that the fish was still out there to fight another day than to kill it but it was not to be. Nonetheless, I was super happy to have gotten the chance to fight a true big game species. It's a delicate effort that takes teamwork between the fisherman, mate and Captain to pull off a successful release.

We pulled the fish onboard and headed for home. I was glad to know that the fish would, at least, go to feed many people in the community that night.

Here's a slideshow of photos from the trip.

Costa Rica Vacation - Day 7

We'd been wanting to try surfing so we booked some lessons through the Manuel Antonio Surf School. Our lesson started at 8:30 at the public beach. When you're driving in to the beach area, there will be folks on the road telling you that you need to park along the main road and walk to the beach. Don't listen to them, keep driving and, at the bottom of the hill, you'll come to what looks like an narrow street lined by souvenir vendors. You can turn down this street and drive your car between the vendor stands. At the end, you'll be on the beach where there is plenty of parking. There are a couple of small bars and restaurants along this stretch of beach as well.
Our surf lessons started with the guys showing us how to jump up from a laying down position to get on your feet on the board. We practiced the four steps a few times and then grabbed boards and walked into the water. They surf school is taught using long boards which are more stable than the shorter boards that the pros use. We stood in waist high water while the instructors held the boards steady. When a decent looking wave came along, you'd lay down on the board and the instructor would push you into the front edge of the wave as it passed. It looks a whole lot easier than it is. I got bounced around under the water more times than I can remember. We practiced on some small waves for a while and then took a break for some fresh fruit and water. All in all, I think I actually "rode" maybe 2 waves during our lessons. It takes a great sense of balance as well as quick reflexes to be able to hop up on the board.

When our lessons were done, we rented a couple of beach chairs and an umbrella from a guy on the beach for about $10 USD. There are vendors along the beach selling shaved ice so we had one of those made with coconut milk. If you want a beer, there are a couple of places that sell them for about $2 USD a piece. I got inspired and rented a surfboard from a guy for $5 per hour and tried to surf on my own. Marcela borrowed a body-board from the guys at the surf school and did that in the waves for a while. There's a consistent break at this part of the beach so catching waves was pretty easy. They came along every 15 seconds or so.
We relaxed until the early afternoon and then headed back to the villas for dinner at the on site restaurant.

Here's a slideshow of photos from Day 7.

Costa Rica Vacation - Day 6

We left San Jose around 7:30 on our way to Manuel Antonio. There's a new highway going west out of the city that makes the trip to the coast much shorter. There are several toll booths along the way so keep some spare Colones in the car. The new highway takes you about halfway at which point, you turn off onto a two-lane road that takes you down the coast through Jaco and on to Manuel Antonio.
The speed limit on the new highway is 80kmh but, when you turn off on to the smaller roads, the speed limit is 60kph. We'd gone about a half kilometer from the highway when we came over a hill and a Costa Rican police truck was sitting on the side of the road. There were a few officers standing by the truck and one of them waved us to the side of the road. He took my license and passport and walked back over to the truck. Apparently, the speed limit dropped from 60kph to 40kph at the top of the hill. The officer walked back over and asked where we were going and what country we were from. He asked Marcela if she spoke Spanish and they spoke for a while and then he explained that the ticket would be $400 USD. Apparently, the tickets can only be paid at the Central Bank in San Jose which would have meant we would have to drive back there adding about 3 hours on to the trip. Marcela and he spoke again for a while and she explained to me that he'd accept $50 USD in exchange for letting us go. I gave him the money, he gave me my passport, smiled and sent us on our way. If you're going to be driving through the country, be sure to carry some cash on you for this kind of thing. We drove for a couple of kilometers and then stopped at a soda for some snacks. We bought a couple of fresh coconuts with straws and some mangoes and then headed out again.
After having spent the past 5 days in the interior of the country, it was a rush when we came around a curve and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time. There are plenty of places along the coast road where you can stop and take photos and we stopped to take a few. About an hour later, we pulled into Jaco. This is a surfer haven and the beaches at Playa Hermosa draw folks from around the world for the consistent surf breaks. There are a few high-rises along the beach and a shopping center where we stopped to do some grocery shopping. You know you're in a beach town when the grocery store sells board shorts and flip flops!

About another hour, you pass through Quepos and then turn up to go over the mountain in to Manuel Antonio. We were staying in a place called Makanda by the Sea. It's a group of 11 villas built into the jungle on the mountainside overlooking the ocean. We checked in and the guy at the front desk told us the room wouldn't be ready for a couple of hours and invited us to relax. We went to the pool which was incredible; there was an incredible view of the ocean and a small bar. The beach at Makanda is about a 10 minute walk down through the jungle. There are stones most of the way and it's an easy trip. If you don't want to walk, the staff will drive you down in a golf cart but you're on your own for the return trip.
The villas at Makanda are fantastic. Each one has a glass wall at the front with a view of the ocean. The walkways between the villas are all situated so that you can't see into any of the other villas which gives you plenty of privacy. Breakfast is delivered to your villa each morning. The staff is super helpful and you can organize any activity you're interested in at the front desk. Each villa has wired internet access and a television so bring a cable with you if you're planning on using your computer.

We swam for a while, unpacked our luggage and relaxed with a drink. For dinner, we drove up to the top of the hill and ate at El Avion. The restaurant is built around a C-123 that was one of two aircraft involved in the Iran Contra scandal in the 1980's. The sister plane was shot down in Nicaragua in 1986. This plane sat at the airport in San Jose until it was purchased for $3000 in 2007 and dismantled to be shipped to Manuel Antonio and reassembled to build the restaurant. The inside of the fuselage is a bar and the dining area has a fantastic view looking over the ocean.

Here's a slideshow of photos form Day 6.