Van Halen 5150 Kramer guitar replica - FINISHED! Pix on page 2

JediG60racer

Sr Member
This is a little project that I've been intending to work on for as long as I've had this guitar, which has been oh -- 17 years. So lately, having gotten my teaching job cut with the budget stuff, I've had some extra time on my hands and finally started it.


Began with a 1987 Kramer Baretta, which has the wrong shaped headstock (mini banana, transition from banana to the shark fin that came out the next year) and wrong color neck (rosewood instead of maple). To fix the neck problem I started with a neck blank and have been shaping it in the wood shop to match the assymetrical profile of my Musicman EVH guitar (which has simply the best neck I've ever played). Will post pix of that later. Neck will have a tung oil rubbed bare wood finish.

The Baretta body has the slanted pickup which is not completely correct for the 5150 model, but is correct for the 1984 model - another Kramer made for Eddie, and also played by Sammy Hagar as his main guitar for a few years. Despite that, I decided to make this replica as close to the original 5150 as I could manage. The 1984 has slightly different paint patterns that I'm not a huge fan of. BTW there were about a dozen nearly identical Kramer guitars made for EVH that he played. The 5150 was his main axe, the 1984 was his main backup, and there were a number of other replicas with other letter codes on them, all with very similar paint schemes but slight variations of headstocks, pickup configurations, etc.

I was fortunate enough that my Baretta has the correct Floyd Rose tremelo with the correct Floyd R2 nut. I tracked down a P-bass volume knob (MXR style), and I already had replaced the pickup and potentiometer with the ones EVH used.

The body was a bright royal blue, so to get the proper EVH paint scheme, I had to start with a white base coat, then mask stripes and paint it red, then mask again and paint the black stripes.

While in process, I was inspired to give my Makita power drill the same treatment, and then be able to play "Poundcake" with a proper EVH style drill. Will post pix of that too.

So here's the work in progress of the guitar body:

Body being painted white first

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Body masked then painted red

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Body masked again and black stripes painted

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Progress so far

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And here is the drill:

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For reference, this is the guitar I'm shooting to emulate:

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Re: Van Halen 5150 Kramer guitar replica - WIP

Really nice job, did you use automotive paint or modelkit paint ?

Now you need to buy some good hands and make some tapping :thumbsup

FRED
 
Re: Van Halen 5150 Kramer guitar replica - WIP

Great work. I only see one flaw...the offset pickup of the Baretta. Other than that, it is a great paintjob. There is a guitar seller who basically sells all you need to do a 5150 or a Frankenstrat, MeanStreet Guitars. He may have a neck for you as well.
 
Re: Van Halen 5150 Kramer guitar replica - WIP

I do have the proper neck, it's a period correct Baretta maple banana neck but its profile was a bit thick & deep, so I've been tapering it down to match the assym profile of my Musicman EVH.

The offset pickup was something I just decided to leave as is, since Eddie did have several guitars with that setup: the 1984 was the main one, and a couple others whose number/letter designation I can't remember (and I'm not quite bored enough to go dig through old Guitar magazines to find pix). But 5150 was more recognizable, so I'll do those decals instead, even if it's not technically correct.
 
Re: Van Halen 5150 Kramer guitar replica - WIP

Oh, for paint: I used automotive paint.

Meanstreet Guitars makes some nice stuff, but as they cater to collectors who don't blink twice at laying down a lot of cash, their stuff is a bit pricey. There is also a seller on Ebay that makes decent bodies and necks (customwoods) but I bought my Kramer back in 1989, have had it since then... decided to use it as the base for my project.

If I was going to start with a new guitar, I'd get a brand new Kramer "1984" model (which is a funny name since it was the 5150 with the straight pickup, and the 1984 had the slant pickup)
http://www.kramerguitars.com/Product.aspx?ProductID=984

The Kramer guitar website is pretty new, an outgrowth of musicyo.com which has been selling Kramer guitars (and Steinbergers!!!) for the past 9 years, since Gibson acquired Kramer.
 
Re: Van Halen 5150 Kramer guitar replica - WIP

If this is going to be a player, I believe Seymour Duncan offers custom copies of that PAF that was used in the 5150. You can get them through the custom shop. They sound pretty spot on.

You could probably get the neck with the exact EVH profile through Warmoth if you wanted. It would cost, but get you the perfect neck with the perfect headstock.

Looks great so far. Reminds of the VH builds I did years go. Those were the days.
 
Re: Van Halen 5150 Kramer guitar replica - WIP

I've built a half dozen guitars myself, have done the woodwork on 3 of those... the neck for this I'm taking special care to do myself, using an oscillating pin sander and then finishing by hand. A good part of the joy in this is doing it myself. The banana head is already finished, am just working on the neck profile now.

Used to be close friends with the Charvel family, got a lot of tips from them over the years.


Thanks for the comments!
 
Re: Van Halen 5150 Kramer guitar replica - WIP

Finished the project today! Clearcoated the body and headstock a few days ago and have been letting them cure; finally assembled the guitar tonight and played it a bit. ROCK ON!!!!

Still have a bit of adjusting to do, did an initial setup on the neck truss rod, but it needs to settle overnight and then will do some fine adjusting with the neck and action, but so far it seems right on par with my musicman EVH model, which was my goal. Spent a lot of time on the neck, getting the profile as close to that musicman neck as I could manage by hand (used a micrometer to measure the assym profile and sanded it down as close to that as I could manage).

Anyways, here's pix of the last phase of the project, and the final product~


Neck work:

Base coat of headstock in white

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Masked, next layer in red

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Masked once again, final layer in black

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End paint product of headstock, with vintage waterslide Kramer decal added

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And masking tape removed, clear coated, all hardware added, and space tape star added

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Close-up of neck profile, best pic I could manage of it. Hand rubbed oil finish on bare maple, all hand shaped and sanded.

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Body:

5150 space tape added to clearcoated body, along with MXR style knob for volume

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Proper neck plate and open trem spring backplate

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And the finished guitar!!!!

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(with flash)
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Re: Van Halen 5150 Kramer guitar replica - WIP

the Guitar Center in Hollywood has one for sale and on display. Its beat to hell and has an outrageous price tag but last I seen its in a 360 degree display.
 
That guitar is amazing, Jedi! NOw if someone could do a quick and dirty version for a Guitar Hero guitar, that would be sweet!
 
Excellent job dude.

Decalgirl had a great skin, but I don't see it on their site anymore. I'll take a pic of mine sometime. :)
 
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