Eddie Van Halen 5150 Guitar Donation

Eddie Van Halen 5150 guitar

Peggy Baker ( Operation First Response) along side  John Denner will be donating this amazing  guitar in  person at Walter Reed Medical  Hospital in DC.  DTBA

Special thanks

Dimarzio Pickups

For its donation on the pickup that went into this guitar

Warmoth Guitars

For donating the body and neck

and Peggy Baker for giving us all this opportunity to help make a difference!
Website Links
Dimarzio
Warmoth
Peggy Baker
John Denner
Eddie Van Halen’s Official Website

Edward Van Halen’s 5150 Guitar is one of the most recognizable guitars in rock history. Ed assembled this guitar himself at the Kramer factory, and even painted it himself with Krylon “rattle-can” paint. The guitar consisted of an original Floyd Rose tremolo, one humbucker, and a single volume knob. A very simple guitar, for a very simple sound that is truly amazing.

The myth behind this great guitar is that it is a Kramer Baretta. This is actually a totally custom guitar made from custom parts in the old Kramer Guitar Factory in Neptune NJ. Another fact is that the body isn’t actually a Baretta. The body is what would have been known as a Kramer Pacer Special. In fact, the control cavity is very different from most Kramers that were produced in the 80’s.
The good news is, Gibson who now owns the Kramer name is making a replica/reissue of the 5150. Its called the Kramer 1984, and so far has been receiving stellar reviews from its buyers.

Edward Van Halen’s 5150

Specs:

Pacer Special Poplar or Basswood (unknown) Body
Custom made all maple Kramer neck with skunk stripe
Original Floyd Rose Tremolo
Custom wound pickup
Single volume knob (Jazz Bass knob)
Gotoh 90 Degree Tuners (update 1/1/06 – not Schaller minis)
Schwin or Krylon paint (unknown)
Reflective “5150″ Space Tape lettering and stars
(Buy SpaceTape from Dave at SpaceTape.com)

Click on the image to see a larger version

The neck has some interesting characteristics as well. It was designed with an assymetrical back shape, something Kramer never offered on its guitars. The Ernie Ball MusicMan EVH model, and the EVH Wolfgang have both been modeled after this backshape. Since I own both the MusicMan and the Wolfgang, I can say this backshape is indeed very unique, and extremely comfortable to play. The neck also looks very clean in this picture, I would assume Ernie Ball cleaned this up nicely for Ed when they did work on the headstock in 1992.

Additionally, the pickup is custom made my Edward himself, and rumor has it that Seymour Duncan was going to market a pickup just like his as the EVH signature pickup. This later became the Custom Custom. The headstock is truly original as well, Kramer never made a headstock like the one on Ed’s 5150. It was another custom addition. The last known recording with this guitar was Judgement Day on the Van Halen LP F.U.C.K. Around that same era, the headstock was broken around the 5th guitar tuner, and was repaired by MusicMan. As you can see above, an additional tuner was added before the headstock was fixed in order to keep it playing. This guitar is an absolute players guitar, it aint pretty, its made for playin’!

JohnDennerRocks.com official Blog!

Ernie Ball Artist John Denner with Axis Model