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 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 Van Halen's "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge". Around that same era, the headstock was broken around the 5th guitar tuner, and was repaired by Music Man. As you'll be able to see on the first picture below, an additional tuner was added before the headstock was fixed in order to keep it playing. The specs for this original axe are:

• Headstock: hockey-stick, non-angled;
• Nut: Floyd Rose R-2;
• Neck/headstock: custom made all maple Kramer neck with skunk stripe
• Neck finish: light satin finish, some had oil finish;
• Neck Plate: Strat sized black plate;
• Tuners: Schaller mini-tuners, 6-inline;
• Pickup: custom wound;
• Tremolo: Original Floyd Rose mounted flat to the body (not recessed);
• Controls: single volume knob (from a Fender Jazz Bass);
• Truss Rod: at the base of the neck with a cutout in the body for access;
• Finish: Krylon paint and reflective "5150" Space Tape lettering and stars.

Some pictures to follow.



Overall view and head back:






Overview:






Body closeup:






Body aspect:






Bridge view:






Bridge and pickup:






Scanned pics:






More scanned pics: