Lynn went over and above his request by acquiring two pieces of exotic and rare East Indian rosewood and fashioned two guitar bodies from them. A delighted Wayne Charvel finished the guitars beautifully and proudly put them on display.
And here’ s where the second of Lynn’ s successions of serendipitous events occurred. The Who’ s Pete Townshend and Steppenwolf’ s John Kay spotted these superbly crafted and finished guitars and snapped them up immediately! Not a bad endorsement to kick off Lynn’ s entry level into becoming a highly respected world-class luthier.
Consequently the good word began spreading rapidly, and orders for Lynn Ellsworth originals began flooding in, many coming from very famous guitarists worldwide. Lynn recognized that his future destiny would be the creation of world-class handcrafted guitars that would be purchased and played by rock and pop superstars.
Lynn’ s“ fortunate accident” number three came about when his long-standing friend Wayne Charvel, who had opened his own guitar store, offered to display some of Lynn’ s guitars and component parts. A frequent visitor to the store was a young upcoming guitarist named Eddie Van Halen, who spotted one of Lynn’ s unfinished guitar necks and a guitar body propped up in the corner of the store. He bought them“ as is” for a bargain price. Eddie took those pieces home, assembled the parts and painted the guitar red with random black and white stripes across the body, and named the creation“ Frankenstein”!
Yes, that signature Van Halen“ Frankenstein” guitar, recognized the world over, was created using original Lynn Ellsworth handcrafted parts!
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