ESP Frankenstrat Kramer 5150 Japan Model VH-250 Red White Striped Guitar

ESP Japan Kramer Frankenstrat 5150 MODEL VH-250 Red White Striped Guitar

Date of writing: 12/2020

Hello its Johnny writing another blog post to help all my friends learn more about the wonderful era of 1980s guitars. I’ve decided to create this post about the ESP made in Japan Kramer 5150 MODEL VH-250 released in late 1989 as a Japan only Kramer product. Manufactured by ESP the price for this VH-250 was 250,000 yen which was quite a lot of money in 1989.

In the below photo galleries i have posted six of these ESP VH-250 guitars. Yes that is 6 different ESP made in Japan Kramer 5150 model guitars. As i recover more photos from my old computer files i will add them.

All in all I have owned 7 of these Japan only Kramer Frankenstrat 5150 MODEL VH-250s. To some people i am showing them a unicorn. LOOK CLOSELY i speak the truth. That is why i am called THE SENSEI OF VINTAGE 1980S GUITARS.

That title of Sensei was not created by me but buy guitar collectors that i respect highly for their knowledge of vintage Fender and Gibson guitars. Initially these guys called me that as a joke about 10 years ago because shredder guitars were not popular… boy have things changed. That said, vintage Fender and Gibson is an area of collecting in which I aspire to become more knowledgeable. As of today my interests are still is fixated on the 80s.

For a number of decades i sought out these ESP Frankenstrat Guitars and actively collected them. To some who care about data, I also calibrated all the details such as neck shape specifications, fret size etc, with paper notes. That information and data was a big influence when i designed my AXN GUITARS.

So on this fine morning in the month of December I’m stuck in a hotel room as i write this. Opting to pen these notes into my Macbook. Offering this information up for you guys. If you can appreciate or add to this information let me know through email.

i know there are many of you that are information-aholics addicted to knowing more about 80s guitars. So I hope the blog keeps the fire burning to play more guitar... so enough said..!!! on to the facts ….enjoy.

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The VH-250 - insider information

ESP did make various Frankenstrat 5150 red/white color guitars as Navigator models before the VH-250. The 1989-1990 VH-250 was a genuine product manufactured in Japan by ESP and released by ESP firstly under the brand Kramer as a Kramer VAN HALEN model the vh-250. Yes it was released as a …

… Kramer branded product. So technically the first run of these VH-250s are Kramers.

As some Kramer guitar collectors know ESP manufactured ALL Kramer branded product after the mid-to-late-1980s. Funny enough my friends in Japan have reflected back to me that this model is also referred to as The VH-5150, The VH-250, or the KVH-49 the latter I believe was ZEP-II branded made in Japan product. Yet, the ESP product number i have ascertained is correct as The VH-250.

At the time of the release of VH-250 in late 1989, ESP had acquired rights in Japan to the brand name Kramer. A Kramer distributorship had already been well established through ESP and loosely called Kramer Japan. As well ESP had already been producing Kramer's domestic Japanese production models such as the JK series guitars.

Side Note: In a future lesson i will decode many facts that reside underneath a veil of secrecy in regards to the Kramer GL George Lynch model Kramer and the Mick Mars Model Kramer produced around the same time as The VH250. Check Back to this blog Johnny :-)

In reality by 1989 ESP was making everything branded Kramer and manufacturing them in Japan. Delivering Kramers worldwide. This includes every Kramer guitar that was sold in the USA including the guitars with the word “American“ on the headstock.

The VH-250 was a replica manufactured by ESP in Japan. Japanese magazines touted The VH-250 in advertising as a “Kramer Eddie Van Halen Model”. It was manufactured and painted by ESP starting in late 1989 with a Kramer logo right on the headstock. The Kramer logo was applied at the KRAMER/ESP shop. The familiar Kramer logo was applied by ESP to these guitars and was on the VH-250 models into the early 1990s.

The first VH-250s can easily be identified as a 1989-1990 manufacture dates. The earliest Kramer VH-250s check out to be 1989 and can be accurately dated by the Floyd Rose hardware and the Seymour Duncan JBJ pickup and volume pot. Again  these were manufactured on the ESP/Kramer Japan production line with the Kramer logo.

In addition many times but not always there is luthier handwriting written on the heel of the neck and/or in the neck pocket. This was common on most of the ESP product of the 1980s.

During the time of the late 1980s ESP luthiers near-to-always added markings usually using a ball point pen. I have many photos in this blog post and some include these common ESP luthier markings..

The VH-250s I’ve experienced have had 3 different varieties of neck plates. A blank chrome neck plate, a neck plate with the word kramer and a serial number under the name and more often a chrome neck plate with just a serial number. I suspect, like everything else ESP, they used neck plates as well as serial numbers inconsistently and just used whatever they had on hand at the time.

Apparently the VH-250s were sold only at the popular music stores like those found in Tokyo. It was said that the Kramer ESP model VH-250 was always sold out when inquiries were made about purchase at these Japanese music stores.

During the 1980s the big guitar stores in Japan placed display models up high on the racks to show-off to customer traffic. In addition the brands of the day such as Kramer produced short runs of guitars for advertising purposes with a super high retail prices such as this ESP VH-250.

Often in a collaboration with the big music stores these custom short runs of artist models 1980s guitars were marketed and promoted in tandem with the distributor, manufacturer and these music store outlets.

Production of the VH-250s I’ve decided was limited to somewhere around 100-200 guitars initially maybe more if you count the late 90s. In my opinion Kramer Japan produced these boutique quality replicas in one of these promotions. This kind of advertising was common during the 1980s in Japan and usually followed up with full page ads in Japanese rock magazines like Young Guitar.

Again, ESP sold the VH-250 in Japan as a Kramer product with the Kramer logo on the headstock until about 1990. As it looks to me ESP continued to sell the VH-250 through to the mid 1990s and after that point stopped placing the Kramer logo on the headstock and sold the VH-250 without a Kramer logo. Sales of these continued in very very small numbers in a somewhat secretive manner by ESP late into the 1990s. Its a fact this model was not listed in any ESP or Kramer Japan catalog.

Later after the logo disappeared ESP Japan treated the VH-250 as a ZEP-II brand product. I have given some definition of what a  ZEP-II brand product is on THIS web page which is well worth reading.

As I have decided the VH-250 or indistinguishable models were manufactured and produced by ESP until 2000. In the late 1990s each time successive replicas were re-produced the looks and details were changed to match what Eddie Van Halen was using live at the time. Until it was eventually was phased out.

Later the specifications changed yet again and a relic 5150 model was released that i have not owned as of this writing. This 1990s style 5150 guitar had a single tuner on the underside like Ed’s and a more odd shaped 5150 looking banana headstock also like Ed’s. ( see the last bunch of photos at the bottom of this page ).

Needless to say every one of these vintage ESP/KRAMER EVH replicas i’ve owned no matter what run are ESP Japan quality with excellent tone, great playability, quality woods, highest end hardware and pickup, and extremely great craftsmanship.

GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS THE EARLY ESP KRAMER JAPAN VH-250

Body: Ash center-seam 2 Piece / later 2 piece alder
Neck: Hard Rock Maple One Piece 

Headstock: ESP Banana or Hockey Stick headstock
Bridge: German Floyd Rose Original
Pickup: USA Seymour Duncan Custom / SH-5 or EARLY one had a Duncan JBJ

GALLERIES OF SEVERAL ESP KRAMER JAPAN VH-250 GUITARS

GALLERY ESP FRANKENSTRAT #1

GALLERY ESP FRANKENSTRAT #2

GALLERY ESP FRANKENSTRAT #3

GALLERY ESP FRANKENSTRAT #4

GALLERY ESP FRANKENSTRAT #5

BELOW SOMEONE DID AN AMATEUR RELIC JOB TO THIS ONE

BELOW A “SO CALLED“ EDWARDS ESP 5150 RELEASED IN THE 1990s

I’ve been told by friends in Japan that this is an Edwards brand and also that this guitar is EXCELLENT QUALITY, EXCELLENT JUST EXCELENT…i havent owned one of these.

Thanks to Takumi for the photos… i believe this run of guitars was initially manufactured during a transition between the ZEP-2 brands demise and the launch by ESP of a new brand called Edwards in the early 1990s. That said only some old guys over at ESP would know for sure..for sure. ONLY them.

( note 12/29/2021: As a teacher of Vintage 1980s Guitar information please enjoy this stuff and absorb the facts for your own educational, spiritual and personal growth. For those of you that like to copy and claim facts that you never new before reading this as your own… please by all means, repeat, copy, duplicate, take credit, make youTube video and forum posts using my teachings verbatim as I have watched you do continuously.

Out of dormancy i have made you meaningful. Where futility resided previously i have provided inspiration. Johnny AXN Guitars )

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