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Performance Frank Zappa Custom-Made Stratocaster

Performance Frank Zappa Custom-Made Stratocaster

5.0 (2)

2 Reviews

Find out who is using Performance Frank Zappa Custom-Made Stratocaster

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Page last updated May 12, 2026

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5.0 out of 5

Based on 2 Reviews and 2 Ratings

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gary_dizon

579

almost 8 years ago

I have a Performance Custom guitar

It is a stratocaster type guitar with a Floyd Rose, Bill Edwards Locking Nut, and EMG Pickups. I have upgraded the pickups to EMG 89 in the bridge, SA in the middle and an S in the neck position. The Afterburner preamp allows the guitar to have 20 db boost. Performance guitars are well crafted and hand carved. The neck on my guitar has a flat spot that is perfect for the thumb in scalar runs. The necks have NO dead spots and the guitar stays in tune. This is a warm guitar even with a original Floyd Rose Bridge and EMG active pickups.

Roles:

Singer Guitarist Bassist

Genres:

Rock Pop Blues

bettercalljohn

264

almost 4 years ago

One of the most iconic Zappa's guitars in the 80's

The legendary "Zappacaster" shown in the Live in New York 1984. This stratocaster was the first Zappa's guitar with the Floyd Rose.

Roles:

Singer Guitarist Bassist

Genres:

Electronic Rock Blues

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Frank Zappa

Singer, Guitarist

The Plastic Ono Band

Verified via Premierguitar

When a company like Performance can not only make a guitar better than Fender but modify your guitars to exactly what suits your needs best I hardly call that a copy. Yeah the body may look like a Fender and even if that body had been manufactured by Fender the neck, hardware and craftsmanship was far superior to what Fender was putting out in the 80s. Performance did quite alot of work for Frank on many of his guitars so there is a possibility that that body is a Fender but I hardly doubt much else is.

http://www.performanceguitar.com/artists.html - Frank Zappa

http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Hot_Rodder_to_the_Stars_Inside_Performance_Guitar

http://www.zappasgear.com/zgfacts.html - The serial number on the neck plate of Frank Zappa 's yellow Performance Guitar custom Stratocaster is '00001'

Guitar Player writes : "Used on Frank’s last tour, in 1988, this custom-made Performance solidbody sports concentric knobs along with tiny screwdriver-adjustable trimpots to accommodate the tone tweaking Zappa was so fond of.

“The trimpots are identical parametric filter circuits,” Zappa’s tech, Midget Sloatman, told GP in 1995. “One trimpot is dedicated to bass frequencies from about 50Hz to 2kHz, and the other one affects the top-end frequencies from about 500Hz up to 20kHz. The filters also featured a variable resonant frequency [or ‘Q’] knob that allowed Frank to control the feedback characteristics of his rig in any hall. He could basically tune his guitar to the room, determine how the room responded to the amplifier, and then use the Q control to elicit the feedback he wanted.

“Frank also used the active filters to emphasize the highs in the 4k-to-8k range in order to bring out the nuances of the strings. He wanted to really hear what his fingers were doing, even if he wasn’t picking every note.”"