Custom parts Star body
Sometimes referred to as the Yellow Beast or Yellow Shit, this guitar is probably the most beat up axe ever used. The body is a wreck and it’s hard to believe that the guitar is still usable – but it is! It has survived chainsaws, fire, biting etc. and is still with Chris today. The pics below show the guitar’s evolution from early 80s onwards. You can see that the neck has been changed several times and the body has very little of its original color (or wood) left.
The Yellow Star was seen on the very first W.A.S.P. gigs. Above you can see a rare pic from that time! This guitar is a custom parts guitar. Chris had gotten the reverse strathead neck and then later bought a star body for it. He had it put together by a luthier who then asked what color the body should be painted. Chris told him “Paint the fucker piss yellow for all I care”. Motivation for the color and overall layout might have also been Eddie Van Halen’s Megazone which featured a similar yellow color and cream pickup ring. The manufacturer of the original neck is unknown. The body seems to have the same dimensions as Charvel Stars but some collectors have told me that it might be a Dimarzio. The control cavity seems really large and I’ve yet to see another similar body anywhere. Whatever it is, this guitar proves that mutts can be cool!
Chris used this guitar for the the whole set in the live concert video ‘W.A.S.P. – Live At The Lyceum’. With Blackie always eating raw meat on stage Chris often got hungry as well and took bites off the guitar as seen in the pic above. The Yellow Star also made an appearance in the video for The Who cover song ‘The Real Me’ from the ‘Headless Children’ LP. Naturally it can be seen on many promo photos from the past 25 years. Chris really seems to have a special relationship with this guitar.
Chris later had Charvel put a pointy neck on the guitar, and used a San Dimas Charvel neckplate. Chris kept destroying necks and we’ve seen at least five different necks on this guitar. These include a Charvel pointy with dots (circa 1986), a Jackson pointy (circa 1989) and it currently has a Jackson reverse headstock neck which I first saw during the KFD era (circa 1996).
This star has the Ibanez Gibraltar bridge which Chris had got used to from his Ibanez Destroyer. Chris has said he got the Destroyer because Eddie Van Halen had one. The Gibraltar bridge is similar to those used on many 70s Gibsons, as the original Destroyer was basically a copy of the Gibson Explorer model.
“Yellow Shit” is still rocking hard with Chris on stage with several of his current band projects from Big Ball Stars to W.A.S. where he has reunited with Randy Piper!!!
I bet you’ve never seen guitar poses like these two before!!! 🙂
Thanks to Thomas Murphy for the early pics and info!