HELP ! Need Info on Franky's 1st neck.

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Tone Slinger
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Post by Tone Slinger » Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:35 pm

Hmmm, I think I'm gonna go with either a straight '12 radius or the 10-16 compound radius (Upon further photo inspection, the neck radius could be a '12 ?) I also thought I saw distinct flame maple figuring on the bottom shoulder of the neck, but the back clearly shows birdseye. 6150 medium jumbo frets, vintage single acting truss rod. I think the neck back contour was fairly thin, but I'm gonna get the 'medium C' contour from Musikraft, and then, shave it to EXACTLY what I want.

Thanks for the info guy's. Any more photo's of that guitar/neck. They are really helpful.

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Strat78
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Post by Strat78 » Fri Apr 18, 2008 11:18 pm

Tone Slinger wrote:Hmmm, I think I'm gonna go with either a straight '12 radius or the 10-16 compound radius (Upon further photo inspection, the neck radius could be a '12 ?) I also thought I saw distinct flame maple figuring on the bottom shoulder of the neck, but the back clearly shows birdseye. 6150 medium jumbo frets, vintage single acting truss rod. I think the neck back contour was fairly thin, but I'm gonna get the 'medium C' contour from Musikraft, and then, shave it to EXACTLY what I want.

Thanks for the info guy's. Any more photo's of that guitar/neck. They are really helpful.
...or the 12-16 radius! I have a 10-16 from warmoth and it works brilliantly, but 12-16 would be even better. Most of my necks are a flat 16 radius, so doing those wild over bends are a complete joy! There is very little comfort lost with a flatter neck. The hole point of having a 1 3/4 width with a smaller string spacing is so you can enjoy that little extra space on the edge of the neck without the strings always slipping over the edge and getting all weedy on you. I would even go for a the slightly wider neck at the heal that Musikraft offers. None of this will visually effect the accuracy of recreating the VHI neck, what you will have in the end is a very playable neck no matter what you decide to mount it too. Get the CBS headstock, I have a template that I carefully put together from different photos of Edwards original neck that you can use to shave it down with correctly.
Oh, I have three birdseye maple necks and they all have that flaming quality down at the heal area. Here is another shot of edwards neck showing allot of flaming from this angle:

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Post by YHWH » Sat Apr 19, 2008 6:04 am

Tone Slinger wrote:A couple of questions,

1st, what 50's-mid 60's 'small' headstock aspects does that origional neck have ? It's headstock looks exactly like the big cbs one's. I do notice more space behind the nut,before it curves down on the face of the headstock, than any other neck.

2nd, After much listening, I am tending to think that the radius on it was indeed "wide and flat, almost like a classical guitar", as Ed once said. It seemed flatter than a Gibsons '12 radius, just by looking at picture's. Ed got a VERY,Very fast string bending vibrato back then, like on "Somebody GMAD" and "Bottoms Up" solo's, which indicate looser, less friction, like on real flat radius necks. I'm thinking that it had at least a '16 radius, and possibly a '19 like on the Ibanez wizard necks. I now know that I need the birdseye back, with the regular maple slab/cap fretboard, and I'll probably go with a straight '16 radius, not sure yet though, still debating on it.
Anybody got any good pics of that guitar/neck too see the fretboard radius ? I swear it looks flatter than the 11.5 or 12 radius.
I agree about having never seen another neck like it before.

The radius on my Chinese Squire is 12" and I have no problems with overbending notes and/or having them fret-out... if that's what you're saying. But I use slightly higher action and the strings are light gauge (Fender 150XLs)... therefore I personally think Ed used around the same neck radius; at least not much greater than 12" ... as when he overbended... the notes decayed naturally. I've discovered that bending strings with a flatter radius makes the bent note sound a bit artificial - too much sustain for a bent note *IMO*... not natural and "bluesy" enough for me.... sort of the same way a pickup with a singular "polepiece" (like the Hot Rails or Dimarzio Fast Track) makes a bent note ring longer and gives it a "sythesizer-like" quality. I never reallty liked a compound radius neck... so I'm a bit biased against them.... to be Honest.

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Post by MARCO » Sat Apr 19, 2008 11:57 am

They didnt have compound radius necks back in the early-mid 70's.
Its gotta be 10 or 12. The black and yellow guitar had much flatter radius neck bu I think this one was a cross between a strat or gibson radius.
MARC34

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Tone Slinger
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Post by Tone Slinger » Sat Apr 19, 2008 5:43 pm

Thanks for all this great info guys. I can clearly see from that last photo (thanks Strat78) that the origional neck was indeed a thick 'slab' fretboard. I like how the fretboard maple is a little lighter in color than the rest of the neck. Thats cool how the plain unfigured maple looks with the slightly darker more figured birdseye maple. I also see what YHWH is saying about the real flat radiuses. My old, regretably stolen Baretta had a '12 radius, as did my Gibson flying V. I am not 100 % comfortable on anything any flatter, though my 10-16 radius on my Warmoth is very easy to play, I have difficulty with the feel and dynamics of it way up in it's higher registers. Like Marco said, compound radiuses werent around back then. I am still deciding on either the 12-16 or the straight '12. The straight '12 would be 20 bucks cheaper.

What do you guy's think of DiveBomb inc's Franky necks ?

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Post by harddriver » Sat Apr 19, 2008 5:43 pm

I would say 10-12" radius probably a 12"

Ed liked the Gibson/Ibanez necks those are 12" right?

I read the radius on early Kramers varied 10-12"as well but mostly 10". I need to measure out both of my favorite C series Kramers. They feel like a 12" radius almost 14" to me.

I have to get another neck made so I'm trying to duplicate my old Kramer neck to a tee, It's my favorite.

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Post by rgorke » Sat Apr 19, 2008 6:19 pm

Where is general info on necks? how to measure radius, etc? I need the dummy's version. compound vs non compound, that sort of stuff?

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Tone Slinger
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Post by Tone Slinger » Sat Apr 19, 2008 6:28 pm

All with .coms:

Warmoth
Musikraft (I'm gonna use them or Divebomb inc.)
USAcustom guitars

All these companies have great info.

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Post by yngwie308 » Sat Apr 19, 2008 11:17 pm

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:)
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harddriver
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Post by harddriver » Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:50 am

What fret size are they using on the Franky Replica?

6100 Jumbo?

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Post by jester » Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:12 pm

Rumor has it, the feller that owns frankenstraat owns the neck, go figure!
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Tone Slinger
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Post by Tone Slinger » Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:30 pm

Yeah, The Franky replica's neck has the big 6100 frets. Ed seemed to have had those big frets on his black and yellow one too.

BUT, the FIRST neck had a smaller fret wire than 6100, that looked to be a 6105 type, definatly no larger than a 6150 (I think they were closer to 6105).This is easily distinguishable from photo's. These frets are a medium to medium/jumbo size. I think Ed sounded and played best during this tenure of his career (the black and white 1976-79 franky era) . Ed probably missed that origional neck after it got fucked up or broken,or whatever it's demise was.

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Post by Atomic Punk » Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:27 pm

What are Gibson Jumbo Frets in today's standard?

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Post by MARCO » Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:21 am

The Frankie replica neck and the first were different. The first neck had the medium jumbo pyramid frets. The replica neck are frets much like what Wayne Charvel makes now which is the 6100. Cool pics!! I like the fact that the neck is not totally set into the neck pocket so u can get to the high frets super easy!!
MARC34

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Post by blfrd » Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:16 pm

sadwings75 wrote:
rgorke wrote:
Strat78 wrote:1 3/4 width at the nut with a 1 5/8 brass nut.
This setup also ensures that the E strings won't slide off of the fretboard.
Of course if you get the Callaham V/N bridge with the correct spacing for humbuckers, this shouldn't be an issue. Maybe...
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