mkramer5150 wrote:Hey Garbeaj,
Beautiful guitar; too bad you weren't a Kramer exec back in the day -- I bet they would have sold quite a few of those!
I'm still waiting on my 5150 body/neck from Musikraft. It's been 1 1/2 months now and, I confess, I'm starting to get restless. How long did you have to wait for yours? Their website suggests a 4-6 week lead time, but it was last updated back in April/May. I'm now right at 6 weeks, so perhaps my new toy will be arriving soon.
How do you find the playability on the upper frets? Is it comparable to an American standard strat (which I find very playable on the higher registers)?
If you have a few minutes, would you mind posting some close up pics of the neck joint? Specifically, I'd love to see how deep in the pocket the neck sits -- I think (but have never been able to confirm) that the real 5150 sits pretty low such that the top dots are just a mm or two above the body.
Cheers!
Mike
P.S. I ordered (and have received!) an EVH Frankie PUP for my guitar. I've never heard that PUP in person, so I have no idea how it will turn out. I was going back and forth between the Duncan '78 and the EVH. I went with the EVH because, based on my research, it seems the Duncan '78 has mixed reviews whereas the EVH seemed to receive almost uniformly positive reviews. I'll let you know how it turns out when I finally get the thing painted and assembled.
As I said they are really backed up, but my recollection is that it took maybe 8 weeks for my body to come in. I bought all the parts for the guitar in pieces as I found them on eBay. I got the neck like 3 years ago and the body about a year ago. Then I waited a few months to get my painter to paint the neck and body, then I waited about 8 months for my tech to assemble it and of course even now I am still waiting for him to tweak it and fix the things he messed up on in the original assembly process.
I won't be posting any pics of the neck pocket since I am trying to get the guitar to settle in and I'm waiting on my tech to do the fret level and tweak any other intonation issues...just be aware that the neck and body will likely fit PERFECTLY. No shimming of any kind required.
As far as pickups go, it is completely dependent on the type of amp that you are using. Also, I would suggest to pick a specific tone that you are going for. I am going for the ACTUAL tone of the 5150 guitar. The examples I've cited (Letterman, Farm Aid, SNL and to a lesser degree the Harmonized tones of Live Without A Net) are pretty specific representations of THE tone of the 5150 guitar in a live setting-in other words, the best representation of the ACTUAL tone of the 5150 guitar.
If you are trying to get tones from the
1984 album out of your 5150 replica, you are really on a fool's errand...the original Frankenstein with the Kramer beak neck was the main guitar used on the
1984 album and the 5150 was only made after the recording of the album and used first on the 1984 tour. Similarly, I wouldn't try to make a 5150 guitar try to get the tone from the recorded version of "Hot For Teacher" on the
1984 album. That was Ed's 1958 Korina Gibson Flying V and trust me a 5150 replica with a Floyd Rose just will not get there. Now if you go after the live sound from the 1984 Donnington footage of "Hot For Teacher", then you will be on the right track. He is using the 5150 Kramer there and at least you have a hope in hell of getting close to that sound with your 5150 replica.
As far as the neck goes, I've mentioned my enthusiasm for it for many years. Even when I had just the neck out of the box with no strings on it I could tell it was the most comfortable neck I have ever played on. The EBMM/original 5150 scanned neck profile is incredible. My tech and my painters and anyone else that touches this neck agrees...unbelievably great and easy to play from the open strings all the way to every note at the 22nd fret.