Official post your frankenstrat thread - LET's See THem!

[vanhalen5150]

KNE

[cary chilton]

Steve where did you buy your neck and body? Got a link to that build thread?

[garbeaj]

I also put a neck humbucker, compensated nut and locking tuners on it. It came to the stage where I decided... im the one who is playing this...

I've heard of compensated saddles, but I have never heard of a compensated nut before...Can you elaborate on those? My Fender standard tremolo systems work great after my tech sets them up and a few tricks I learned over the years. I would love to learn more though...if I build my dream dead-on '78 Black and White Frankenstein I might use anything to help performance as long as the look stays as close to 100% accurate as I can get it. I don't like brass nuts so I would stick with a white nut material. I have bone and plastic nuts in my strats and they look and work great...

[azazael]

Well the original 78 I believe had a brass nut.

Compensated nuts. ESP use them OEM and Earvana sell them.
However, both are in court as Ernie Ball Musicman own the design.

[garbeaj]

Well the original 78 I believe had a brass nut.

Compensated nuts. ESP use them OEM and Earvana sell them.
However, both are in court as Ernie Ball Musicman own the design.

Interesting... I'll have to do some research about them. I guess they are supposed to offer more control over intonation somehow in the same way that compensated saddles do?

I know the 78 had a brass nut...I think he went through a phase with them and ultimately settled on regular nuts. He put a brass nut in the Shark Destroyer as well and it stayed in that guitar, but when he took the neck from the original Bumblebee and put it on the R-B-W Frankie in '79 that neck had a regular nut. I like the sound and feel and look I get from a regular nut...even though it won't be exactly accurate to the '78. I kept the original Ibanez nut in my Destroyer as well, but I made my Destroyer in the image of the guitar as you see it in the Musikfoto.com club pictures and the Tortomasi-Haley flyers. I am one of several people that feel the Destroyer was in this condition for the recording of Van Halen...but I disgress

[wired]

I also put a neck humbucker, compensated nut and locking tuners on it. It came to the stage where I decided... im the one who is playing this...

I've heard of compensated saddles, but I have never heard of a compensated nut before...Can you elaborate on those? My Fender standard tremolo systems work great after my tech sets them up and a few tricks I learned over the years. I would love to learn more though...if I build my dream dead-on '78 Black and White Frankenstein I might use anything to help performance as long as the look stays as close to 100% accurate as I can get it. I don't like brass nuts so I would stick with a white nut material. I have bone and plastic nuts in my strats and they look and work great...

I suggest if your gonna go this route then why not go all the way...Buzz Feiten Tuning System. I have switched over all my axes to this method about 4 years ago and can't take playing a regularly intonated guitar anymore. It totally spoils you! All it takes is about 2 hours of playing a guitar set up with the Buzz and you won't ever go back to a regular intonated guitar.

http://www.buzzfeiten.com/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[garbeaj]

I also put a neck humbucker, compensated nut and locking tuners on it. It came to the stage where I decided... im the one who is playing this...

I've heard of compensated saddles, but I have never heard of a compensated nut before...Can you elaborate on those? My Fender standard tremolo systems work great after my tech sets them up and a few tricks I learned over the years. I would love to learn more though...if I build my dream dead-on '78 Black and White Frankenstein I might use anything to help performance as long as the look stays as close to 100% accurate as I can get it. I don't like brass nuts so I would stick with a white nut material. I have bone and plastic nuts in my strats and they look and work great...

I suggest if your gonna go this route then why not go all the way...Buzz Feiten Tuning System. I have switched over all my axes to this method about 4 years ago and can't take playing a regularly intonated guitar anymore. It totally spoils you! All it takes is about 2 hours of playing a guitar set up with the Buzz and you won't ever go back to a regular intonated guitar.

http://www.buzzfeiten.com/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I feel like the Buzz Feiten system and the compensated nuts look a little too non-original for me (I read a little on the compensated nuts from Earvana). If I wasn't a vintage gear nut I probably wouldn't care. I basically like to get the best possible intonation without sacrificing much, if any, of the original vintage look...
Plus I have great results with more or less standard stuff that has been set up properly by a skilled tech...

[Rich_D]

I wonder if KNE will do this for me? (Kinda thinking out loud here)

I haven't held the KNE azusa in my hands, but I've been in contact with Mitch at KNE for another project. He has about a 30min email response time and great communication. That gives me a lot of confidence.

[TWANGGG]

garbeaj wrote:
I kept the original Ibanez nut in my Destroyer as well, but I made my Destroyer in the image of the guitar as you see it in the Musikfoto.com club pictures and the Tortomasi-Haley flyers. I am one of several people that feel the Destroyer was in this condition for the recording of Van Halen...but I disgress

garbeaj, I would really like to see some photos of your Destroyer! If you would rather not post it in this thread, as it's a little off topic, you could add it to this one "Ed's Ibanez destroyer": http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=33792

[cary chilton]

Seems half for KNE bodies and half for Musickraft..... all seem to agree on musikraft necks

[garbeaj]

garbeaj wrote:
I kept the original Ibanez nut in my Destroyer as well, but I made my Destroyer in the image of the guitar as you see it in the Musikfoto.com club pictures and the Tortomasi-Haley flyers. I am one of several people that feel the Destroyer was in this condition for the recording of Van Halen...but I disgress

garbeaj, I would really like to see some photos of your Destroyer! If you would rather not post it in this thread, as it's a little off topic, you could add it to this one "Ed's Ibanez destroyer": http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=33792

I have some pics of it when I bought it. Strat78 and jimi22812 have seen them on ClassicVanHalen.com- They and I have learned alot about Ed's Destroyer through postings there...they also know the long story of my drawn out modifications to this guitar that have been going on for almost 2 years now! I know they are sick of me talking about my damn Destroyer!

I will check out that thread here-I read almost everything on this forum in the last couple of weeks and I probably read it, but there is alot to absorb...I am happy to be on this site finally! I think Strat78 and Pete Thorn have some of the most accurate VH-1 tones I have ever heard and they and a real cool cat who goes by jimi22812 on this site led me here...they are super knowledgeable and there are more really and truly knowledgeable and helpful folks here-I'm grateful to all!

[cary chilton]

QUIT DERAILING THE THREAD......... READ THE TITLE

[flex5150]

Back on track Cary
Musikraft neck KNE body they fit beautifully and minimal to no shimming is required. Just finished a VH1 and I went together beautifully. Mk to Mk needs a shim.
This franky is all MK.


Bee is a Warmoth with a MK neck. Warmoth bodies are all wrong. This Bee is all wrong too but once I slapped its together from spares it works, its my number one for playability.


more pics here, I hate resizing everything to 722 wide!

http://s484.photobucket.com/albums/rr20 ... 1QQtppZZ20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[garbeaj]

Sorry! My post did turn into a mini-intro to me...

I think from what I have seen both here and elsewhere is that the KNE or Divebomb Asuza/Frank bodies are the best and the Musikraft necks are the best. So far, if I were building my dream '78 Frankenstein, this would be where I would start.

I'm still a little iffy on having the exact Franky specs as we know them. I think that from what I've read, the exact specs may not be the best for straight string pull and intonation purposes. I think that I would probably get the headstock "undrilled" and get my tech to drill the holes for the tuners for the best string angle...unless we know that Musikraft or another source has solved this or any other problems with ill-fitting neck pockets or whatever other small intricacies that exist in these as-close-as-we-can-get-to-accurate versions of the '78 Frankie...

Does anybody know about whether these problems are solved at this point?

[cary chilton]

Flex that is awesome! Where did you get the reflectors? What paint did you use? MK body and MK neck arent right ? KNE body is better?