Found in the trash. "Unique" Framus Strat, need advice.

[Hot Vibrato]

If you remove the zero fret, the intonation will never be right unless you cut a new slot with the leading edge located in the same place as the zero fret. I'd leave the neck alone, unless it needs fret work. I'm assuming the body's not a Framus? The body has been sloppily routed in an effort to recess the bridge. You would need to extend that rout in order to move the bridge back, but that's your best bet if you intend to use that body and neck together.

[bencahill]

I think the body is home-made. The neck pocket is not very well done. I doubt it is a Framus but there is no marking anywhere to identify it.
The body was sloppily routed by me to lower the bridge. I used a dremel hand tool to do it but i will make a template to do the rest so the edges are sharper. That makes sense about the zero fret. I Will move the bridge after the holidays and post my progress.

I will also repot the pickups using paraffin wax and hope that stops the microphonics.

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by bencahill

I think the body is home-made. The neck pocket is not very well done. I doubt it is a Framus but there is no marking anywhere to identify it.
The body was sloppily routed by me to lower the bridge. I used a dremel hand tool to do it but i will make a template to do the rest so the edges are sharper. That makes sense about the zero fret. I Will move the bridge after the holidays and post my progress.

I will also repot the pickups using paraffin wax and hope that stops the microphonics.

That was a big mistake. Lowering the bridge probably was not your problem.

The correct solution would have been to correct the angle of the neck by placing shims at the end. This goes along with the intonation problem.

DO NOT pull the zero fret.

I believe that the body probably is a real Framus. Too bad you butchered it.

[bencahill]

The shim would have had to be at least 12mm high at one end. That would put the end of the neck about 2mm under the body and make the neck angle over 20 degrees!
What makes you think the body is a Framus? The body is poorly finished and full of grey filler. The neck pocket is not a tight fit so I don't think they were built to be together.
If you have any more info that can help identify the body as a Framus I would be glad to hear it.
Until then I will continue to butcher my way forward to. a playable guitar.

[drbob1]

Most guitar shows, there's a guy selling strat bodies for $75. Might be worth just moving everything over to a new body cut properly?

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by bencahill

The shim would have had to be at least 12mm high at one end. That would put the end of the neck about 2mm under the body and make the neck angle over 20 degrees!
What makes you think the body is a Framus? The body is poorly finished and full of grey filler. The neck pocket is not a tight fit so I don't think they were built to be together.
If you have any more info that can help identify the body as a Framus I would be glad to hear it.
Until then I will continue to butcher my way forward to. a playable guitar.

It looks like a bad home refinish job of a mid '60s Framus body. Also a lot of the German guitars of that era had bodies covered with weird plastic coverings - it seems likely that somebody stripped off such a covering, which also goes with the grey filler, which would have been applied to give the plastic a surface to adhere to. The bridge looks like a Framus bridge from that era.

I don't see why you think that you would have needed a 12mm shim - that would place the bridge assembly several cm above the level of the body. Judging by the depth of the routing you did I'd guess that a shim a couple of mm thick at the butt end of the neck would have adjusted the angle to a comfortable playing position.

[John Eppstein]

You might be interested in checking out the Framus Vintage Archive.

It's pretty incomplete - your exact model is not shown (neither are several models I've seen and played myself), but several models shown have one or more features common to your instrument.

S-355 (p.u., jack plate, body style)
Stratocaster type HB (bridge)
Junior DeLuxe (p.u.s)
Junior 6 (p.u.)

You might also want to look at some of the others.

My guess is that yours is a 2 p.u., non-vibrato version of the S-355, probably of a somewhat older vintage.

Incidentally, the fit and finish on a lot of the late '60s Framus instruments was not all that great. The sloppy neck pocket doesn't surprise me at all, although that also could have been caused during the abortion of a refinish attempt.

It's definitely a Framus bridge, jack plate, and pickups and the Fender style switch is also correct. My guess is that although it's Fender style it probably isn't the exact same US made switch.

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by Frank_Case

You probably heard of "Frankenstein" guitars -- butchered guitars often made with mismatched parts. I think you have a "Framustein."

Nope. It's pretty clearly a Framus that somebody messed up.

[John Eppstein]

Originally Posted by drbob1

Most guitar shows, there's a guy selling strat bodies for $75. Might be worth just moving everything over to a new body cut properly?

Odds are that a body cut for a Fender scale length neck won't work properly with the Framus neck unless they happen to be the same scale length. Couldn't find any specs on the Framus vintage site.

[drbob1]

It would be easy to measure: measure from 0 fret to 12th fret and multiply by two. Almost all of those early "strat style" guitars used the 25.5" scale.

[Hot Vibrato]

Originally Posted by drbob1

It would be easy to measure: measure from 0 fret to 12th fret and multiply by two. Almost all of those early "strat style" guitars used the 25.5" scale.

There's other variables at play here. The end of a strat neck is 1/2" beyond the 21st fret. Another instrument could have the same scale, but if the neck isn't the exact same length (from the nut to the end), a strat neck won't work without altering the neck pocket or moving the bridge.

[drbob1]

All true, but if you're adding a wood body to an existing neck, you can adjust the pocket as needed. OP, could you measure the scale length?

[bencahill]

Yeah. I will do it next week. Trying to get over a sinus infection right now :-(.
This needs to be a cheap or free fix. I have lots of guitars already. If i can't get these two parts to play, the neck will go on ebay.
Thanks for all the replies so far.

[bencahill]

Ok. The neck is 450mm from the zero fret to the end of the neck. Zero fret to 12th is 314mm so the scale should be 628mm or 24.72". Right now the furthest back the saddle can be is 624mm so I'm going to move the bridge by 5mm tonight.

[drbob1]

"Gibson" scale is nominally 24 3/4", so that's right on for a Gibson style replacement body. Wouldn't work with a strat type body, though.