So, This shipped today... Build Completed!

[PDC]

I've got a 'Wudtone' Tremolo with the beveled / recessed knife edges in the base plate for the 6 mounting screws along with a 'Grail' Musikraft Franky Neck in AAA Birdseye with Rosewood dots / Brass Side Markers and a 'No Logo' Custom Shop '78 that have been waiting patiently for the right Body to come long...

And this is it: Roasted Northern Ash Franky - Traditional 6-screw Trem. (Shout out to Chris Locke: WOW!!!) Just gonna bathe this in Butcher's Block oil before assembly. I will post updates and a few pics once finished.

This will be a fun project over the Holidays as I wait for my left shoulder to heal (Rotator Cuff 'Revision' !)

Then I owe the forum a few clips of the incredible modded Marshall that Brian / Screamindemon sold me last month. (I haven't forgotten, Brian!!)

Merry Christmas to All !!

 

[DMartin356]

That should come out nice. I have a Locke "Amadeus" currently being assembled, they do really nice work & are reasonably priced.

 

[harddriver]

Me likey..................Did you order that custom built from Locke or did he have that in stock? Do the Musikraft neck fit the Locke bodies well?

My musikraft neck and one of my KNE bodies for my Kramer pacer imperial project doesn't fit that great, I had to sand the neck pocket out some and the fit still is not so great so I am not sure I want to assemble it at this point as I like a tighter neck pocket fit up..

I am also considering throwing another Franky together natural finish like you are and I am not sure the quality is there with KNE. My musikraft Franky and neck fit perfectly and it's has been killer playing guitar from day one.

 

[PDC]

This is my first Locke body. Past builds have been with Warmoth and Musikraft. This particular Locke body is fantastic. Everything fit like a glove. I am using a Musikraft Franky neck with this one.

This is a roasted northern hard ash body. I am surprised how much weight and density roasting takes out of northern ash. It almost feels like swamp ash. But extremely resonant.

The Wudtone tremolo just never disappoints. Such smooth feel and accurate return to pitch. With a properly grooved and slotted nut and locking tuners, it really is practically like having a Floyd.

Pick up is a Duncan custom shop no logo ‘78. Absolutely perfect with this build. It is amazing how hot this pick up sounds and feels considering its resistance. Plays like a much hotter pickup.

Last thing on earth I needed was another parts caster. But I think I enjoy planning them and building them as much as I enjoy playing them!

 

[japetus]

This is my first KNE body. Past builds have been with Warmoth and Musikraft. This particular KNE body is fantastic. Everything fit like a glove. I am using a Musikraft Franky neck with this one.

This is a roasted northern hard ash body. I am surprised how much weight and density roasting takes out of northern ash. It almost feels like swamp ash. But extremely resonant.

The Wudtone tremolo just never disappoints. Such smooth feel and accurate return to pitch. With a properly grooved and slotted nut and locking tuners, it really is practically like having a Floyd.

Pick up is a Duncan custom shop no logo ‘78. Absolutely perfect with this build. It is amazing how hot this pick up sounds and feels considering its resistance. Plays like a much hotter pickup.

Last thing on earth I needed was another parts caster. But I think I enjoy planning them and building them as much as I enjoy playing them!

That looks killer!!!!

 

[Corey James]

I like that , good luck healing up and therapy etc

 

[Monkey Man]

Nooiice...

 

[PDC]

Not sure what I was thinking when I posted yesterday's update. I see I had typed that this was a 'KNE' body - WTF??? This is a 'Locke' body and I have corrected my previous post.

Fit and finish is excellent. So far I have had top quality parts from Warmoth, Musikraft and Butala. Locke is on par with all. What's odd is that (so far) KNE is one brand that I have zero build experience with. Why my Freudian brain kept typing 'KNE' in that previous post is a psychological mystery to me. Maybe my sub-conscious planning my next build???

On an unrelated matter - recovery from rotator cuff 'revision' is going surprisingly well - much better than the first surgery 9 yrs ago. That one was a full rupture / stainless anchors / the whole 9 yards. This one was a 'partial thickness' tear with absorbable staples - no stainless anchors. I was actually able to comfortably play some simple chromatic exercises at the 12th fret the week of surgery. That was on Dec 4. Now I'm playing (carefully) all the way down to the 3rd fret. Should be good to go within a week. Then I can at least pound out some open chords and simple riffs on that Screamindemon Marshall to post for the forum!

 

[harddriver]

This is my first Locke body. Past builds have been with Warmoth and Musikraft. This particular Locke body is fantastic. Everything fit like a glove. I am using a Musikraft Franky neck with this one.

This is a roasted northern hard ash body. I am surprised how much weight and density roasting takes out of northern ash. It almost feels like swamp ash. But extremely resonant.

The Wudtone tremolo just never disappoints. Such smooth feel and accurate return to pitch. With a properly grooved and slotted nut and locking tuners, it really is practically like having a Floyd.

Pick up is a Duncan custom shop no logo ‘78. Absolutely perfect with this build. It is amazing how hot this pick up sounds and feels considering its resistance. Plays like a much hotter pickup.

Last thing on earth I needed was another parts caster. But I think I enjoy planning them and building them as much as I enjoy playing them!

I love it! that is exactly the tint on the body that I would like to build to go with my Musikraft B&W Frank. Did you fill the grain on the body at all before you oiled and sealed it?

I will have to check out Locke as I'm not too thrilled with the fit and finish on the KNE with my musikraft neck, it should be better than it is. I have never heard of Wudtone Fender style 6 screw tremelos. How does it compare to a Callaham Fender trem? It sound like it's tweaked to be used as a trem more....The Callaham works but even with locking tuners and a brass nut I can still tweak it out of tune it I get too rough with it. Thanks for the headsup on the Wudtone...I'm going to check them out!

You will love the SD 78 model in northern ash with the standard Fender Tremelo... I've tried a few different PAFs and hot PAF's and the 78 always wins in my Frank. I find the standard trem sounds more correct compared to a Floyd in every metric.

I am about to install a 7.8K SD Candy Alnico IV PAF into one of my 83 Kramers with a Floyd which had a early 80's SD Custom then a 1400 MM which I really dig so I'm excited to hear this Candy PAF.

Here's my Frank I built in 2009, Musikraft Frank Northern Ash Body, Musikraft neck 12" radius .84"-.97" Asymmetric profile neck w/ brass nut, 6100 Dunlop frets, 2009 78 model built by MJ, Callahma S/S Fender trem.

 

[harddriver]

I'm happy to hear your shoulder is healing well. I had rotator cuff surgery in 2013 and it went very well with minimal pain , the doc was one of the best in the state according to my lawyer, who represented everyone else..............

 

[PDC]

The pics definitely look lighter than the body looks in the room. I used Danish Oil and under natural light, the body has a beautiful reddish brown tint. That is sort of lost in the iPhone pics. I did not use any grain filler. This is a 'Roasted' Northern Ash -and I do have another build with regular Northern Ash and a NFT floyd. It is amazing how much weight roasting pulls out of the Northern Ash - it almost feels like Swamp Ash. I was afraid it wouldn't have the 'heft' of my other N. Ash build - which is one of the biggest, chunkiest, best sounding guitars I own. But as light as it is, this Roasted N Ash Body sounds incredible. And I completely agree on the '78 in these 6-screw equipped super-strats. Its like the '78 was wound for a stock Fender trem. Wudtone is the sh*t. The base plate is beveled above and below the mounting screws sort of like 6 tiny knife edges on a floyd so the base plate pivots in one plane, rather than sliding up and down the mounting screws like a stock Fender. I believe Mann Made / PRS trems have a similar design - that's why they hve such a smooth feel and such true return to pitch. Beautiful build there Harddriver! If it weren't for Chubtone / Luxxtone already owning the market, we could open our own little shop and just build guitars for retirement. God how I would love that!!!

 

[harddriver]

The pics definitely look lighter than the body looks in the room. I used Danish Oil and under natural light, the body has a beautiful reddish brown tint. That is sort of lost in the iPhone pics. I did not use any grain filler. This is a 'Roasted' Northern Ash -and I do have another build with regular Northern Ash and a NFT floyd. It is amazing how much weight roasting pulls out of the Northern Ash - it almost feels like Swamp Ash. I was afraid it wouldn't have the 'heft' of my other N. Ash build - which is one of the biggest, chunkiest, best sounding guitars I own. But as light as it is, this Roasted N Ash Body sounds incredible. And I completely agree on the '78 in these 6-screw equipped super-strats. Its like the '78 was wound for a stock Fender trem. Wudtone is the sh*t. The base plate is beveled above and below the mounting screws sort of like 6 tiny knife edges on a floyd so the base plate pivots in one plane, rather than sliding up and down the mounting screws like a stock Fender. I believe Mann Made / PRS trems have a similar design - that's why they hve such a smooth feel and such true return to pitch. Beautiful build there Harddriver! If it weren't for Chubtone / Luxxtone already owning the market, we could open our own little shop and just build guitars for retirement. God how I would love that!!!

I basically want another mule Frank to throw pickups in to try out because I can't justify pulling that 78 out only throw it back in and it's screwed into the wood I want to minimize fatiguing the wood. I figured another natural Frank like your s with a pickguard to screw the pickups to would be the ticket. I though I cold pick up a cheap partscaster but people are wanting 800-1000 for their Wartmoth Musikraft partscaster so I may as well just build another.

I checked out Wudtone trems. What exact model did you use? The CP vintage 50's?

I see they have a steel plate that mounts on top of the body and under the tremelo baseplate. How is that plate held in place does it just float under the baseplate with the pressure from the 6 screws?

I'm definitely going to look into these more....Thanks for mentioning them!
I found this vid on their site.

 

[PDC]

I used the 'Vintage' Wudtone just to closely match the looks of a stock trem. Yes, that small rectangular plate just sits in between the bridge baseplate and the guitar body to help reduce any potential friction between the body of the guitar and the bottom of the baseplate. I actually put a small drop of 3-in-1 oil between each screw hole on the rectangular plate just to add some lubricity between that plate and the trem baseplate. I've got 3 of these Wudtone trems now and they all perform flawlessly.

 

[harddriver]

I used the 'Vintage' Wudtone just to closely match the looks of a stock trem. Yes, that small rectangular plate just sits in between the bridge baseplate and the guitar body to help reduce any potential friction between the body of the guitar and the bottom of the baseplate. I actually put a small drop of 3-in-1 oil between each screw hole on the rectangular plate just to add some lubricity between that plate and the trem baseplate. I've got 3 of these Wudtone trems now and they all perform flawlessly.

So it's the CP vintages 50's tremelo that you have then? Do they have US dealers? I'm definitely interested and I might replace my Callaham......

Thanks for all the info... I appreciate it!

 

[PDC]

So it's the CP vintages 50's tremelo that you have then? Do they have US dealers? I'm definitely interested and I might replace my Callaham......

Thanks for all the info... I appreciate it!

Yes - I have the Vintage 50s version - although the one they call the 'Holy Grail' would not look to out of place on a vintage style build. It just has a bit more mass at the back of the bridge plate. I ordered mine from BYO Guitars - they often have at least 1 or 2 on the shelf, and they are a dealer for Wudtone here in the states. Just be sure to confirm screw spacing before ordering - they do have the wider vintage spacing and the more narrow 'modern' spacing (MIM Strats). PS - dont forget to run a search through Reverb and eBay, I have seen a few listed ready to ship at decent prices.

https://www.byoguitar.com/Guitars/Wudtone-CP-Vintage-Complete-Assembly__WUDTONE-CP-VT-ASSEMBLY.aspx

 

[KevinTaylor]

I basically want another mule Frank to throw pickups in to try out because I can't justify pulling that 78 out only throw it back in and it's screwed into the wood I want to minimize fatiguing the wood. I figured another natural Frank like your s with a pickguard to screw the pickups to would be the ticket. I though I cold pick up a cheap partscaster but people are wanting 800-1000 for their Wartmoth Musikraft partscaster so I may as well just build another.

I checked out Wudtone trems. What exact model did you use? The CP vintage 50's?

I see they have a steel plate that mounts on top of the body and under the tremelo baseplate. How is that plate held in place does it just float under the baseplate with the pressure from the 6 screws?

I'm definitely going to look into these more....Thanks for mentioning them!
I found this vid on their site.

Thanks for the video.

 

[KevinTaylor]

Beautiful, I love it!