Naked Frank!

[PDC]

Funky, HEAVY Hard Ash ‘Frank’ Replica Body bathed in Butcher Block Oil. Warmoth Modern CBS neck, Standard Thin, Quarter-sawn Maple, Stainless 6115 Frets, Non Fine-Tuner Floyd (saddles shimmed for compound radius) Old-School wood screw mounting studs, EARVANA drop in nut. Damned thing plays like Buttah’ and sounds HUGE with the EMG ‘57.

 

[gtrwun]

Really nice. Drop a passive pickup in there and I’d play that all day long. The older I get, the more I dig the simple, stripped down guitars. The flame maple tops are just not appealing anymore. Nicely done!

 

[fek]

Looks great to me. I would rock that but as a personal preference, the passive pickup comment rings true for me as well.

 

[PDC]

Oh yeah - she’ll have a passive pickup here real soon - I like having a ‘57 on hand because the solderless system lets me get a project up and running quickly to set action, Peterson Strobe the octaves, and fine tune the nut slots. I have a Duncan’78 and a Duncan Custom Custom that I swapped in Rough Cast Unoriented A5 magnet For the stock polished A2. I am going to leave each one in for at least a week before swapping to really get a feel for which one this chunk of lumber prefers. But FWIW, that ‘57 spaced a touch away from the strings has a really nice passive ‘vibe’ going on!

 

[grooveHT]

Love the NFT Floyd! Cool guitar, nice build!

 

[PDC]

Duncan Custom with Rough Cast Unoriented Alnico 5. Very different vibe than the EMG 57. I’m really diggin’ this build!

 

[harddriver]

If you are looking for traditional Ed I can't recommend the Duncan 78 model enough with the A2. I've been through almost every possible VH pickup variations over the years and the 78 model wins in every category in my Northern Ash Frank as you have right there. I tried the custom custom with the A2 magnet in the past and it was a muddy mess, hated it.... but in the 78 it is just perfect, no mud, no excessive mids push like an 12-16K ohm overwound PAF type.

 

[PDC]

Thank you for the input on the ‘78. That’s the next one on my list to try. I really dig the ‘Custom’ wind with the rough cast UOA5. The power and punch of a ceramic with no mud and that ‘chewy’ organic vibe of an A2. I have another Custom with a RC-UOA5 that I have rotated through several guitars and it just never disappoints. I agree with your thoughts on the stock ‘Custom’ winds with either ceramic or polished A2 mag. Too much of something and not enough of something else...

I will play this combo for a week or so then swap in a ‘78.

 

[harddriver]

Thank you for the input on the ‘78. That’s the next one on my list to try. I really dig the ‘Custom’ wind with the rough cast UOA5. The power and punch of a ceramic with no mud and that ‘chewy’ organic vibe of an A2. I have another Custom with a RC-UOA5 that I have rotated through several guitars and it just never disappoints. I agree with your thoughts on the stock ‘Custom’ winds with either ceramic or polished A2 mag. Too much of something and not enough of something else...

I will play this combo for a week or so then swap in a ‘78.

That's the thing about the A-2 in the 78, it seems to defy everything I would think it would be just like the CC..... it's not soft at all, it's has the right amount of backbone on the lows and when you dig in, it crunches, it can be tight.

I have an old Duncan Custom(ceramic mag) in an old Kramer it has is tighter more mids but it is not classic VH1 Ed. One of my other favorite pickups is a 12K Duncan SeymourizerII(ceramic mag) from the early 80's, it is more open like a PAF than the custom with a little flatter mid punch, it can do VH1 Ed but it's just a bit too tight.

When you play the 78 model with the A2 it has certain feel to it, the way it responds. Like I said by all accounts I should hate the A-2 in the 78 but it just works....... If you told me it was and A4 or 5 I might believe you. The 78 played through the right rig is astoundingly good. Nice Naked Frank BTW!!!!

How well does the NFT Floyd stay in tune?

 

[PDC]

The NTF Floyd stays in tune (almost) as well as any locking Floyd I have ever owned. I am using locking tuners and a well lubed Graph-Tech nut. But it’s really well balanced (floating) and returns to pitch extremely well. I did spend at least an hour on the nut with round bottom stew-Mac nut files and a dollop of Vaseline in each groove once I got the height at the 1st fret right.

I am eager to try the Duncan ‘78. I’ve got a Jalen ‘78 in another Musikraft Ash build (with the traditional B/W paint scheme) and a 6-screw trem and that guitar has all the chunk and string separation you hear on the first album.

 

[PDC]

This build is now sporting a Trem Spaced SH-18 ‘Whole Lotta Humbucker’ and it sounds incredible. At 8.7 DCR it is definitely clearer than the previous Custom with the magnet swap. And the rough cast A5 has that ‘chewiness’ that a polished A5 seems to lack. At some point I will try a ‘78, but this is really working for me right now...