Diamondjimi's Frankenstein Replica

[jhale667]

Update: Frets crowned/polished. Swapped out the PAF with an original Dimarzio Norton.(NOT an "Air" Norton). I find the Norton a better match for this body. It has a smoother sound (compared to the PAF) when I roll back the volume (I mean "tone) knob.

Niiiiice. From Dimarzio's description, the Norton is in the "slightly overwound" PAF territory like the Duncan Custom(s) but has mismatched coils. Probably sounds pretty cool~!

[Diamondjimi]

Yeah, sounds pretty sweet. Bench tested it on the Line 6 with a Plexi type tone. Tight response with nice harmonic overtones.
Gonna crank 'er up through my main rig tomorrow for the real test. Sure, it's basically a wall ornament. But it'll be nice to know it can picked up, plugged in and and do some damage with it whenever it's played.

I was talkin to one of my friends who works for "said" chain instrument retailer. Told me to bring it by on a Saturday (insanely busy day for them) and he wants to put it up on the top row in the Fender section with one of those lock cable thingy's on it with a "Do not Touch" sign on it to watch what kind of crowd transpires. They've yet to stock a Fender "Frankie"™. I told him to try the "make an offer" angle for shits n giggles...

[jhale667]

Uh, video footage...please.

[Diamondjimi]

Hmm, that might be interestingly funny. Hell "Baby's on Fire" might show up and start berating people for getting excited over a guitar built by a bunch of "dumb American's"!

[jhale667]

I'm tellin' ya, potential comedy goldmine...

[Diamondjimi]

[Jagermeister]

Well I read mostly the entire thread bypassing the GAR bs as best as I could and just have a COUPLE of things to say.

1. Kick Ass

2. I take back everything bad I ever said about Diamondjimi. Anybody that can do that has my full respect. That's just bad fuckin ass.

[Diamondjimi]

Mucho's gracias!

[GreenBayLA]

Two words DJ: Em Pressive!!!! Never noticed the quarter b4.
Pic of some early EVH axes, is that THE Frankenstrat w/ pickguard?

[Diamondjimi]

Yup, the one and only in one of it's many incarnations...

[Diamondjimi]

Update: Brass block upgrade

A year or so ago my west coast brutha (and self confessed Gearwhore™) JHale was kind enough to gift me a 1971 US quarter for this project, and later sliding me a 37mm brass block to help a brother out! ( You Rock Bro! )

I've been dragging my feet on getting around to do the block upgrade.What got me going again was a good friend of mine introducing me to a good buddy of his who is not only a veteran guitarist and luthier (he was a sideman and or tech for many big recording artist's in the 70's & 80's).

He offered me a sweet deal to re-dress my frets,set my neck and intonation. Once I got the guitar back (in 2 days, practically unheard of in the biz ). So I finally got around to doing the brass block upgrade.

Started by having to remove 4 of the 6 saddles. So, before I lifted an Allen wrench, I marked their individual positions with white tape. Saves the hassle of re-intonating when it comes to re-assembly.

Unbelievable!
Now the guitars tone was already amazing... It was fucking stunning once I did the switch.
Tone was bigger, and the sustain increased substantially.

[Hardrock69]

Sweet!

One of these days I am going to blow a few dollars on an aluminum stop tailpiece for my Gibson Flying V. Have heard it makes a real difference in tone.

[jhale667]

Glad you like it, DJ!!

[Diamondjimi]

BUMP


Was offered $1000 recently...

No thanks. Have a nice day, Sir...