Meet Reggie - a Franky for the Street

[YMI5150?]

Reggie is my tribute to the Black and White Franky sans stripes. most of the correct specs but something anyone can take out on the road and call it their own. little touches like the nick in the pick guard are my way of tipping my hat to the legend.
The relic work turned out exceptional on this one. the artistic images don't show the aging of the paint but its very cool and plays fantastic!
A bit of background on the name. Eric (efraser68) and I have been collaborating on build designs for a couple years now. I've got 3 small dudes very close in age (Irish triplets) and they sort of look the same. Eric would come over and just call them all Reggie. "Reggie" is now the nick name for my boys and it seemed fit for this guitar design when we expanded from the Model A.
Clips coming...

IMG_2241.PNG

(220.06 KiB) Downloaded 674 times

IMG_2243.PNG

(319.96 KiB) Downloaded 674 times

IMG_2239.PNG

(390.38 KiB) Downloaded 674 times

[efraser68]

I love this guitar. It's like having a "secret weapon" so to speak without trotting out a striped Strat on stage. The heft of the body is of Les Paul proportions and I believe adds to the sustain. And the flame on the maple neck is a real stunner and with the CBS era heastock adds to the classic vibe. I think the pup in this one is an EVH and when you back-off the volume, it gets very single coil-like jangle.

[efraser68]

Here's a fun comparison image....

[garbeaj]

Very, very cool...I love the finish. I also like the idea of having something you can play in public and seem less nerdy for Ed than we actually are

To that same end, I painted my 5150 replica just plain black and used a block letter yellow Kramer logo rather than doing the regular 5150 stripes.

Since I already have my full-on black and white striped guitar with Fender tremolo nearing completion, I still would like to get a nice "Floyd-era" Frankenstein built and I like the idea of using a nice Frankenstein style body with a Floyd in this finish. I considered doing a Stevie Ray-John Mayer-Rory Gallagher totally relic'ed sunburst type thing for a guitar like this, but this finish you have here looks much cooler...

Nice work indeed!

[garbeaj]

What is the second knob for?

[vanhalen5150]

Most excellent!

Were did ya get that string tree?

[Tone Slinger]

Very nice looking guitar for sure. There is just 'something' about that Azusa strat shape that is just cooler than any other 'strat shape' imo. As previous clips of Eric and Kevin have shown, we already KNOW that it is AWESOME sounding (those nicely tweaked 12xxx amps dont hurt things in this scenario either ).

I'm tryin to load up a pic of me and my Azusa for an avatar. I only put a few clear nitro coats on mine, I call it 'Woody Wood'

[YMI5150?]

second knob is standard 50s wiring tone with Sprague .022 cap.

string tree and nut are from Graphteq.

thx dudes!

[efraser68]

Hey Andy, that's a nice axe in your avatar

[mapat]

Really nice looking guitar. One of the things I like about the black and white franky and guitars that are inspired by it are the simple, clean lines the design has.

Guys here have gotten so many incredible results with all kinds of pickups, but one clip that sticks out is Kevin's YRGM clip with the Mighty Mite 1300. You guys have tried out so many kinds of pickups, vintage to modern production. In your opinion, what modern pickup sounds the closest to that old Mighty Mite. Is the EVH Frankenstein it?

[garbeaj]

Standard, stock Dimarzio Super Distortion...I especially like the near total elimination of microphonic feedback with new Super Distortions...

But the Super Distortion/MM1300 sounds best in a Mod 5 in my opinion. Other circuits work better with different pickups, especially in the specific search for the first album tones.

[Tone Slinger]

Thanks Eric .I really like the KNE Azusa, and I think I recall that 'Reggie' is a Musikraft Azusa. I think both companies do a great job. The neck is a Musikraft too huh? Looks great. I agree that the DSD is the closest current production pu to a MM 1300. I was trying to get a custom made new Mighty Mite 1300 style wound,but its hard finding a supply of those hex screws. You could take them off of an existing pu to use on a custom wind. I think the hex screws affect the tone alot. I was thinking basically using the same recipe of 43awg wire wound to around a 14k resistance. Messing with winding one coil a bit more than the other, etc. I think that it would be cool to try hex poles in a stock Duncan custom. I think the sound would have a hair more smear than by using the slotted/slug poles.

As far as necks go, I like the Warmoth vintage/Modern, but the Musikraft on that Reggie is sweet. Garbeaj has stated that Musikraft has a accurate VH1 Boogie bodies style neck in the works. The headstock is whats so elusive and hard to come up imo.

By the way, whats the radius and fret specs on that neck attached to Reggie ?

[efraser68]

Wood Species - Select Grade Birdseye Maple
Radius - 10″
Inlays - Rosewood
Sidemarkers - Brass
Scale Length - 25.5″
Fret Wire - Medium Jumbo 6150
# of Frets- 21

[garbeaj]

The Musikraft '78 neck is indeed in the works, but I couldn't get Scott to confirm when it will be available to buy. He just keeps saying that they are too backed up on orders and that they should have it programmed in the CNC machine "within a month". He told me this for three months at least, so I ended up finding another builder that has made a really impressive '78 neck that I saw posted on Halen.com. I ordered mine with Stainless Steel frets and the total was $280 shipped. When I get the neck in and my Musikraft body is finished being painted I'll post a review and let you know all the particulars.

I do want to say again that if I were NOT doing a striped B&W replica, Kevin's "Reggie" would be my first stop. As I said before, I love the finish and the concept of having a cool looking guitar that has Franky specs, but isn't a true replica. I'm really GAS'ing for the "Reggie" body in that finish to dump a Floyd in it and be on my merry way to Ed's 1980-1984 territory! Sonically, I've got the standard tremolo era covered with my B&W replica and I have 5150 replica that gets the post-recording of the 1984 album...now the Reggie may be my ticket to that 1980-1984 timeframe:)

[YMI5150?]

Guys here have gotten so many incredible results with all kinds of pickups, but one clip that sticks out is Kevin's YRGM clip with the Mighty Mite 1300. You guys have tried out so many kinds of pickups, vintage to modern production. In your opinion, what modern pickup sounds the closest to that old Mighty Mite. Is the EVH Frankenstein it?

That's a really difficult question to answer.

The YRGM clip was with my Shark and there's something magical about that build and I dont think its as simple as the pickup. The 1300 smokes in the Shark and Eric's Reggie #1(but they don't sound the same), so there is definitely something about that pup that no other has been able to replicate (I'm working with MJ to try). I have another one that I'm going to put in my Model A with the short scale mahogany neck and see how close it gets to the Shark tone. that will be quite telling about the performance of the 1300.

Where it gets complicate to answer is I had a DSD in my 1st Model A concept build and thought it was great until I started comparing to my other guitars, as well as Eric's LP Custom. It quickly became average. The reality is these plexi builds are hyper sensitive to every nuance in the signal chain. much more so than a cascaded amp, and not even a player in a modeling amp. a year ago it was suggested to me by a buddy to get a GDEC to practice with. every guitar sounded identical and nothing really happened when i rolled the volume off. I never used it and dumped it. point being, as you start putting more things between the guitar and the first valve, it dilutes the amp's sensitivity to the fragile details of the signal. I do find that the Franky pup gets closer to the Shark when I use the EP pedal. It adds the right amount of sizzle and compression.

back to the model A concept - i decided to try to improve the tone and performance by swapping out the DSD for the franky pup and for that guitar, and my amp, it was night and day better. I think Eric will concur.

i hear a lot of good things about the CC, I have one in my B&W Franky and it's also just okay compared to the Franky and 1300 for my rig. I really never play that guitar because of it. That pup will have to get swapped out at some point.

bottom line, the answer is not that simple, but the Franky pup seems to be the most successful for my rig to get close to the holy grail tone. the 1300 is something special and I'm still looking to find a perfect replica for it.