The Franky - A Pictorial History

[jimi11580]

The Franky (present-day)...

...a home-made, piece of crap that forever changed the way that guitars would be painted,assembled and played. Arguably, it's easily the most recognized guitar in rock and roll history! But did you know about all of the numerous transformations that it has undergone in it's three decades plus lifespan? No? Well, get ready now for a spellbinding, fascinating, thrilling pictorial journey that will amaze and confound you! But be forewarned: there are many unexpected twists and turns ahead!
Here we go...

1978
The "Holy Grail", the VH I Franky.


The story goes that a young Edward bought the unpainted body for $50 and the unfinished neck for $80, chiseled out the bridge pick-up route, threw in a PAF from a Gibson E-335, installed a '58 fender Strat tremolo and went to create some of the most innovative guitar techniques and sounds since Jimi Hendrix.

1979
This is the year where goes completely wild... he makes the more cosmetic and hardware changes to the Franky than any other year.
Annoyed and infuriated that several guitar companies have begun to sell VH style painted guitars without his consent, Ed removes the pinstripes on the Franky, installs a rosewood neck, replaces the black pickguard with a white one, puts a Tele pick-up in the middle position and a Strat pick-up in the neck.



1979
Apparently not satisfied with these changes, he then decides to repaint his black and white masterpiece in a deliberate action to prevent anyone from copying his guitar again (the irony, of course, is that the red, black and white design would go on to be the most widely replicated guitar design ever!).


The pickguard is now removed.

If you look closely, you can see the 3-way switch in the control cavity (it's attached to the jack plate that he used to secure the volume pot with!).

[nhotas]

Very nice, as usual, Jimi. It's worth noticing that Ed used for a while the rosewood neck and then changed back to the Ellsworth maple one - due to the brass nut? Wider scale? Sound? Nevertheless, that was the last time that neck was on Franky, am I correct?

[jimi11580]

1979
The original Charvel VH II neck is installed.



1980
The Floyd Rose is added as well as a double creme pick-up and partial pick guard...

... the neck is the same one that had been on the Charvel VH II for the 1979 tour.


1981
The quarter (mounted Face up) is affixed to the body...

[jimi11580]

1982
This is the same 21-fret, square-heeled neck that's currently on the Franky...

Here is a 22-fret Kramer Strat headstock neck (note that the Kramer logo has been sanded off!)...



1983
The Kramer Beak neck as seen in the "Jump" video and the at the US Festival...


..the modified Danelectro neck that was installed for the "Starfleet" sessions with Brian May...

[jimi11580]

1993
The Kramer "Hockeystick" neck...

...installed sometime in 1985(?) by Tom Anderson.


This was also when the Floyd Rose bridge was moved up in order to correct the intonation!
Before...

...after...


1997
The 21-fret, square heeled neck is re-installed...

[jimi11580]

2004

[jimi11580]

Very nice, as usual, Jimi. It's worth noticing that Ed used for a while the rosewood neck and then changed back to the Ellsworth maple one - due to the brass nut? Wider scale? Sound? Nevertheless, that was the last time that neck was on Franky, am I correct?

Yes. Ed apparently ruined that neck when he attempted to prep it for a Floyd Rose nut installation...

[nhotas]

Great show, Jimi! I, personally, appreciate your efforts in showing what transformations have tormented that poor piece of wood!

The Floyd has clearly changed from 1993 to 1997: the fine tuners are black. Also, Ed, re-installed a new type of eyehooks on the upper horn, visible in the pic with Chip Ellis placing the neck on Franky.

Could it have been that correcting the intonation marked the end of Franky - as far as being used? Maybe that change of pivot location weakened and compromised the effective use of the tremolo.

[smithtone]

Great job, Jimi. Any update on the black Strat w/ the rosewood neck, zebra HB, and the modified white pickguard used in the club days and how that *may* have been used on VH1 and/or became Frankenstein?

I believe you had some thoughts on that last year, but weren't sure to the point to make a pronouncement.

Thanks!

[TheArchitect]

Are you certain they moved the bridge? Thats a lot of precision work to plug holes and accurately redrill. Not exactly EVH's strong suit. I see at least 3 different Floyds in those pics. The original, a gold one and a later chrome one. I think maybe its just a different trem or maybe he moved the quarter a bit.

[AT]

Fun stuff, Jimi. It's a sticky. We'll try and direct questions about the Frankenstein's evolution and changes over the years along with replica questions into this thread.

[tommywho5150]

Are you certain they moved the bridge? Thats a lot of precision work to plug holes and accurately redrill. Not exactly EVH's strong suit. I see at least 3 different Floyds in those pics. The original, a gold one and a later chrome one. I think maybe its just a different trem or maybe he moved the quarter a bit.

Tom Anderson moved the Floyd when he installed the neck.

[LAD-1972]

Tom Anderson moved the Floyd when he installed the neck.

If you can view the animation, you can see the amount of movement:

[5150rob]

awesome Jimi

Rob

[TheArchitect]

If you can view the animation, you can see the amount of movement:

Who installed the original one? I was under the impression that Floyd Rose himself installed his first units. That's a huge mistake TA fixed unless he had to adapt for the neck a bit as well.

Seems like a lot of top shelf people worked on the guitars and amps of the self proclaimed tinkerer