Framus Acoustic Archtop

I have a 1968 Framus aingle cutaway. The tailpiece has three hinged alloy t-pieces of different lengths; each of which holds two strings. CUT-A-WAY is etched onto them - the EA has CUT, the DG has A and the BE has WAY on it.

It has 24 frets, the headstock is the Framus gumby-shaped headstock. Celluloid fret markers, white binding on black neck, Gibson-esque diamond inlaid MOP on the headstock. Neck is made of multiple pieces of wood - headstock glued on as is heel and fretboard overhang. 25" scale, small vintage frets, what feels and looks like a 7.5" radius and neck as chunky as an early 70's Fender work well if you prefer vintage spec as I do. It is beautiful to fret on.

The body is the spectacular part. The top is a bookmatched piece of spruce with somewhat modern cello-shaped f-holes, including mathcing mirror knothole imperfections! It is a full size body with a three inch sides, and very large arch front and back. Brown binding looks to be plastic of some sort on al corners. The back is natural-finish bookmatched maple - the back looks like it is solid, as the wavy grain pattern and joinline inside matches the outside back. Very attractive fiddleback with flame pattern. Body sides/back seems finished in poly, except the front which is checked nitro and neck which has that aged patina and loses finish easily.

It really is beautiful and I have had many offers to sell.

Originally it had some sort of pickup/and/or different guard. It had none when I got it, but I also acquired at the same time a genuine Framus pickup assembly from another guitar. This has a 5K singlecoil with adjustable polepieces. It has a fourposition switch with different caps and volume control.

This gives it a treble, treble plus a little bass, bass plus a little treble and bass settings. The guard has a plate bolted to the back with a stainless stamped housing soldered to it. Bugger to get apart as I had to do recently to fix some wiring inside. Gives good grounds and shield - buzzes under flouros but not as bad as a Strat or Tele.

Sounds great for trad rock and jazz - playing with polepiece heights shows the Germans understood something about audio.

Trussrod is the traditional German style - never adjust these without putting the neck under bending tension as they are not like a conventional rod - they'll pull straight through the fretboard.

Tuners had been changed to nickel-plated 3 a side Kluson reps, look great and work well. Bridge has also been changed to ebonized rosewood compensated archtop pattern - I understand the stockies were not much good with plastic saddles.

For traditional styles, it sounds terrific. F-hole archtops were invented for projection, and acousticaly it projects very well.

Electrically, it needs to be played with feedback in mind. Here the volume comes in handy, as the four switch positions which are created by combining two very old caps results in very uneven volumes.

It can't do modern rock and overdrive would be feedback city I suspect, but it sounds great for old-style rock and pop and unplugged acoustic-electric gigs are great.

When I got it, the zero fret was twice as high as it needed to be. A lot of filing, and it is much better. The same with the bridge, which was too tall. I filed a lot of height off it.

Now I would rate the action as better than an acoustic, but not as good as a pure electric. It intonates surprisingly well. Originally it came with bronzewound acoustic strings which made it sound boingy and harsh and didn't suit. They also stressed the neck. Very easy to play and even bends well with flatwounds. Neck has a hump at the bridge end, which I think is where it was popped off at some stage to refret. This causing buzzing if you play the middle string up around fret 20, but you'd need 10" long fingers to fret there anyway. Access is again, not as easy as a Strat or Tele but better than a cutaway electro-acoustic. No fret markers past 15th fret doesn't make life easy.

I swapped some Maton flatwounds on, which I think may be Thomasticks. They suit the guitar to a T, and I would recommend them. I may try Pyramids on, but the Matons are great. Give it that nice percussive thud but also keep the piercing quality.

Also return the correct tonality to the pickup which sounds like an exaggerated piezo with bronze-wounds.

I fitted the pickup - it is screwed to the neck fingerboard extension and two shaped polished alloy straps on the side. The adjustable pole pieces and matching radius allowed me to perfectly balance the strings. My rating reflects the ease of playing and sound post setup.

No flaws except those due to age and use.

Lasted this long - most damage seems to have been done by repairers or bodgers. I look after it and would certainly gig it. I don't fear damage unduly and it should be not too hard to repair.

I fitted a strap button under the neck heel. Finish is solid. Frets are no more than 10% worn.

Came with original worn fibreboard case which works OK to protect and fits the guitar even with pickup.

Went bust in '74, the new company has not much to do with the old. Unfair to rate for this.

I love it. It does enugh well acoustic, and enough electric to make it versatile for quiet gigs. It looks fantastic and gets a unique but very nice tone acoustically, while also adding some jazzy electric tones. You can play feedback on it, but it can get away from you.

I would buy another in almost any condition - animal glues and dovetail heeljoints mean action flaws are easily fixed.

Zero-fret, unique top/back(bubbled out in certain places...

I bought this guitar for mostly jazz/blues playing. To be honest, this guitar does not have the tone qualities that a great acoustic would have it's very mellow, and hollow, and buzzes a little...
For the price, it's decent enough... and I wanted a nice sweet full tone, as compared to the bright sound of my Ovation. I must say I missed the mark a little, but at least I've got a different sound.

This guitar is beautiful! The action is also very good on it. The zero fret is very annoying however and is "pings" a little on bends of the B and E. The strings also buzz a little, and the truss rod cavirty is very small, so my repair man had to make a custom tool to do it.
The tuning pegs were decent. It is a vintage guitar...

Hrmm, I'm not so sure...
It's a good guitar, but I don't think it is versitle enough to take by itself. it lasted this long, I'm sure it'll last a good while longer...
it still has a very good finish on it...

I haven't found too many people who even know what a Framus guitar is...

I own an Ovation Elite, Baby Taylor, EB Musicman Axis...
all my guitars do their job extrodinarily... however this one is a little off, I must admit... The sound is really my biggest complaint.. the bridge actually just sits ontop of the finsihed wood... however the price of the guitar was very reasonable, and even with the poor tonal qualities it was still a good deal, and sill maintain it's value for some years to come.