Framus 5/013 Atlantic 12-String

Made in the mid '60s in Germany (Bavaria), this is a thin hollowbody electric 12 string. 22 fret rosewood fingerboard on mahogany neck with pearl dot inlays and a "zero fret". Body apprears to be carved maple. 2 nickel-plated Framus single-coil pickups (not the P-90 style found on late '60s Framus). 2 volume, 2 tone, 3 slide switches for pickup / tone selection. Tuners were 2 sets of 6, each set on a single plate with exposed gears. 3-color sunburst finish is in pretty good shape after 14 years - not a lot of finish checking, but I don't think they used a lot of clear lacquer on the guitar. Framus engraved pickguard. Enough features for a 12-string.

Amazingly, this guitar sounds a lot like a Rickenbacker 12 string. Lots of chime. Not noisy at all. Changing the tone switch to a phase switch gave me an extra tone, and a cool one at that.

I bought this guitar used. It was in semi-playable condition. The trapeze tailpiece didn't align the strings correctly on the neck. The pickup angles made the polipieces not line up too well. The tuners and stringing at the headstock made it nearly impossible to tune - due to the stock string retainer at the headstock, tuning one string would pull on its paired string, placing that one out of tune!!
I repositioned the tailpiece and pickups. Rewired 3rd slider to allow out-of-phase pickups. I added string trees to the headstock and replaced the tuners with Schallers. Replaced the nut with graphite (not a true nut due to the zero fret). Reversed some of the bridge saddles to allow for better intonation. I also reversed the strings to copy the Rickenbacker way of stringing. I also hand-painted the missing design on the headstock.
Now, the guitar is playable and has more tone options. Sounds great, and a cool alternative to spending the big $$ for a Rick. My rating is based on how it was when I received it (assuming it was pretty close to this when new).

Stays in tune fairly well. The neck is quartersawn mahogany and is fairly stable. I think maple would have been a better choice, but it's not bad. The body wood is fairly thick and solid. It's held up about 40 years so far, I don't think it's gonna break anytime soon.

I've never seen a picture of this exact model except in a poorly-scanned catalog. Took a LOT of surfing to find that. Support? Is there such a thing for this guitar?

Not the best ratings for construction. Not the best ratings for design. Top ratings for tone - this thing has that chime we're all expecting from a good electric 12 string. I'm a bit surprised that this company made an instrument so out of alignment. I realize it's very rare and I have made some big modifications to it, but I did buy it to play and everything I did was an improvement.
If stolen or lost, I'd never find another one. I'd have to buy something else.

I have one picture available so far for anyone interested...a picture's worth a thousand words.

http://www.guitartechcraig.com/images/60s_5.013Atlantic.jpg