Framus Diablo Pro

Made in Germany
HB/SC/HR Seymour Duncan
Wilkinson Tremolo
although described as bookmatched on framus' website, this guitars aren't, maybe the newer ones, the older ones (as mine) not

Traded a musicman shilouette for it, if you're also able to do this, you should make the same deal.

As good as you can get the two definitive rock-sounds out of one instrument (Fender Strat and Gibson Les Paul Standard), I think this one gets closer to this dream of many musicians as any other guitar I've tried in the last 10 years. Don't get me wrong, it will never sound exactly like an old Les Paul or Strat, but on stage this guitar will do it. I've tried to make some recordings with it, but for really high quality the sound is much too thin. But if you play in a cover band doing hendrix, led zep, free and stuff you will be able to play hours and hours of rock'n'roll without changing your instrument. I think in a few years this guitars will be much more expensive than today.

As I said, pronounced as bookmatched, but I've tried 3 diablos in the store, and none was bookmatched.

But the rest, especially the wilkinson tremolo, is well made.

The diablo seems very solid to me, although I had to spend many hours of tuning, because it was shipped with a .009 gauge and I changed it to .010, and even it's been 6 months ago, I still have to tune the guitar after every 3rd song during live-shows. But it's still okay for playing live.

I've been playing for 15 years, pay a visit to HTTP://WWW.MUCKYPUB.COM
Gibson Les Paul Standard, Framus Diablo Pro, PRS EG Model, Brunetti 059, Trace Elliot 4x12 Box, Digitech 2101 Artist, Dunlop Cry Baby & Talk Box, Earnie Ball Volume Pedal, some little helpers from Nobels (midi-switchers and stuff, some older analoge effects from Ibanez and Electro Harmonix (chorus,...).

2004 German made fresh guitar.
1 vol,1 tone,5-way selector.with a pickup-split function.
H/S/H(Hotrails/SSL1/SSH4) Seymour Duncan pickups
Oil treated 2-piece Ash body,Ovankol neck(which makes this guitar feeling special!),Rosewood fingerboard with 22f.
Tremendously good honey violin oil finish!
Fat strat style body.Built-in type
Wilkinson trem system
25.5 scale fat neck w/medium scale flat top brass frets
A premium series gig bag,adjust tools and one set of straplocks included

Versatile! It suits all kinds of music after I changed the Hotrails into a Lit59 in the neck position! Push the split knob down and this guitar will provide you a classic Les Paul sound! In this mode the middle position SSL-1 doesn't work,which means a 59-JB 2 humbuckers configuration,so it gives out a typical sound of a humbucker guitar. Due to its light ash body the sound is even more dynamic to compare with an LP's serious and deep sound. When you pull up the knob you immediatly got a Strat in your hand! In this mode 2 hums in the neck and brige are splited into 2 single coil pickups. This makes your guitar an S/S/S axe! Here the design of the electronics is marvelous! You can imagine what will happen when a guitar is equiped with 3 SD made single coil pickups and the 'Sound of Wood' corporation philosophy! Try the s/s/s mode and you will recognize the high quality of the wood more easily. The only thing I can say is with this Diable Pro I can work anything out of it.

Everything was well done! I have nothing to complain about since I got this axe.
The only thing I do is changed the stock strings into DeanMarkley 011-056 and the neck Hotrails into the little 59.But its only a matter of taste.

As I said I do everything with only this guitar!

Never tried.

Wonderful guitar!
If it were stolen I would buy another exactly the same type Framus Diablo Pro!

i got the diablo pro limited and its painted black
there is 1 volume control and 1 tone control
a 5 way pickup selector
you can pull the volume control to split the humbuckers into singlecoils
the fretboard is made of rosewood
for the first view it looks like a strat
but on second view it has a totally own character
it has a wilkinson vibrato, but the piece to make the vibrato sound can not be fixed and falls down if you lean forwards (sorry bad english)
another bad point is that the screws of the tuners are so big that you can not install the schaller securitylock

the pickups are seymour-duncans
- a small humbucker in the neck position
- a singlecoil in the middle
- a humbucker in the bridge position

the sound is the reason why i bought it:
the humbuckers have a fat sound when you play in overdrive
the singlecoil has a great sound for playing clean

i played almost every guitar (fender/gibson/semiacoustics/epiphone/danelectro/delrey) in the shop i bought it. and this guitar had the richest tone of all

if i could give 11points i would do so

everything is fine
the pickups are well adjusted
very good quality of the finish

i just got it for 3 days - no idea

never talked to em

i love her

This is an update to my earlier review. I changed pups a lot. After the 59 Trembucker i put in: Custom, Custom 5, 59 Trembucker, Parallel Axis Original Trembucker, Blues Saraceno Trembucker.
On the neck position now sits a Little 59.

After the '59 Trembucker I tried the Custom, the Custom 5 and finally the 59 Trembucker again, which was the best so far. But together with the now also new Little 59 for neck position, the 59 Trembucker was too quiet. Plus, it wasn't fat enough. So I got hands on a Parallel Axis Original Trembucker, which is in fact a good rocker , and was better in bass response and fatness. All in all, but especially for clean and crunch, it was too fat. Too much mids and lower mids.
I finally ended up with the Blues Saraceno trembucker, which is in fact the finest pup I've had so far. fat, tight bass response, enough mids, not too fat, silky highs, never harsh. Just perfcet for this guitar. Very good balance to the Little 59 (which is incredible, too)

Pups is always a matter of fact, and in my opinion the pup combination I found, seems perfect to me for this guitar. more balanced, not focussed on a certain style or sound.

Traded a Music Man Silhouette Special for it.The smartest thing I ever done!!!
I think it was made in 1998, but I'm not quite sure.A definite german product hahahahaha!Made almost to perfection (I'll get into the "almost" part soon!). It has 22 frets, the body has an oil finish.Strat style, very balanced. I like the fact that it's a bit wider than my strat-much more stable! Satin finish on the neck wich is by the way rosewood.Has one volume knob, and one tone knob. The volume knob has a push-pull option for the humbuckers. Seymour Duncan pickups.....aaaaaaaaahhh!!!JB in the bridge, a reversed single coil in the middle position, and a hot rail mini-humbck. in the neck position. 5-position pickup selector switch.Pickups really work in perfect harmony with the swamp ash body and the ovangkol neck.Although I don't use it, the Wilkinson tremolo works really well. It doesn't go out of tune at all, accept if u start doing dive bombs and shit like that!I'm not really into the tremolo thing so i DECIDED TO PUT some extra springs in the back to keep the thing locked down!
I really must say, as a strat user, a wilkinson tremolo sure beats those standard strat tremolos!Less string breakage!
Got it with a case, wich is really ion a shitty condition!
As far the tuners go I think they r Gotoh but I'm not sure......
I use big strings and the thing stays in tune!
Since my Strat has only one volume knob , I found all theese extra pickup config. options a bit confusing. I sing and play , so there's not much time to fuck around with the controls!My only remark is that the pickup selector was reversed ..... and u don't have the option of using the middle pickup all by itself.U do get a cool "tele" sound when playing in the middle position with the humbuckers split.

I've been playing a Fender strat with a Seymour D. in the bridge pos. for 6 years now (saved my sound big time, the pickup that is!!!).String gauge 011-050.I like to hit it real hard and heavy!

The music we (Gloft) play is, .....mmmmmmmm well I like to think of it as melodic/agressive/odd times/driving/eastern/open tunings kind of stuff!We r a trio! So keeping things simple really healps a lot! And switching to this baby really made me realise how shitty fender guitars r or can b. How low input their pickups r and unbalanced their instruments r.Ok i'm not saying they all r but still......
Framus definately opened my eyes and ears!I play through a Cry-baby fuzz wah, Marshall's "The 'guvner", Ibanez graphic equalizer (I use it to boost the sound when in solo mode)into al old old old Orange head (bass)hooked up to an Marshall 4X12. When I play the diablo it sounds realy huge and wide. Bright in the bridge , and fat in the neck pos. It can get a bit irritatinfg when u split the bridge pickup and play it single coil style!Haaaaaarrrrrrsssssh!But thats cool too!Also the earlier mentioned middle position can get a bit too muddy, I guess it's because of the two humbuckers!I'm more of a sigle coil guy, but I'm learning new things with this one!
I do wish the hotrail in the neck position was a bit brighter!
All and all it does sound awesome!Better than a srat and a music man together!!!

Action was a bit high wen i got it, but also the strings were thinner so....
Pickup height?Perfect!
I have really nothing to complain about!



Ok, ok I'll admit it the neck is totaly fuckin weird. Thin at the top and fat at the bottom , It does take time to get used to it. Pretty wide!Reminds me of Warwick!I think it would help to change the measures of the neck, make it a bit chunkierat the top!

I got this guitar in Rijeka (Croatia). I live in Zagreb 250 km north of Rijeka. But the trip was certainly worth it!I've had it for 4 months now and I've played it live , even when the pickup switch was reversed, hahahahaha!That must have looked funny!Framus takes all the abuse, believe me , and stays in tune!!!Strap buttons-excellent!
I use the strat as a back up , and vice versa!!
Speakin of the backup, if I had any money......I'd head off to germany and buy another Framus guitar.......definately not the same model.....maybe the panter pro!
Very reliable!

Shitty!
Wrote them emails, but in the end i got ignored. ?upci brate milji!I wanted some expert oppinions on the switch,, they've never ever sent me back any schematics or advice or anything.
Booooooooo!!!!!!

I'll be 22 in July this year, I play since I was 8, or 9 I dunno!Played in bands since was 12.I play live since i turned 18. I could call my self a professional but I woun't , because in this country there's no such thing as a pro musician.........we're all doomed!Better not get into that!Been awarded best new talent in Croatia 1999, la la la la la la !!!Recorded a cd last year and been in the studio with some so called Croatian musical legends, hahahahha!!Believe me I've played a lot tried out a lot of gear, totaly not as much as somebody in the U:S:A:! Diablo is definately a good choice for any style.What ever u do don't buy any music man guitars!I got totaly dissapointed with that one!Or new fenders!This one is a much better bargain!

'97 made H-S-miniH Strat-type guitar, 2piece-swamp-ash body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, 22 jumbo frets, 25,5" scale, bolt-in neck (special construction by Framus), chrome Schaller tuners, Wilkinson tremolo, pearloid pickguard, Duncan pickups (JB bridge, SSl-1 rev. wound middle, Hot Rails neck), humbuckers splittable (push-pull), 5 way strat type switch, volume, tone, honey oil-wax finish. As far as features go - a nine for s.o. who likes to modify guitar electronics quite a lot, but for the "normal" player, plenty of features, first quality components.

I play through ENGL Savage120 + Rath TW412 (see reviews) and altogether this is one of the most versatile setups you could imagine. Combine the amps 6 sounds with the 10 sounds available from the Framus...heaven :-)
All in all, typical power-strat like tone, although the Duncan JB and Hotrails (humbucker mode) can deliver hot Paula Humbucker sounds. Ok, its not the same. For me as a Gibson SG freak the guitar is a good, cheap versatile alternative for having Gibson tones combined with strat tones.
My only problem is the humbuckers' high output. The JB is way too nasal, high-midrangy, the Hotrails too hot and muddy for my taste. But this is a matter of taste, since surely many of you will like that.
I have already replaced the JB with a Duncan '59 Trembucker, which is quite a lot better, but maybe a bit too vintage sounding. The Hotrails is definately gonna be replaced by a Little 59 and for the bridge I might try a Custom Custom or Custom 5. I'll update this review...Don't get me wrong: the factory sounds are great, not weak or bad or anything, its only my taste :-)
I made several modifications to the switching features: first I disconnected the tone control (again: who needs this??), and replaced it with a push-push pot, which only acts as switch to send the bridge humbucker's signal exclusively to the volume pot. If you're interested in this modification feel free to email me.
So I rate this also 10, because the whole concept is outstanding, versatility in sound options, excellent tone wood and vibration characteristics. As far as the PU's go, this is matter of taste.

Since i bought it used - no opinion here

As i said, the hardware is of premium quality. Although, some parts of the tremolo don't seem to be stainless - instant vintage :-)
Of course you have to maintain the oil-wax finish from time to time.

Never dealt with them - except for a question concerning Custom Shop models' availability. The responded quick. So again no opinion on that.

Great guitar, nothing more to say, everything seems to be outstanding quality: hardware, electric, pickups (matter of taste), woods, craftmanship.