Framus Strato-model(le)

Made in 1963 by Framus in Germany (serial no. 139 95-63C). The Strato Model(le) bears very little af an actual Strat, it's more a cross between a Les Paul with Strat horns "squized" on. thin "Alder?" body with black metal pickguard and one pick up at the neck. The typical "Framus" tone switch (which allows the player to add or cut bass or treble) and a volume knob and the strange German "DIN" jack. rather simple bridge design (only to be lowered or highered, hard to propperly intonate)and it comes with a rather nice designed tremolo (Sort of Bigsby style) with a cover.
The Pick up on this guitar is very nice, it has huge rods (think Music Man bass) which are actual screws which can be lowered or hightened. PU has a Alnico magnet (the main reaon why most older "student' guitars sound that nice)
Guitar has a set maghonie neck with a rosewood fretboard, nice binding an 22 frets, including the zero fret, making it a 24" scale guitar. the "banana" shaped headstock is maple and glued in Gibson style. It bears an "gold" inlayed "Framus" logo and rather poor open tuners.

The Strato-Model(le) sounds very nice rich sound, especially with the variations provided by the "tone" switch. (A very nice feature, which seams to be only found on European made guitars made in that erea) and it's very silent, although it's not a very stable guitar to play. It gets out of tune fairly easy and it's almost impossible to intonate due the poor bridge design. Although with the brigde set up high and an open tuning it's a superb instrument for slide guitar.
I use it with older BF Fender amps either with 2x12" or 1x15" closed speaker cabs.

I have no idea how the guitar was set up. It arrived at my house completely taken apart and with a broken headstock. So I had to rebuild it completely. Luckely for me the wiring was intact, otherwise this might of turned out into a nightmare t rewire.
Finish is somewhat strange. Av-courding t an old Framus catalogue it was availble in three colors, White, earth green and Cherry red. Mine is more "Fiesta red" and since the catalogue did not picture a Cherry red example it's a guess if the finish is stock or a refin. If it's a refin it's very old and not an amature job. Finish has crackled very nice and there is white paint under the red, so one can only guess.

I don't think this is guitar to be used in a live situation. It is far to unstable and almost imposible to stay in tune.
Strapbuttoms are rather good. But I can not depend on the guitar.

The Original Framus brand went somewhere in the early seventies after the market was flood with cheap produced Japanese guitars offering simelar quality or better. But it has been resurected a few years ago building high end gear. So don't call them for your vintage Framus. Perhaps keep a good guitar repaiman at hand or give it a go yourself.

I would not call this a "good" guitar because of the critics desribed above. But it has something that I haven't found in other guitars. The soverall sound is really something, especially in alternate tunings and/or slide and that's where I use it for.
I have much better (vintage and new) guitars, but this guitar fils a niche left by others. And since I got it for free, I consider this a bonus to my collection. And it looks very good, there is nothing quiet like it. But putting better tuners and a bridge on it might be a big improvement, I feel it would take the soul out of this guitar, so I keep it like it is. the 6 is only for sound and looks.