Frankinstein Guitar Works The Flamer

This is another (number two for me) custom designed/built guitar from Seppo at Frankinstein GUitar Works. It was made in 2005 and is a killer flame shaped guitar. It has a 25.5", slim 24 fret Wizard style set neck, rosewood fretboard, Dunlop 6100 frets, last 6 frets are scalloped, quarter sawn mahogany body with a stellar 3-d solid maple quilt top finshed in a orange/yellow burst finish. I chose a single DiMArzio Evolution humbucker in the bridge with a push/push series/parralel volume control and single tone control. The bridge is an Ibanez ZR Zero Point Tremelo. This is probably the greatest inovation in tremelos since Floyd Rose. It pivots on bearings instead of knife edges and has a full boat of spring adjustments. Basically it feels like an Edge,with a Backstop in it, but much smoother. AWESOME!! The headstock is a 4+2 setup with Sperzel locking tuners and a roller nut. It is also shaped like flames with a burst finish. A case was included. It is very hard to give the full effect of this instrumnet without seeing it, so check out his web site, http://www.frankinsteinguitarworks.com/galleries.htm#top

I play a huge range of music from blues to classic rock, jazz and some shred, so needless to say I was concerned at first with only having a single pup guitar. But I have to say, it covers all the basis incredibly. The series/parallel switch combined with a tone control that really works makes this axe the MAC DADDY of versatility. I have a number of guitar rigs that I use, I have a Carvin X100B that runs through a 2x12 cab that just screams. I have an full rack system with an ADA MP-1, Alesis Quadra Verb, Rocktron Velocity Power Amp into a 2x12 tweed cabinet or a Carvin SX-100 amp (without the power amp of course) and at my rehearsal facility I have a Crate GLX-65. I also use a Mesa Road King Triple Rectifier on occasion. The beauty of this guitars sound is its simplicity. With a turn of the volume knob you can clean up really high gain sound to make it bluesy. With the pickup "split", you can get a really cool strat tone and of course the full on Vai tone is there as well. Sustain is off the chart and harmonics are plenty. For trem work you cannot go wrong, no drop outs or holes. The Evolution pickup is way more versatile than it gets credit for, it helps that it is direct mounted into a quarter sawn mahogany body as well. In reto-spec, mayber I would like a neck pickup, but as killer as this guitar looks, I think another pickup would have taken away from overall theme. Lets face it, this guitar will do a ton of different tones, but it was made to scream and it does so without equal!!

The action was awesome, although I did do a full set up. But that is because I always do that to any of my guitars. It came with red coated DR strings. They were pretty awesome looking, but a little stiff. I changed to a set of Black Diamond nickel wounds and they are awesome. The fit and finsh are flawless.

I have played it live a ton of times live with no back up. It is built like a tank. Stays in tune, just ROCKS!! Dunlop Strap pins, locked and loaded.

Working with Seppo is a whole new experience. This is my 2nd time around and if you have only bought factory guitars in your life, you do not know what you are missing. You get not only the guitar of your dreams that no one else would even think of building, but you get a thorough education as well. Understanding your options and knowing what goes into a guitar are priceless. Seppo is only a phone call or e-mail away. You cannot say that about a factory guitar.

I have been a pro player for 20+ years. I have owned 100's of guitar and amps. I have lightened my load of guitars considerably since getting my first Frankistein guitar (El Binga) I now only have the 2 Frankinstiens, El Binga and the Flamer, a US Peavey Wolfgang, a US Peavey Strat and my old faithfull Yamaha accoustic. To be honest, no other guitars can come close to the ones I have, so I kind of stopped shopping. I am tired of going into a music store and playing 30 guitar to only find 1 worth even thinking about buying. Once you have a custom built guitar from Seppo, the rest are just store inventory. It is really hard to even look at them. No comparison at all, in a class buy themselves.