I have an original FRT-1 that was installed on a 1977 Aria Pro II flying V I bought when I was 13 years old (in 1981). My first electric and I almost got rid of it when I bought a double locking Floyd back in 1998. Glad I kept it and I will use it on a Strat copy I am building
I bought the original Floyd Rose without micro-tuners and love it. It sits nice and flat and is bullet proof. It came with wood screw style pivots, I bought the bushing style. Its perfect. Floyd Rose knocked 10% off.
Kramer is selling the beak heads on the Focus VT211s guitars and they play awesome. I put in new tuners, a floyd nut on it and a locking bridge block (patent pending) with PRS mounting screws. It rocks. Great platform for a hot rod guitar. Great nicks! 12" radius.
Some clarifications: 1. Kramer necks that were converted from Rockinger to Floyd tend to have a shorter nut shelf and also are offset closer to the high e string. The Floyd locking nut will be slightly off the neck at the high e string. An example of this is Eddie with his sanded strathead Kramer Pacer neck in the summer of 1982. You can see the locking nut slightly hanging off the shelf at the high e side. 2. "Poor man's Whale Tail FRT-5": You cannot use the Japanese FRT-3 steel sustain block and put it on a German Floyd. The screws won't line up. Hence, why putting it on the Japanese FRT-7 makes an incredible Floyd, and since the FRT-7 has the off-set "Floyd Rose" logo, it will sound and somewhat look like the APM Whale tail. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the bullet-style saddles. But, it's not really that cheap, so maybe the name isn't appropriate. 3. When I'm talking about the 1984 German Floyds: The modern "Original" German Floyd has Schaller trem arm mechanism and threaded inserts. The 1984 Remake is the exact same as the "OId" 1984, except it has a thicker brass block, and I think the base plate is slightly thinner than the "old" 1984 (I have to double-check). The new and old 1984 are based on the German Floyd, not the APM USA FRT-5 whale tail. 4. There are some other detail such as Floyd pivot posts/string retainers that I left out and will cover at a later video.
Excellent video. I was very relieved to hear you confirm the rumors I've hear that Floyd is reissuing the FRT 1 style trem, as I'm in the process of building a 1981 era Franky, complete with the incorrectly placed Floyd. If I may, I'd like to add to point 1, and I'm very glad you brought it up because ALL of the replica neck manufacturers (except for us :P ) miss this. It is true that early Kramer necks had headstock transitions - before and after the introduction of the Rockinger - that led to a very 'short' shelf, as we call it in our shop. Thus, the nuts often hung off the back of the shelf. This is actually common on MANY Floyd equipped necks of the era. EBMM necks have this to an extent as well. My theory is that neck manufacturers were simply unwilling to change their tooling out to accommodate a different headstock transition for different nut styles. Now, with that said, while this was definitely true for Ed's early Strathead Pacer neck, Ed's beak in particular did NOT have the same headstock transition. It was a Sports made R5 beak, as opposed to the one you show, which is ESP made. Sports Beaks had a very minute uniqueness to the headstock shape, among other tiny quirks like 12th fret dots spacing. ESPs also had that short shelf, while the tiny batch of R5 width Beaks made by Sports did not. They still did not have a shelf that fully supported the nut, but it is much better than the ESP variant. I've attached a link of some CAD drawings where I recreated an ESP made Pacer Strathead alongside a faithful drawing of Ed's Beak. There is a stark difference in the headstock plug, both material and position/angle, as well as the shelf as has been described. Also worth noting, the later 5150 neck was made by modifying an ESP made beak (or, less likely but yet possible, a NOS ESP strathead), and thus it also has the short shelf. We recreate all of these nut shelves to very high accuracy in our shop for each of the different necks. gyazo.com/bb711c053fd1adab54bd59f99f6fa203.png Thanks for the excellent content!
@@Chirbeef Yep, that rings a bell now. R5 Sports beak neck is the more accurate version. It seems slightly wider across the high b/e tuners. And yes, other strange quirks. Good info on the nut shelf differences between the ESP/Sports beaks. I didn't know that.
@@SoundsofTime where can i buy high quality birds eye neck for my evh to upgrade. This evh frankie it kewl but they put alot of cheap stuff on it. I always put locking tuners but which ones will drop in?
Most of them were but I guess Sports in Connecticut made some beaks for brief period of time. The headstock on these were a little wider near the end and usually had an R5 spacing. Sometimes satin finish and not gloss. So, some people claim Ed's beak was a Sport neck, but besides the wider nut width, Ed's doesn't match up headstock wise. Personally, I think Ed's beak neck was some sort of custom variant, but I guess we will never know 100%. Thanks for watching.
There were around 10 different necks on the Frankenstrat over its lifespan, so I guess it depends. I'm not sure on the frets, but it seems he usually used an R2 nut most of the time. Sometimes, he would use an R2 nut on 1 3/4 inch neck width, such as the Kramer beak neck on the "Jump" video and a few others.
@@SoundsofTime I am looking for a strat style quartersawn birdseye maple neck that will drop right in. everyone seems to be not taking orders. I want to drop that in to my new evh franky... I believe the mightymite 1300 is the closest vh1 tone. BUT the feet are not right on any of the options... MJ at duncan made me some but on thing is the feet on the stock frank pup doesnt sound right. I worked in Jose's shop and hauled eds amps to 1984 rehearsals. Ed came in and built me a guitar and we got to sit down and play quite a bit. He showed me eruption and I showed him my EVH innovations and it was amazing.
Correct I need to go back into all these older videos and make a sticky clarifying that. The entire APM connection was erroneous information. A Floyd collector and myself tracked down the real info and determine it was indeed Mike Hansen. I think the incorrect APM information came from someone who worked at Brass Works and they mistaken the whale tail with the Floyd Rose Pro made for the Kramer Proaxes, etc. I guess Gary Kahler won a lawsuit with Floyd and was allowed to make the Floyd Rose Pros in the late 80s. The bottom of the base plates actually say "APM" on them. All of these older people involved can't remember these specific facts sometimes. In any case, the new updated information will always be on vintagefloydrose.com thanks for watching.
If you're not gonna dig up Edward Van Halen's body to cut off his fingers and sew them on to your hands so you can play like Van Halen, don't bother building a guitar exactly like Eddie's if you can't play exactly like Eddie. 😅 waste of money. Just buy a Striped series EVH and be done with it.
I have an original FRT-1 that was installed on a 1977 Aria Pro II flying V I bought when I was 13 years old (in 1981). My first electric and I almost got rid of it when I bought a double locking Floyd back in 1998. Glad I kept it and I will use it on a Strat copy I am building
I bought the original Floyd Rose without micro-tuners and love it. It sits nice and flat and is bullet proof. It came with wood screw style pivots, I bought the bushing style. Its perfect. Floyd Rose knocked 10% off.
Kramer is selling the beak heads on the Focus VT211s guitars and they play awesome. I put in new tuners, a floyd nut on it and a locking bridge block (patent pending) with PRS mounting screws. It rocks. Great platform for a hot rod guitar. Great nicks! 12" radius.
Some clarifications:
1. Kramer necks that were converted from Rockinger to Floyd tend to have a shorter nut shelf and also are offset closer to the high e string. The Floyd locking nut will be slightly off the neck at the high e string. An example of this is Eddie with his sanded strathead Kramer Pacer neck in the summer of 1982. You can see the locking nut slightly hanging off the shelf at the high e side.
2. "Poor man's Whale Tail FRT-5": You cannot use the Japanese FRT-3 steel sustain block and put it on a German Floyd. The screws won't line up. Hence, why putting it on the Japanese FRT-7 makes an incredible Floyd, and since the FRT-7 has the off-set "Floyd Rose" logo, it will sound and somewhat look like the APM Whale tail. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the bullet-style saddles. But, it's not really that cheap, so maybe the name isn't appropriate.
3. When I'm talking about the 1984 German Floyds: The modern "Original" German Floyd has Schaller trem arm mechanism and threaded inserts. The 1984 Remake is the exact same as the "OId" 1984, except it has a thicker brass block, and I think the base plate is slightly thinner than the "old" 1984 (I have to double-check). The new and old 1984 are based on the German Floyd, not the APM USA FRT-5 whale tail.
4. There are some other detail such as Floyd pivot posts/string retainers that I left out and will cover at a later video.
Excellent video. I was very relieved to hear you confirm the rumors I've hear that Floyd is reissuing the FRT 1 style trem, as I'm in the process of building a 1981 era Franky, complete with the incorrectly placed Floyd.
If I may, I'd like to add to point 1, and I'm very glad you brought it up because ALL of the replica neck manufacturers (except for us :P ) miss this.
It is true that early Kramer necks had headstock transitions - before and after the introduction of the Rockinger - that led to a very 'short' shelf, as we call it in our shop. Thus, the nuts often hung off the back of the shelf. This is actually common on MANY Floyd equipped necks of the era. EBMM necks have this to an extent as well. My theory is that neck manufacturers were simply unwilling to change their tooling out to accommodate a different headstock transition for different nut styles.
Now, with that said, while this was definitely true for Ed's early Strathead Pacer neck, Ed's beak in particular did NOT have the same headstock transition. It was a Sports made R5 beak, as opposed to the one you show, which is ESP made. Sports Beaks had a very minute uniqueness to the headstock shape, among other tiny quirks like 12th fret dots spacing. ESPs also had that short shelf, while the tiny batch of R5 width Beaks made by Sports did not. They still did not have a shelf that fully supported the nut, but it is much better than the ESP variant. I've attached a link of some CAD drawings where I recreated an ESP made Pacer Strathead alongside a faithful drawing of Ed's Beak. There is a stark difference in the headstock plug, both material and position/angle, as well as the shelf as has been described. Also worth noting, the later 5150 neck was made by modifying an ESP made beak (or, less likely but yet possible, a NOS ESP strathead), and thus it also has the short shelf. We recreate all of these nut shelves to very high accuracy in our shop for each of the different necks.
gyazo.com/bb711c053fd1adab54bd59f99f6fa203.png
Thanks for the excellent content!
@@Chirbeef Yep, that rings a bell now. R5 Sports beak neck is the more accurate version. It seems slightly wider across the high b/e tuners. And yes, other strange quirks. Good info on the nut shelf differences between the ESP/Sports beaks. I didn't know that.
wow what an incredible guitars!!! Thank You for this TREASURE!! Eddie Van Halen guitar god of the guitar gods!!
Great tutorial ! New sub from Quebec ! Oh ,I have a question , was his neck at heel 2 1/16 or 2 3/16 ?
I ordered the floyd rose 1984 limited in chrome. Brass block and all.
Future frankie project.
Very good info. Really interesting and great presentation. I am really enjoying your channel!
I love that beak neck:)
Thanks for the information on the beak neck so the Tuner‘s are Gotoh not Schaller 90 degree ?
Hi I would like to ask, Floyd Rose will re-make or re-sale Prototype or FRT-1 ??
Yes, I was told they plan on releasing the FRT-1 remake in early 2021.
Wow, I cool ❗️
Good job love it!
Will a german 1984 bridge replace the bridge on a new evh franky? I am wondering if the poles are the same spacing. Thanks for such great vids
It should drop right in.
@@SoundsofTime where can i buy high quality birds eye neck for my evh to upgrade. This evh frankie it kewl but they put alot of cheap stuff on it. I always put locking tuners but which ones will drop in?
@@MichaelGuy Check with Locke guitars, Don Ward for the neck. Others guys do them as well. I'm sure sure about the tuners.
Bro you sound like denis miller. Great video.
Strat head and beaks are ESP.
Most of them were but I guess Sports in Connecticut made some beaks for brief period of time. The headstock on these were a little wider near the end and usually had an R5 spacing. Sometimes satin finish and not gloss. So, some people claim Ed's beak was a Sport neck, but besides the wider nut width, Ed's doesn't match up headstock wise. Personally, I think Ed's beak neck was some sort of custom variant, but I guess we will never know 100%. Thanks for watching.
What is the true nut size of a franky? r2 or r3? Also what frets?
There were around 10 different necks on the Frankenstrat over its lifespan, so I guess it depends. I'm not sure on the frets, but it seems he usually used an R2 nut most of the time. Sometimes, he would use an R2 nut on 1 3/4 inch neck width, such as the Kramer beak neck on the "Jump" video and a few others.
@@SoundsofTime I am looking for a strat style quartersawn birdseye maple neck that will drop right in. everyone seems to be not taking orders. I want to drop that in to my new evh franky... I believe the mightymite 1300 is the closest vh1 tone. BUT the feet are not right on any of the options... MJ at duncan made me some but on thing is the feet on the stock frank pup doesnt sound right. I worked in Jose's shop and hauled eds amps to 1984 rehearsals. Ed came in and built me a guitar and we got to sit down and play quite a bit. He showed me eruption and I showed him my EVH innovations and it was amazing.
You know AMP Kahler didn't make the FRT5? I presume you now know that Mike Hanson metalwork made them.
Correct I need to go back into all these older videos and make a sticky clarifying that. The entire APM connection was erroneous information. A Floyd collector and myself tracked down the real info and determine it was indeed Mike Hansen. I think the incorrect APM information came from someone who worked at Brass Works and they mistaken the whale tail with the Floyd Rose Pro made for the Kramer Proaxes, etc. I guess Gary Kahler won a lawsuit with Floyd and was allowed to make the Floyd Rose Pros in the late 80s. The bottom of the base plates actually say "APM" on them. All of these older people involved can't remember these specific facts sometimes. In any case, the new updated information will always be on vintagefloydrose.com thanks for watching.
I guess no one makes an FRT4 clone?
If you're not gonna dig up Edward Van Halen's body to cut off his fingers and sew them on to your hands so you can play like Van Halen, don't bother building a guitar exactly like Eddie's if you can't play exactly like Eddie. 😅 waste of money. Just buy a Striped series EVH and be done with it.
i have prototype floyd rose. U$3000
I don’t like the Floyd Rose ….. I bought a Wolfgang Standard and the guitar kept going out of tune when using the Floyd Rose .
Nice enough video but just finish one sentence before starting another.