The Many Lives of Frankie
Frankie Who?
Frankie is a guitar. Before Frankie became Frankie, it started life as an Aims Telecaster. It was a gift from a drummer in a band I played in back in 1980. Here is what the guitar looked like before it became Frankie, when it was an Aims Telecaster, with and with out the ashtray guard. These aren't pics of the guitar I had, but they look exactly like it.
Frankie Rises
Frankie 1
The first life of Frankie happened when I took out the Telecaster lead pickup and put in a Dimarzio Super Distortion humbucker. I used a skill saw with a steel cutting blade to hack out the tailpiece plate so a humbucker would fit. I also bypassed everything and put in mini toggle switch so the guitar was either on or off.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures.
The first life of Frankie happened when I took out the Telecaster lead pickup and put in a Dimarzio Super Distortion humbucker. I used a skill saw with a steel cutting blade to hack out the tailpiece plate so a humbucker would fit. I also bypassed everything and put in mini toggle switch so the guitar was either on or off.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures.
Frankie 2 & 3
I decided to bring Frankie back as a Fenderish Telecaster. That meant a lipstick neck pickup and a single coil Telecast bridge pickup. The lipstick was a standard Seymour Duncan pickup. The neck was just a standard Seymour Duncan Telecaster bridge pickup.
It didn't take long before I got tired of the noise from the neck pickup, so I tried a Seymour Duncan Vintage Stack Tele hum-cancelling neck pickup (with a lipstick cover).
The neck was also changed to a Mighty Mite all maple Tele Neck
Again, unfortunately I don't have any pictures or lives 2 or 3.
Frankie 4
The neck was also changed to a Mighty Mite all maple Tele Neck
Again, unfortunately I don't have any pictures or lives 2 or 3.
Frankie 4
Life 4 was a switch to a hybrid setup with a Lindy Fralin Blues Special Strat neck pickup and a Lindy Fralin Pure PAF humbucker in the bridge slot.
The body for Frankie 4 was changed from the original Aims body to a custom Tele body made from African Mahogany. I changed the tailpiece to a black one with individual string saddles and a cutout for a humbucker.
The body for Frankie 4 was changed from the original Aims body to a custom Tele body made from African Mahogany. I changed the tailpiece to a black one with individual string saddles and a cutout for a humbucker.
The neck was also changed to a Warmoth Maple neck with Rosewood Fret board.
I would swear there are pictures of Frankie 4 but can't find any. Oh well...
Frankie 5
With Frankie 5 the Lindy Fralin Pure PAF moved to a middle pickup position and a Lindy Fralin Hum-Cancelling P90 in the Neck slot. Here's Frankie 5.
Frankie 6
With Frankie 5 the Lindy Fralin Pure PAF was gone and the new middle pickup, a Lindy Fralin Vintage Hot Strat middle pickup filled the slot. Here's Frankie 6.
Frankie 7
Well, i was loving the strat pickups so much that the neck P90 was replaced with a Lindy Fralin Blues Special Strat bridge pickup. That made Frankie a three pickup guitar with three Strat pickups. One crazy thing about Frankie 7 was that a three position Tele switch was used; one pickup for each switch notch, with no blending of pickups.
Frankie 7 also had a neck change. My favorite guitar is my Gibson CS336 and I love the Gibson necks. I never really got used to the Fender scale necks. Much to my surprise and joy I learned the Warmoth makes Tele neck that they call a Gibson Conversion neck. I thought, what the hell, and tried it. I love it. The neck feels and plays like my Gibson but looks like a Tele. Sweet!
I liked Frankie 7 a lot and recorded one song in 2021 for the Warm Me Up album, Need Your Lovin'. Here's Frankie 7.
The most recent and I hope final life of Frankie is a switch back to humbuckers, and this time all humbuckers. After all of the lives of Frankie, I finally figured out that I prefer Gibson style humbucker pickups over single coil Fender style pickups. You can blame that on my Gibson CS336.
Anyway, I went with a matched neck and bridge set of Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro humbucker pickups. I have to say, the pickups are awesome.
This is my by far my favorite version of Frankie, and like it almost most as much as my Gibson. It sounds a little different than my Gibson, which is a great thing, but it does have the feel and response like I get from my Gibson.
One thing that is significantly different on Frankie the 8th is that the tone control and Tele switch are by-passed. Both pickups are wired together to the volume control. This works out great because Frankie is a little bright, so running the neck and bridge together perfectly offsets the brightness for an amazing tonal balance.
LONG LIVE FRANKIE the 8th!
Anyway, I went with a matched neck and bridge set of Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro humbucker pickups. I have to say, the pickups are awesome.
This is my by far my favorite version of Frankie, and like it almost most as much as my Gibson. It sounds a little different than my Gibson, which is a great thing, but it does have the feel and response like I get from my Gibson.
One thing that is significantly different on Frankie the 8th is that the tone control and Tele switch are by-passed. Both pickups are wired together to the volume control. This works out great because Frankie is a little bright, so running the neck and bridge together perfectly offsets the brightness for an amazing tonal balance.
LONG LIVE FRANKIE the 8th!
Until next time...
Enjoy the Music!
Jimmy
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