Framus guitar neck HORROR! With added microphonic feedback!

lukedlb

Horror Show: neck attached with a dowel, glue and in later life a couple of screws and plaster to boot!

Any extra repair thoughts other than glue and resin?

A bit of back story:

I bought my Framus 1965 The Hawk semi from Angel music back in 94 when it was still in The Angel, Islington. I played it for a couple of years and then left the UK and music for a good 20 years. I got back into playing at home when I rediscovered the Stratocaster thanks to a mate and the guitars he built 6 years ago. The Framus remained decorative. I thought about selling it so restringed it and tried it out only to be astonished by its incredible sound. The action was high and the bridge off-kilter so I took it the local luthier to set up correctly. He phoned me with the bad news: the neck is broken and has been for a good while (old photos revealed this problem; I just never noticed). After he had my go ahead, he discovered that someone had tried to fix it before I built it by screwing in two screws with the intention of driving them into the dowel that Framus used to position/fix the neck.
I have included some photos of the horror show where the neck joins the body. The solution has been to reglue the anchor that attaches the body to the neck (one screw was removed but the other was left inside) and resin. I can't be too specific as I got lost inside the explanation very quickly, as well as getting lost in translation as I'm in Bologna, Italy. 
However, there is no guarantee that glue and resin will help anchor the neck in place. Making matters worse, the neck has bent where the truss rod ends, about the 12th fret or so.
I thought to share this discovery with FB in case anyone has any advice on how to improve the strength of the neck attached to the neck. One idea is to take off a bit of the paint on the body directly below the neck and glue it on there too.
I'm not going to do anything expensive on this guitar as I prefer to invest elsewhere. Those pickups are monstrous and well worth playing though. I do hope a bit of glue will do the trick.

lukedlb

https://imgur.com/gallery/9E9qiFD

ICBM

I think the best course would be to make a completely new heel for the neck with a much longer tenon extending under the end of the fingerboard, and a corresponding new pocket much deeper into the body. If you cut away the old heel from the neck completely you should also be able to fix the turn-up at the 12th fret when gluing it to the new heel piece. That isn't likely to be cheap, but it will work.

Trying to fix it with what's there will most likely just build-in problems, either now or in the future.

@WezV may have a better idea though.

WezV

That’s not too bad. but you do need to scrap all the previous repairs and rebuild the heel.  

 looks like the join on the stacked heel failed.  I would toss anything below that point since it’s been mangled with the other repairs 

lukedlb

@ICBM and @WezV, thank you for your advice. The luthier has managed to get scrap all the previous repairs and rebuild the heel. Creating a new heel would be a better solution as an effort to improve the original design/build. I am only familiar with Stratocaster necks; I assume there's no way to create a bolt-on neck here. The wood looks pretty low quality. The body looks like overlaid plywood. Still, it sounds great. The plan is to see how the first attempt goes and then, if it fails, consider the more expensive option.

lukedlb

Here’s the guitar a few years back:
https://imgur.com/gallery/HHCcZ3f

lukedlb

Update: the guitar is now home. The neck feels super sturdy and plays better than ever. An extra piece was added beneath the neck lip to afford it a better grip to the body
However,...
As this was a cheap fix rather than an all-out complete redo with a new heel and a fret job, a balance was struck in order to get the guitar into shape:
Since the fretboard was bending much higher up the fretboard from where the truss rod ended to the highest fret, the neck was mounted with a higher angle so that the higher frets didn't fret-out. This meant that the bridge had to be set much much higher. The only dead spot is the low E on the 12th fret; otherwise all the frets ring well. On the luthiers practice amp, the guitar sounded fine but not like I remembered it so we quickly tried it on a amp in the shop and it didn't sound anything like I remember at all, a lot duller and full of feedback. The shop owner quickly told us to turn down and I made the call to test it better at home. Here the luthier realised that he hadn't touched the pickups. In fact, I had never noticed all the screws on the pickups, the two regular up and down ones and then one for each pole. Only the bridge pickup sounded good. I put it down to the amp and took it home; unfortunately, it was the guitar.
The middle pickup goes into vibration feedback almost immediately. The neck pickup suffers from some notes distorting. The bridge pickup was at full extension already and so sounded much mellower than it had in the past. The neck and middle were very low so I started adjusting them before being called for dinner.
In the past, this guitar had feedback on the open A string and fretted A. It was glorious and showed how the semi was alive. This new feedback, a vibration feedback has more to do with the pickup than the body IMO. When I touched the cream ceramic/bakerlite top of the pickup, the feedback stopped, suggesting that the pickup itself is vibrating. I have no experience with this type of pickup nor with archtop semi (am I identifying this type of guitar correctly?). Am I correct in believing this is the cause? How should I go about 'tuning' the pickup heights? Should I even touch the screw poles? More importantly, how do I get rid of the feedback?
I'll get some photos taken of the repaired guitar soon. In the meantime, I'll include some more of the guitar a few years back.

lukedlb

https://imgur.com/fksTGIV
https://imgur.com/gKjmBMA
https://imgur.com/xo8fwAA

lukedlb

Here are the pickups set before the repair:
https://imgur.com/Lus6xn4
https://imgur.com/pjKsfn7

robgilmo

That's a sweet looking guitar, it's extremely pretty. I do hope you manage to get it back to how it was. 

lukedlb

I just remembered the correct term: microphonic feedback in the pickups. What to do?

lukedlb

Thank you @robgilmo . The Framus The hawk was made for the UK market, distributed by Boosey & Hawkes if I remember correctly with customisation (whammy bar, bridge plate, etc.)

ICBM

Honestly, give it to someone who knows how to repair it properly, including the fingerboard problem. While they're at it they can fix the neck misalignment it now has too.

It's a lovely guitar and it's a real shame to bodge it instead of fixing it correctly.

lukedlb

I trust my guitar tech. The work he did on my strats was great. The idea is to let it sit and see how it goes. He could do the fret job but the plan is to see how it holds up until 2019. The neck feels much more solid, which makes me think that it accentuating the microphonic vibrations in the pickups. Or it could be that the issue has worsened in the last year. Listening to a recording of each pickup and each setting I recorded for a potential buyer, the issue is present in a more organic way. The current state is unplayable.
What should I do the pickups? Who's the go-to regarding pickups?

ICBM

lukedlb said:

I trust my guitar tech. The work he did on my strats was great. The idea is to let it sit and see how it goes. He could do the fret job but the plan is to see how it holds up until 2019. The neck feels much more solid, which makes me think that it accentuating the microphonic vibrations in the pickups. Or it could be that the issue has worsened in the last year. Listening to a recording of each pickup and each setting I recorded for a potential buyer, the issue is present in a more organic way. The current state is unplayable.
What should I do the pickups? Who's the go-to regarding pickups?

You first need to find what is wrong - the pickups, or something to do with the wiring, or something to do with the neck repair. If it's the pickups they may need to be rewound as well as potted, in which case @TheGuitarWeasel is *the* man for older more unusual pickups like this. In order to be sure it may be necessary to temporarily disconnect each pickup from the wiring loom and connect it straight to the jack. At least it won't be as difficult as a 335-type semi...

I'm trying not to be too harsh about the neck repair, but leaving it with an upturn in the fingerboard which means you need to jack the action up massively and still leave it choking at the 12th fret, combined with the top E string now hanging off the side of the fingerboard, would really make me want to look into getting it done properly - even if it isn't contributing to the problems with the pickups.

WezV

lukedlb said:

I trust my guitar tech. The work he did on my strats was great. 

What to you think the ratio of framus thinlines to strats is for the average tech? I am not saying you shouldn’t trust him, just accept this may not be his comfort zone.

The alignment does need sorting... will the bridge move over to the bass side as a temporary measure?

Hard to diagnose the other stuff without seeing it. 

personally, I would be rebuilding the neck fully to add some stability to that heel.  I suspect the filler piece you mentioned to increase grip on the body is causing more vibrations to be pushed directly on the top.

lukedlb

@WezV I worry the extra filler may be contributing too. This is only the 2nd Framus thin line he’s seen. I’m a little uncomfortable about the extra height of the bridge. Acoustically it sounds better than ever. The dead Low E at the 12th isn’t a problem. I could pay for the extra work but it will hardly get used. This work was a surprise as all I wanted was a lowered action after a snapped bridge was reglued. 
Ive taken some photos of the repair.
https://imgur.com/gallery/F0Os8o3

lukedlb

@ICBM I remember the controls being enclosed in a soldered case. Touching the top of the pickup was enough to stop the feedback. In any case I think a return to the luthier is necessary. He knows his limits and will pass on the work to another if necessary. However, paying for unexpected work for a guitar that I haven’t touched in 6 years that I had up for sale a year back according to my rule of 6 months no play means bye bye, however good it may be. I would like to keep it, even though I’ll be kidding myself if it gets more than a quick play once a year.