1968 Framus 5/194 Gaucho Electrified 0-Size Guitar

I've worked-on and owned a number of Framus Gaucho models over the years. They look cool as heck but tend to sound like garbage acoustically. Well, not quite garbage, but they're sort-of stiff and midsy and not that inspiring. The bolt-on necks ape Fender acoustic design from the time and the bridges in this style (with their mustache shape and scads of hardware) are actually simply bolted-on to the top as well. They also tend to play like absolute garbage until they've been gone through.

This one was bought by my friend Heather (of The Wild Fern) for the princely sum of $10. It had a bad repaired split in the side, it was filthy, the action was a mile high, half the tuners were replacements that were equally as bad as the originals, the bridge was in the wrong place -- the list goes on. She gifted it to her man Rick (my buddy) and he told me to "do something interesting with it -- make it into a slide, even!"

Well, my plan was more like make it into a pocket ES-175! I started by pulling the neck and leveling/dressing the frets and adding new, Gotoh, Kluson-style tuners. Next I fit a 1/2" dowel that runs through the body from the endblock to the neckblock. This adds much-needed stabilization to the guitar that a lot of bolt-on acoustics (in this format) desperately desire. After that I unbolted and moved the bridge into position for good intonation. You can see how far it was "off" by the "shadow" in the finish in front of it.

The next bit was more fun, though. I cut the top and fit an old '70s Japanese humbucker (one Rick had taken out of an old Les Paul copy) in the soundhole. I wired that to a volume pot and jack and then ran a ground right to the bolting hardware for the bridge/tailpiece bit. He'd taken this bucker out of the guitar it was in because it was a bit brighter and microphonic. In this capacity it sounds righteous because it gives a bit more "body sense" but can still do driven (or clean, jazzy) tones as desired.

Because this Gaucho has a 24 3/4" scale length -- Gibson-like -- and a neck that's similar to '60s Gibsons in shape and dimensions, it really does handle a lot like a "pocket ES-175" now. I was stupidly-happy with how this turned-out.