Franklin guitar
ple...@nospam.us
>Hello everybody!
>
>I need an information about the Franklin Guitar Company. I would like to
>
>know how to get some information about this company, models, prices and
>so on. I've searched in internet, but I did not found anything!
I believe that Nick Kukich was the luthier behind Franklin Guitars. I
also believe that he is no longer making guitars, or at least very
few. Franklin guitars were among the first "boutique" builders making
OM-style guitars and made them quite well. Nowadays if you can find a
Franklin for sale, it will generally carry quite a high price tag.
The owners as a group seem to find that Franklin guitars are keepers.
Al
--
Al Sato
Respond to: nasato "at" yahoo "dot" com
This is an attempt to reduce the volume of unwanted commercial email.
ple...@nospam.us
>But to chime in agreeing with Al Sato ( I agree with EVERYthing Al Sato EVER
>says)
Oooh, dangerous words...
Rebecca Pushkin
Since my newsreader won't allow me to view the original message in this thread, I
hope my comments aren't redundant...
Hojo2x wrote:
> Just to expand on what Al Sato wrote, Franklin Guitars were made in a small
> shop setup in Moscow, Idaho, I believe it was.
Mine was born in Sandpoint, Idaho...but this was in 1981, and I don't know if they
were somewhere else before that.
> Nick Kukich was ahead of the
> wave on a couple of things: one was the general overall coolness of the Martin
> OM design (which, at that point, Martin hadn't had in production for over forty
> years,) and the other was the general overall coolness of koa as a tonewood -
> all the Franklins I have played (all four or five of them) have had sides and
> backs made of koa. I understand that Franklins were made of other woods, as
> well, but koa was their specialty.
They offered 5 standard OM models back in 1981: Mahogany/Sitka, Plain or Curly
Koa/Sitka, Indian/Sitka, Brazilian/German, and a fancy abalone-adorned
Brazilian/German. They also built a shallow-bodied jumbo and a Stella-ish long
scale 12-string. I was told that a few dreadnoughts were also built, though I've
never seen one.
The Franklin OM was heavily influenced by the original Martin design, but there are
2 big differences (and perhaps lots of little ones). First was the neck
attachment, which used a lag bolt plus a "butt on glue" joint (whatever that
means). The other was the neck reinforcement, which was a 3-ply ebony laminate
core 1/2" x 3/4" wide in lieu of a metal truss rod. Yes, this guitar is neck
heavy!
> The reason you haven't been able to find anything about Franklin Guitars on the
> Web, Marco, is that they've been out of business for well over a decade. The
> last I heard Nick Kukich wasn't even building guitars any more, but was,
> instead, working construction somewhere in the Seattle area.
>
> But to chime in agreeing with Al Sato ( I agree with EVERYthing Al Sato EVER
> says) Franklin guitars are fine instruments.
I've made no secret of how much I love my koa/German Franklin. It sounds
different than any other OM I've heard...not better, just different! To the
player it is mid-rangey and somewhat nasal, but I'm always surprised at how open,
sweet and balanced it is when I hear it played back at me. I have been looking for
a jumbo to complete the set for years, but the ones that keep popping up for sale
are Brazilian rosewood and, IMHO, grossly overpriced.
> I've heard rumors of quality
> control problems towards the end of that company's production, but all Franklin
> guitars I have tried have been superb, with no apparent problems.
Unfortunately, I've never had the opportunity to play (or even see) another
Franklin in person. Mine has some glue slop along the kerfing and 2 cosmetic flaws
that I found disturbing at first (a slight blurry area in the finish below the neck
heel and a tiny knothole in the soundboard on the treble side of the upper bout
that was fillled in). Everything else is beautifully done, though...and the guitar
is structurally very sound. Oh...did I mention that I love the way it sounds? :)
> Hope this helps.
>
> Wade Hampton Miller
I always enjoy your informative posts, Wade.
Becka
ple...@nospam.us
>Man I'd go underground if I were you Al.
>Ole Wade is either setting you up for something bad, or kssing your butt
>for a favor.
>I'm worried for you.
>Bob (betting on #1) Dorgan
Just lemme know when I can come up for air... (I'm still waiting...)
(still waiting...)
(still waiting...)
...
..
.
Dennis Coe
Marco <marc...@tiscalinet.it> wrote in message
news:38C2ECBA...@tiscalinet.it...
> Hello everybody!
>
> I need an information about the Franklin Guitar Company. I would like to
I agree with most of the postings on this subject but feel I can add a
little more info. I met Nick at his shop in Sandpoint, Idaho in the early to
mid 80's I believe. His specialty was the OM model but he did offer several
other models. They were primarily sold through "Guitars Friend" a shop in
Sandpoint that specialized in mail order of mostly acoustic instruments.
There were several high quality small acoustic instrument makers in the
Sandpoint area at the time. Bob Givens made mandolins and some guitars. He
remained in North Idaho till his early death of cancer a few years ago.
Steven Andersdon moved to Seattle where he remains to this day making fine
quality guitars and now specializes in archtops. He has a web site worth
checking out.
It is easy to think of Guitars Friend and Moscow, ID as closely related as
there is a shop still there by that name and a nice small friendly place it
is. The Guitars Friend mail order returned to Michigan I believe and has
now evolved into Musicians Friend which most of you know as a nationwide
discount mail order business. The several Franklin guitars I have seen
were high quality great sounding instruments. I certainly do not know Nick
Kukich but have a wish that he could return to making the Franklin Guitar.
Dennis in Idaho
Hojo2x
wave on a couple of things: one was the general overall coolness of the Martin
OM design (which, at that point, Martin hadn't had in production for over forty
years,) and the other was the general overall coolness of koa as a tonewood -
all the Franklins I have played (all four or five of them) have had sides and
backs made of koa. I understand that Franklins were made of other woods, as
well, but koa was their specialty.
The reason you haven't been able to find anything about Franklin Guitars on the
Web, Marco, is that they've been out of business for well over a decade. The
last I heard Nick Kukich wasn't even building guitars any more, but was,
instead, working construction somewhere in the Seattle area.
But to chime in agreeing with Al Sato ( I agree with EVERYthing Al Sato EVER
says) Franklin guitars are fine instruments. I've heard rumors of quality
control problems towards the end of that company's production, but all Franklin
guitars I have tried have been superb, with no apparent problems.
Hope this helps.
Wade Hampton Miller
Bob Dorgan
> hoj...@aol.com (Hojo2x) wrote:
>
> >But to chime in agreeing with Al Sato ( I agree with EVERYthing Al Sato EVER
> >says)
> Oooh, dangerous words...
Hojo2x
>They offered 5 standard OM models back in 1981: Mahogany/Sitka, Plain
or>Curly
>Koa/Sitka, Indian/Sitka,Brazilian/German, and a fancy
abalone-adorned>Brazilian/German. They also built a shallow-bodied jumbo and a
Stella-ish>long>scale 12-string.
Reading your post, Becka, I just dug around on my bookshelf and found a
"Guitars Friend" catalog from 1979. Here's the price list on Franklin OMs:
# 1 Mahogany $650
# 2 Indian rosewood $750
# 3 Brazilian rosewood, our original herringbone $925
# 4 Brazilian rosewood abalone 41 style $1200
Nice prices, huh?
Hojo2x
accidently before I'd finished what I'd intended to write.
What was interesting in that list was that there was no mention of koa at all,
not in 1979. But as I recall, koa didn't really hit the tonewood market in a
big way until about a year or so later, when suddenly it was everywhere and
dirt-cheap. That's the time that Martin came out with all those koa
dreadnoughts, and you could get the wood itself for next to nothing. So maybe
Franklin didn't catch that wave until right about the same time as everyone
else.
After mentioning the OMs, a jumbo and a twelve string Franklin, Becka
continues:
>I was told that a few dreadnoughts were also built, though I've>never seen
one.
There's a really good singer/songwriter in Fairbanks, Alaska, named Will
Putnam, who has one. His is koa, and it sounds great.
I stay at Will and his wife Trudy's house when I'm up there. Will is also a
homebrewer, so naturally I take some of that off his hands while I'm there, as
well.
I have seen a few other Franklins over the years, being the compulsive
instrument-investigator that I am. But never for very long - Will's is the
only one I've ever played at any length. But all have been fine guitars.
Becka concludes:
>I always enjoy your informative posts, Wade.
Ahh, don't go batting your eyelashes at ME, Becka - it won't do you any good.
Besides, Al Sato is the man of the hour around here.
In any event, I think your post was considerably more informative than mine,
this time out. And I think we can both confirm Al's statement:
>The owners as a group seem to find that Franklin guitars are keepers.
Have fun with your Franklin OM. Maybe if we take it to Fairbanks we could
breed it with Will's Franklin dreadnought, and possibly get some Franklin 0000s
out of the deal, or something.....
Wade Hampton Miller