#1
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Nick Kukich, Franklin, circa 1980
Good Day All, being the ignorant simple guitar player I am, just realized the guitar i've had for 20 years actually might be quiet valuable. Not looking to sell, or anything, just wanted to see if someone had more info on Nick's work, and what i have my hands on exactly. Tips for restoration and upkeep welcome!
Pics.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/47829698@N06/show/ |
#2
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Nick has a web page at http://franklinguitarcompany.com/
There is a page there regarding maintenance. Yes, your guitar has appreciated considerably - and then some...
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Go for the Tone, George |
#3
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Quote:
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Chuck 2012 Carruth 12-fret 000 in Pernambuco and Adi 2010 Poling Sierra in Cuban Mahogany and Lutz 2015 Posch 13-fret 00 in Indian Rosewood and Adi |
#4
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You've got a Franklin OM, probably at that time called an OM-3.
I've got the same guitar, but a couple years older. Someone on another forum was offering one for sale at $9,500 firm, a year ago. ( in fairness, no buyers though). Mine, and reportedly that guy's, are incredible instruments, hopefully yours is as well. He also made an OM-2 with East Indian, but yours is certainly Brazilian, actually your back looks a a lot like mine. The top of mine is German Spruce, but sometime shortly after that he switched to Engelmann, yours could be either, probably the latter. Yours is interesting (probably only to me) because you have signatures of 'the whole crew" on the label. Including Mike Dulak, who went on to form Big Muddy mandolins, and Steven Andersen, who went on to become a noted archtop maker. They aren't all like that, for example mine only has two signatures. You've also got the "FG" headstock insignia, which I like, he only used that for a couple years. Influence of Bob Givens, no doubt. During that era Franklin was a small shop. The guitars, and instruments of Givens and some others, were marketed by Guitars Friend, brainchild of Laurence Ostrow. It was probably not that long afterwards, maybe a year?, that the shop was disbanded and Kukich went it alone solo. He stayed in Sandpoint for some time, then went to Washington, then Oregon, where he stopped building for several years. When he restarted he went to Missouri which is where Dulak had set up Mid-Missouri mandolins. Here's a link to a Franklin catalog from about that time: http://www.acousticmusic.org/userfil...%20Catalog.pdf Congrats ! Last edited by FPicker; 02-24-2010 at 12:12 PM. |
#5
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wow thanks gents, wealth of knowlege here! I emailed nick, short snippit of how i ended that email, more just want to thank him for what he had created and given to the fam. I just remeber all those nights jamming that thing until my knuckles bled, camping and jamming around the fire, man if I knew then what i know about this guitar i wouldn't have taken it, but i'm glad i didn't.
"I would just simply like to know as much info on it as possible, so when I pass it along to my son, I can explain to him why I and he should take so much pride in it.Thanks for your time, and I know your time must be in high demand, so if all the result of this email ever is, is to say thanks for creating such a beautiful music making machine, then so be it." |
#6
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Matty,
I am glad you were able to interact directly with Nick...great guy! I'm not 100% sure, but it looks like you have some cracks in the sides? If you are looking for a top-shelf vintage repair-person able to do any restoration work (aside from Nick), you might want to consider Dennis Berck in Eugene, Oregon...perhaps not too far from where you are in Idaho? Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you are interested in getting a hold of one of the top Pac-NW repair-guys...
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Larry Pattis on Spotify and Pandora LarryPattis.com American Guitar Masters 100 Greatest Acoustic Guitarists Steel-string guitars by Rebecca Urlacher and Simon Fay Classical guitars by Anders Sterner |
#7
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It sure does, I was going to start looking into that, thanks for the info. Eugene isn't too far from where i'm at, and I frequently make trips to the oregon coast, so thats a great option. I'll make sure to look him up here in the near future when have time to get a little more serious on getting this puppy back to form.
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#8
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Feel free to contact me by email or phone anytime. I'd be happy to make the introduction to Dennis, and I'd love to see your Franklin first-hand.
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Larry Pattis on Spotify and Pandora LarryPattis.com American Guitar Masters 100 Greatest Acoustic Guitarists Steel-string guitars by Rebecca Urlacher and Simon Fay Classical guitars by Anders Sterner |