Originally Posted by nickk (Post 6451303)

Sounds like you need a Hurdy Gurdy too, I'm thinking about building one...

Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7 (Post 6451291)

Aren't you going to explain how Nick makes his own truss rods? :)

Originally Posted by mhw48 (Post 6451197)

Nick attaches the neck to the body with bolts, which, he says, has gotten him a lot of grief over the span of his career. Especially at the start in the early 70's, when he was an unknown builder not yet 20 years old, anything that departed from the techniques used by Martin was considered heresy. "Who does that kid think he is?!?"
Nick can build with with a traditional dovetail neck joint, but chooses not to for several reasons. He feels that the the way he attaches the neck actually produces a tighter, firmer contact between the heel of the neck and the body of the guitar. And, of course, a neck reset can be done much faster with a bolt on neck.
In any case, it seems to have served him well, since 49 years later he's still using it.

Originally Posted by mhw48 (Post 6448181)

I asked Nick about the "Prairie State" vs "Jumbo" as the name for his jumbo guitar shape. He told me that it was actually his distributor, who was in charge of printing up the Franklin Catalog, who designated it the "Jumbo". It gets called his "Prairie State" from the fact that Nick modeled the guitar on Stefan Grossman's Prairie State Jumbo. Nick pointed out that Prairie State Guitars, built by the Larson Brothers, was a whole line of guitars from small 0 size up to massive jumbos, so I suppose Nick's guitar would have to be called his "Prairie State Jumbo".
So the short answer is that it was officially designated a Franklin Jumbo, but lots of folks call it a Franklin Prairie State.

Originally Posted by FormerFoodie (Post 6451772)

That's a cool factoid. I always assumed Bob Taylor was the one who pioneered the use of bolt-on necks. Wonder if Nick's (or others) use of bolt-on necks pre-dated Taylor. Just curious about the historical timing...

Originally Posted by mhw48 (Post 6452042)

Nick began Franklin Guitar company in 1971, I think Bob Taylor started building guitars in 1972. Mossman was also building guitars with bolt on necks back in the 70s. The neck on Gurian guitars were secured with ebony pins.

Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7 (Post 6451291)

Aren't you going to explain how Nick makes his own truss rods? :)

Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7 (Post 6452118)

Small point, but I believe that Nick may have built his first guitar in 1971 but did not form Franklin Guitar Co. until 3-years later in 1974.

Originally Posted by soma5 (Post 6452537)

What year did Nick start doing that? For much older guitars, he had a truss rod that was accessible from the soundhole through a hole drilled in the brace there.

Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7 (Post 6453819)

The OP can check with Nick, or maybe Nick will grace us with a post, but it is my recollection that the current style of building (e.g. the truss rod, bracing scheme, etc.) by Nick dates back to about 2003 when he was building in Missouri.

Remember, while Nick has been building guitars for nearly 50-years, much of that time Franklin Guitar Co. was a small team-built shop like Michael Millard’s Froggy Bottom is today with Nick as its leader performing key operations and directing his staff.

Nick’s solo built guitars Are mostly from the last two decades. I would guess only 200-250 of the 700 Franklin guitars are solo built instruments by Nick.

While my Franklin has an “F” on its headstock, when I look at it, I see a “K”...:)