Frudua Guitar Works GFK Carved Pro

[Iperfungus]

Hi guys!

I want to show you something that comes from the 90s.
This is a perfect example of the italian electric lutherie of those years.

Galeazzo Frudua, a dear friend now and my Master since 2016, studied at the Lutherie School in Cremona, learning how to build complex instruments like violins and cellos and then transposed this knowledge in electric lutherie.
He has built guitars and basses for many pros, in Italy and also outside Italy, and gained a renowed fame due to the high level of his instruments.
Starting from the choice of high quality woods, he designed his own electric instruments lines, something that became his signature as his name on the headstocks.

I own this beauty since 2018, when I found her used and purchased immediately: today Gale does not build instruments anymore (or just a few, for very special friends and customers) and you've to litterally hunt them high&low on the used market.

The body's shape reminds the Kramer Paul Dean, like the Larrivée RS-4 we remember in the hands of guitar heroes like Kee Marcello.
Apart from that, the guitar follows the path Gale decided it had to follow...

The body is a classic: one-piece mahogany body with AAAAA bookmatched flame maple top.
The neck is made of one piece of bird's eye maple, reverse matching headstock and a 22-frets ebony fretboard.
Schaller-Floyd Rose tremolo bridge: here I modified a little and removed the R3 Schaller locking nut with separated strings retainer (ok, I'll close those little holes one of these days...) and put a Khaler locking nut with integrated strings retainer.
I decided to do that because strings are not parallel, due to headstock design, and it was very hard to make them stay all under the retainer: with the Khaler nut, strings are forced to stay in the retainer, avoiding tuning issues when you lock the strings.

The top has been carved by hand totally...no CNC machines here.

Pickups are a set of Seymour Duncans from the '90s:

1) TB-4 Trembucker bridge humbucker
2) SSL-1 middle single coil
3) Alnico II Pro neck humbucker

A previous owner destroyed neck humbucker's wiring, but I repaired it and now it fully works again: it's a blast of a pickup in neck position!

The pickup switch is a Schaller SuperSwitch and it allows the following combinations:

1) bridge humbucker (full)
2) bridge humbucker (auto-split) + middle single coil
3) both humbuckers (full)
4) neck humbucker (auto-split) + middle single coil
5) neck humbucker (full)

Then we've a push-pull Tone potentiometer, to split humbuckers even when not combined with middle single coil, and a midrange boost/preamp, with its gain control, that gives up to +16 dB of boost in any pickups switch position (you can set your preferred gain level and turn it on/off with its microswitch).

This wiring, called MIX circuit, gives an incredible range of sounds and possibilities: you can literally play almost anything with these guitars!

You can hear a similar guitar in action here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECwNdgBdoho

And, of course, some pictures or it never existed!

[Iperfungus]

...and some more!

[Iperfungus]

Needless to say....the Carved Pro and my MP-1 loves each other a lot!

[Harley Hexxe]

Sweet!

[rnolan]

Hey Max, beautiful guitar  , love the birds eye on the peg head BTW. 
Where you've chocked up the bridge with a bit of wood, I use a polish cloth folded up a few times, does the same thing but less chance of damage. 

I see you've been shopping at Stew Mac.  I've bought a few bits from them as well.  I particularly like the various grades (goopiness) of super glue they sell, and it doesn't dry up like the tubes always seem to.

[Iperfungus]

Hey Max, beautiful guitar  , love the birds eye on the peg head BTW. 
Where you've chocked up the bridge with a bit of wood, I use a polish cloth folded up a few times, does the same thing but less chance of damage. 

Yep...
That piece of wood is made in the right way to damage not the top's wood! 

Like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGXwmYopYUA

You can move it from left to right and this helps to speed-up stringing!
Furthermore, I found that's hard to keep the tremolo parallel to top using a folded cloth...while, with the right piece of wood, you can achieve the result very easily.

I should let you see the neck's bird's eye then...

I see you've been shopping at Stew Mac.  I've bought a few bits from them as well.  I particularly like the various grades (goopiness) of super glue they sell, and it doesn't dry up like the tubes always seem to.

I've a lot of Stew Mac's stuff all around... 
Dan Erlewine is The Devil...

[Iperfungus]

Here we go.

Today it's very hard to find woods of this quality level...very, very hard...and expensive a lot!

[rnolan]

Hey max, nice  :whoohoo!: .

[Dante]

Nice Axe Max!! I like the soft edges where the bridge is routed and where the knobs are set into the body, very nice.

I also like the way the luthier used the maple cap as a faux binding....I have that on my Les Paul Studio (pic below)

[rnolan]

Nice collection there Dante 

[Peter H. Boer]

Niiiice

[Harley Hexxe]

Sweet little arsenal there Dante 

[Iperfungus]

Nice Axe Max!! I like the soft edges where the bridge is routed and where the knobs are set into the body, very nice.

I also like the way the luthier used the maple cap as a faux binding....I have that on my Les Paul Studio (pic below)

Yep, that's a great guitar indeed.
That carving on the top, soft edges included, is 100% done by hand.

I love the "natural binding" effect too...I've it on my 1987 PRS Custom and on another two "made in Italy" guitars as well.