How to remove a Franklin Changer

[Jack Stoner]

36 years of oil and crud. 99.5% of it has been cleaned off.

[Scott Truax]

Jack,

My hat is off to you, my friend !

Been watching your progress with this endeavor.

It's nothing that I would even consider attempting.
But, you "dun good". Should run for 36 more years??

Best,
Scott Truax

[Dave Mudgett]

Yeah - I used PB Blaster on mine. Nasty stuff, but it really got all that horrible goop off. That goop was black, dark black, and the fingers stuck together like they were glued together with a sticky mucilage. Naptha didn't touch it, I tried - it worked on my beat-to-blazes '55 Tele, but not on that horrible goop on the changer. It was summer, I had to leave the changers in a bath of that nasty stuff out on the back porch for 2-3 days. I changed it twice. But then it shined like a Harvest Moon.

On mine, it was 30+ years of over-oiling with dust, dirt, and who-knows-what-else coagulating in there, and then hardening. Better living through chemistry!!

[Jack Stoner]

Finished the rodding last evening (no parts left over LOL). Job for today is polish the neck and then install it (and the Lawrence 710 pickup) and the fretboard. Then new George L's strings and a tune up.

The C6th neck is next (for another time).

[Glenn Demichele]

Ambitious job! Congratulations. What lube are your going to use on it now?

[Jack Stoner]

I used Hoppe's gun oil when I put it together. May use that for an occasional "lube job". Doesn't need it often.

Also the neck and fret board have been installed. Next is the George L's strings.

[Jack Stoner]

The end is near. The strings have been installed, tuned up (somewhat), lift off adjusted for each string. I'm going to let the new strings sit in over night and do the final tuning in the morning.

Thanks to those (here and on Facebook) that helped with my project.

I need to do the C6th changer too, but that is later. Need to recover from this one.

[Lee Baucum]

Finished the rodding last evening (no parts left over LOL).

Unlike the time I rebuilt a 1971 VW engine in the back yard.

I never did find out where those parts belonged; but, the engine ran great!

[Greg Derksen]

Awesome job

My Franklin needs it as well, both necks, watching this, built some courage , and know how.

Thx for posting

[Jack Stoner]

Final note. I used the Franklin at my weekly Monday evening gig. It worked flawlessly. I had to, what I thought improvised, as the rodding chart I had was wrong for the 4th string raises. However, after checking with another person with a Franklin it turned out the puller slots I used for the raises was correct.

A side note, I used a new speaker with a Travis Toy Eminence 12" speaker last night. Outstanding for E9th and very good for C6th, although my Eminence EPS-15C is better for the low notes on the C6th.

In action last evening:

[Glenn Demichele]

Hi Jack, I was inspired by your endeavor, but didn't go as far. I took the rods and springs off both necks. With the springs off, I could wiggle the changer and see most of the changer plate, and it looked very clean even before I cleaned everything with naptha (lighter fluid).
Starting in '95 when the guitar was new,it was oiled with 3 in 1. I re-oiled it about once every two months, rinsing the old oil off with new oil. About 3 years ago I did a naptha rinse and started using only Tri-Flow on everything. Everytime I lubed liberally with Tri-Flow, traces of the old oil would come our with a little bit of black gunk, but less and less gunk evertime I lubed with Tri-Flow. I guess my over-oiling early on kept oil from drying out.
The best part is that I re-rodded it without a rodding chart - finding de-novo the best position for every change, and it plays better than ever. I was even able to get rid of the string 2 half stop on RKR by timing the pull on string 9, and the guitar doesn't wiggle to the right anymore because I don't have to hit the lever as hard.

[Jack Stoner]

I now have an updated/corrected rodding chart. As it turned out only string 4 raises were incorrect on the chart I had. If you want a copy, e-mail me. I have it is MSWord format.

I have the 9th string "feel" stop for the 2nd string RKR lower and also have an underneath "feel" stop. The two together give a fairly positive feel stop, but don't add much to the knee lever for the full drop. I also have the 7th string raise (F# to G), the 9th string lower to C# and on the C6th neck, the 2nd string lower (E to Eb).

I see all kinds of oil talked about. Emmons, used to use Liquid Wrench #2 at the factory when they made the PP's or on any maintenance. I was told to use that on the changers. Liquid Wrench #2 has been discontinued and the company says Super Oil is the replacement but it doesn't seem the same. I used Hoppe's gun oil this time and its also a light oil. I won't oil as often now and it should last me until "my number is called" (I'll be 80 in December).

[Glenn Demichele]

Well I for one want to be buried with a clean guitar.
...edit: ok, wife says a picture of a clean guitar is good enough...
Thanks for posting pictures.

[Jim Hussey]

Jack and everyone else were right. The changer has to come out.

The changer in my Franklin #42 was acting up. 3rd string returning flat. It was obvious the finger was sticking. I tried cleaning with spray lube, adjusting tension at the lowering spring, you name it. If it worked, it only worked for an hour or two and then the problem returned. I was dreading removing the changer, but in the end, there was no choice.

A call to Mr. Franklin Sr. got new fret boards on the way. Once they arrived, I proceeded to disassemble the guitar. To remove the changer you must:

1 – Remove the rods
2 – Remove the strings
3 – Remove the pickup(s)
4 – Remove the fret board(s) – Heat gun and a G# string.
5 – Remove any cross shafts blocking access to the screws that attach the necks
6 – Remove the neck(s)
7 – If you have a RKR, it helps to get that out of the way
8 – Any cross shafts in the vicinity of the axel pillar support screws

Bottom line, the fret boards and the necks have to come off. Once all of this is done, remove:

1 – Raise helper springs
2 – Lowering springs
3 – BEFORE removing the axel pillar support screws, be sure to measure the distance between the axel support pillars. This distance is important and is maintained with thrust washers between the fingers and possibly a couple additional washers at each end.
3 – Remove changer support pillar screws

Once all of this is done, you can coax the changer out of the guitar body.

Here are photos of the E9 changer as it came out. Decades of gunk. I could not believe it.

[Jim Hussey]

This is what decades of oil looks like:










After disassembly, all of the changer parts went into an ultrasonic cleaner. This did a great job cleaning the gunk, but the soap left a bit of residue. To deal with the residue, I cleaned / polished each part with gun solvent and steel wool. Worked great.

[Jim Hussey]

Next was reassembly. I decided to live dangerously and experiment. As each finger, thrust washer, and string support went on the axel, I applied a VERY SMALL amount of some special lubricant made by a gunsmith friend who hand builds 1911s. It’s designed to provide superior lubrication without attracting dirt and gunk from powder residue. I am hoping this will eliminate the need for future lubrication. We shall see.

Here are photos of the lube and the clean and reassembled changer.

[Jim Hussey]

Since I had the guitar almost completely disassembled, I decided to clean the C6th changer, which ended up being just as gunky as the E9th. I also decided to remove, clean and re lubricate (same lube) all of the cross shafts. I’m glad I did. All of the contact points on the cross shafts were as gunked up as the changers. I didn’t have to use the ultrasonic cleaner on these, cleanup with a rag did the job.

It took a couple of days to reassemble and re rod the guitar. But now it’s done, I’ve finished the fine tuning and #42 is playing great. The pedal action is positive and accurate just as it was before all of the work and now all of the changes return accurately.

By the way, a side benefit to tackling a job like this is what you learn about your guitar. I am not the original owner of #42. On disassembly, it became clear someone hade been deep into this guitar at least once before. It was easy to see they struggled removing the fret boards and ultimately removed them with less finesse that I would have liked (several screwdriver or putty knife marks on the necks, under the fret boards). Also found holes from previous knee levers and / or half stop adjusters. The necks got cleaned up and the holes got filled before reassembly.

Effectively rebuilt, #42 is once again a joy to play. Thanks to Jack Stoner and everyone else for the photos and directions on the disassembly process. Three weeks start to finish, but well worth it.

[Jack Stoner]

Good job. You went further than me as I only did the E9th changer. My C6th needs it but didn't get it (yet). I got two new fretboards so I can do the C6th if I wanted (should).