Framus 5/60 SE center rod - purpose / adjustment

[piperman]

Hello everyone,

I own a Framus 5/60 SE guitar for 50+ years. It was given to me as a birthday present (bought used) maybe in 1969. According to the pictures in the archive, it should be a Missouri model (mahogany body and top). Guitar is not modified and still sounds beautiful.

It has not been played for a while as the string action is way too high. Now I want to recondition the guitar for a good playability.

The truss rod works fine, and I can get a perfect neck relief. For a good neck angle, a shim of 1,5° should be added to the neck pocket.

When I removed the neck, I discovered a threaded rod in the neck pocket, which goes from the neck block through the whole body to the tail block and which can be loosened or tightened with a screw driver. Could not find any information about the purpose or the adjustment of this rod, but it seems to work similar to a conventional center block. Can somebody help me with my questions:

+ What is the purpose of this center rod inside the body? (sustain / stability / anti-feedback)?
+ How strong should the center rod be fastened, and could it cause any effect to the neck angle?
+ The factory label inside the body shows neither a tester nor a production date. Was that common in earlier days, or could the guitar be a nonconforming product / prototype?

Any information about the guitar / center rod adjustment is highly appreciated!

[Gast]

Now this is odd. Pity there's no datestamp, but sometimes it just didn't happen then. It seems to me that the guitar has had a complete rebuild with the rod being added then.
- I used to own a 5/60S model that was full size body, so the "S" shouldn't mean thinline. Are the sides constant depth or graduated to form a wedge?
- body binding appears to be missing
- neck suggests an original sunburst finish of the body or could be a replacement. Solid wood could mean it was build before 1965.
while I can't see a purpose, I've seen the angled piece under the neck heel before. I could picture the neck angle benefitting from stretching (not compressing!) the top via the rod but I don't think this works.

[piperman]

Thanks a lot rain-air for your information and for sharing your knowledge!

Now I should add that the guitar was never modded by me, but as bought second-hand, of course I don’t know what happened to it before. The seller was a well-established music store at Lübeck / Schleswig-Holstein.

The sides have a constant depth of 4 cm, no wedge.

I doubt about the center rod added to the guitar after production. It would have been a heavy mod to remove the top of the guitar, to install everything and to stick it together again. For drilling the hole through the neck pocket there would have been required special tools and skills. And when everything perfectly finished, why then sell it? But who knows?

The angled metal piece under the neck heel seems to close the hole for the center tab from outside. There is no mechanical reason for it at all.

There are some numbers written in red paint into the neck pocket, but I can’t clearly identify them. Maybe a production date?

The neck seems to be solid wood, so it tends to be build before 1965?