Look at this crazy thing. Joe probably knows all about this but I saw the knob for sale at that high euro Brede UK shoppe for $125. I love the idea of spring loaded pinkie controls. The guitar looks like a backwoods Russian model, but with a James Bond death machine kind of brutal elegance.
The Strato De Luxe was one of the many Framus guitars to possess the ‘Organ Effect’ knob, often referred to as the ‘Swell Knob’, the ‘Organ Tone’, the ‘Orgeltone’, or occasionally just ‘the Spigot’; AKA that hook shaped thing that you see underneath the bridge pickup and to the right of the volume control. Basically a reverse wired, spring-loaded volume pot, you hooked your pinky underneath it and controlled the volume whilst playing, making it swell like a Hammond Organ. You can hear it in action here on a 1968 Framus Sorento at around 0:39 seconds in. It’s an interesting effect and it’s nice to see that it wasn’t just Vox who were the only ones coming up with bonkers ideas at the time.
