1993 Rolf Spuler Paradis serial no.2

Before discussing the guitar pictured here, let me first apologise for the extended hiatus of this blog over the holiday period. I didn't feel I could ask a guest blogger to stand in for me whilst I was away considering the season and that other people might want to celebrate the holidays too.

I didn't actually intend to leave the blog for quite so long. I wanted to post something a few days ago, but after searching for the weird and wonderful on eBay all I could find was the same old stuff that people have been trying to flog for ages. Perhaps it's just a bad time of year for guitars on eBay?

Anyway, now I'm back and hopefully normal service is resumed and I'll try not to let my new non-guitar blog stop me from posting here as frequently as you're used to.

So... The rather beautiful guitar we see pictured here is a Rolf Spuler Paradis nylon-strung "acoustic" electric guitar dating from 1993. These guitars are pretty rare beasties and this particular one is actually serial No.2 which might account for the high asking price of $26,000.00. I noticed this guitar for sale on eBay before I went away for the holidays and I see it's still unsold and has been re-listed; it's a beautiful guitar but it's hardly surprising no-one is buying right now given the price, be it fair or not.

Note that the guitar is headless but has an low E-string extension allowing you to drop it to a low D whilst keeping all the fretting across the neck the same. This was a trick that Kubicki Factor basses also employed. The recessed machineheads in the rear of the guitar offers a simple but elegant tuning solution on a headless guitar.

If you want to hear what a guitar like this sounds like, then once again I'd point you in the direction of the "Nine Lives" album by Steve Winwood which features Jose Pires De Almeida Neto playing one of these very guitars.