Harmony Parlour guitar, circa 1927-34, with airplane bridge in honour of Charles Lindbergh

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Today I want to show you something that represents a minor footnote in the history of the guitar, but nonetheless is one of those little factoids that I find fascinating.

The above pictured "Mystery guitar" was recently being offered for sale on eBay. The seller was commenting that they had never seen a bridge quite like this on any guitar.

It is actually a Harmony parlour guitar featuring an airplane bridge, which Harmony began putting on their guitars in honour of Charles Lindbergh's Orteig Prize-winning solo non-stop flight in his aircraft Spirit of St. Louis on May 20–21, 1927, from Roosevelt Field located in Garden City on New York's Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France. At the time this was major news, spawning all kinds of merchandise and references in popular culture; Harmony were merely jumping on the bandwaggon and such was the sensation surrounding Lindbergh's achievement that Harmony went on producing guitars with these bridges until 1934.

Here is another example of a Harmony with airplane bridge currently being auctioned on eBay.

Quite how the bridge affects the sound of the guitar, I couldn't say. On the one hand the increased footprint should transmit more of the strings vibration to the guitar's top, but on the other hand it could also have a dampening effect on the top. Nevertheless the eBay sellers have been claiming that these are incredible sounding blues machines. Take that as you will; it could be true or there may be a touch of eBay seller "spin" going on there.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Military Gas Can "Dobro"

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Mark Rubel from Pogo Studio in  Champaign, IL, tells us:

I’ve got a delightful bluegrass/country client named Tex Wynn, a retired machinist now in his 80s. He restores Model T Fords and is an expert on Native American arrowheads. He’s built a number of these fun instruments, including a bass with a Precision neck on two gas cans welded together end to end, on an endpin with a golf ball on the end. Tex also built a concert grand washtub bass, which looks kind of like a coffin with a horizontal washtub and a beer puller to tension the clothesline.

This fine example sounds good, and the Teisco neck is unbendable if not precisely placed. The clothes line strap is a nice touch. The tone is actually different when the cap is on. I tell clients that it gets 34 notes per gallon, 45 highway.

Thanks, Mark, for letting us see that (and some of your other guitars that we will no doubt be looking at again on this blog).

Please keep those guitar photos coming in, folks, and don't forget that we're looking for submissions for our Guitarz Calendar 2012.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Burny MG-145S HY looking suspiciously like a day-glo B.C. Rich Mockingbird

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Indeed, you would be forgiven for thinking that this might be a somewhat colourful B.C. Rich Mockingbird - it even has the cloud-shaped fingerboard inlays. However, it is a Burny MG-145S HY, another signature guitar of the late X Japan guitarist hide.

The colourful design reflects hide's flamboyant dress sense;
X Japan were considered pioneers of the visual kei movement, although by the time hide joined the band the other members were beginning to drop visual kei aesthetics.

The Burny MG-145S HY is equipped with a Fernandes Sustainer (remember, Burny is a brandname of Fernandes, so this is essentially a Fernandes guitar), a feature that hide used on many of X Japan's songs.

This guitar is currently on sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $2,333 which, no doubt, some would think optimistic for a B.C. Rich "copy".

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1960 Bartell doubleneck - looking a bit Mosritey perhaps?

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We've looked at the creations of Paul Barth before here on Guitarz. This Barth 6+12 doubleneck does not have the elegance of his celebrated but hard to track down Black Widow guitars but is no doubt even rarer. There is more than a hint of Mosrite to it - not surprising when you learn of the links between Paul Barth and Mosrite's Semi Moseley (they had worked together at Rickenbacker and later a quantity of Black Widow guitars were produced by Mosrite), but the whole guitar does have the look of an instrument that has been thrown together from whatever spare parts were lying around. Witness the shape of the control plates and the pickguards - those on the upper six-string neck have no reason to follow the body contours that they would on a single-necked guitar. Note also that the necks look identical - the six-string headstock looks huge and appears to be the same size as its 12-string twin.

Thanks to Mark Rubel who spotted this one on eBay where it is currently being offered for sale with a Buy It Now price of $2,495.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Wandré Davoli 603 BB Artist

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Can't resist showing another Brigitte Bardot model  by Wandré Davoli (you can't have forgotten this one, can you?) but it's no so often that you find such fine pictures of such a well preserved model - and we are complete fans of Wandré's crazy guitars here. 

Like usually when it comes to rare Italian vintage guitars, all the information I would write would be copied on the excellent Fetish Guitars website, so I prefer to let you have a look there yourselves... And here come a few more photos.

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Ultra rare (I mean it) Daion acoustic 12-string

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It is extremely unlikely that you ever crossed this Diaon acoustic 12-string guitar: not only Diaon was a short-lived (and cult nowadays, for having produced very fine instruments) Japanese-Texan brand from the late 70s, but usually their acoustic guitars didn't sport the back cutaway that you already saw on the Headhunter 555 showed on Guitarz last summer. 

Cannot tell more unfortunately!

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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One-off Burns Marvin/Bison hybrid circa 2009/2010

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This Burns Marvin/Bison hybrid was made by Barry Gibson at Burns during 2009/2010 and combines the features of two classic Burns guitars from the 60s. It is supposedly the only Marvin type guitar with a Bison headstock in existence.

The guitar features an Ash body in the Marvin shape with an extended lip on the neck pocket. The neck is of plain maple with an unbound rosewood fingerboard, 10" radius and 6105 fretwire. The headstock, modelled on a '63 Bison, has an Old Ormston Burns (OB) headstock decal instead of the Marvin type, standard MOP neck markers, and is painted Jet Black with 21 frets plus a Zero fret.

The pickguard is a unique black one piece similar to '63 Bison and features an oversized Burns London logo. Other appointments include chrome hardware, chrome Rez-O-Tube vibrato, and chrome van Ghents machine heads, while electrics are Burns hand-wound UK made Rez-o-Matik pickups, twin selector switches (offering 7 combinations), 1 volume, 2 tone controls (one with new rez-o-tone 5 way pot active when selectors are in bridge position).

Currently being auctioned on eBay UK with bidding currently over £300 as I type this (auction ends Sunday).

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Custom-built plexiglass-bodied Precision Bass with Fender and Squier parts

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's one for the bass player who prefers a traditionally-styled bass but at the same time wants something a little more individual. Here's what the seller has to say about it:

One of several Fender precision bass replicas made for me from parts (some original Fender/Squier) by Bailey Bros. of Bristol. Used extensively as a back-up touring instrument with Who's Next - a tribute to The Who.

Here is an ultra rare plexiglass Precision Bass. The body is made of lucite acrylic. See-through plexiglass. The neck is a 1997 Fender USA Precision Bass Classic series bass which features a slim Jazz Bass profile maple neck with a rosewood board. The original Fender tuning pegs are present. The pickup is a white capped EMG AXL passive Precision Bass Unit. The bass is finished with an amber-sparkle coloured pickguard.

Apparently John Entwistle himself had one like this in his enormous collection, and it is also similar to the bass used by Charlie Jones who has played for Robert Plant, Goldfrapp and Siouxsie Sioux.

Currently being auctioned on eBay UK with a starting bid of £250. A word of warning: it's going to be very heavy which is most likely the reason that this was the seller's back-up bass and not his main instrument.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Burny HR-195 HIDE - signature guitar of HIDE from X Japan

guitarz.blogspot.com:

It seems unusual to see the Burny name on an original design guitar such as this. It's a brandname commonly associated with high-end Gibson copies produced by Fernandes. It seems that this Burny HR-195 HIDE is a signature model of the late Hideto Matsumoto, better known as HIDE (or even hide for his solo projects), guitarist of Japanese heavy metal band X Japan.

Anyway, what we have here is a guitar with mahogany body and neck (glued in), ebony fretboard, chrome hardware, two Schaller machineheads and Cyber Future Sonic Scanner pickups with the Hide logo, and Schaller machineheads.

It's currently for sale on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £695. The seller has done his homework and this would seem to be the going rate for these guitars.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

eL Welker e-L model: leather and phenolic resin

guitarz.blogspot.com

Larry Welker, the maker of this guitar, claims that the leather wrapped around his archtop semi-hollow guitars enhance their sound by balancing their harmonics. This, a certain taste for post art deco design and innovative concepts such as the phenolic resin rods stoptail or the finger rest that is also a 'drums emulator' make this eL Welker e-L a quite interesting instrument. 

I like to see people who keep experimenting and developing guitars, it's refreshing after seeing 10 000 made-in-China strat copies while looking for the next gem to show on Guitarz....

Bertram


© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1960s Eko Modern semi-acoustic guitar: pure Italian cheese!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

What I love about some of these old brands from the 1960s and earlier, is their prodigious output; there are so many different models left to be discovered. This Eko Modern semi-acoustic guitar, recently offered for sale on eBay, is a joy to behold with its pushbutton pickup selectors, pearlised plastic pickguard, and bold "Modern" legend. I couldn't say what it's like as a player, but cosmetically it's fantastic.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Gibson M III - when Gibson was going superstrat

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I don't know if I like or not this Gibson M-III, a quite unique guitar in my opinion. This guitar released in the early 1990s was Gibson's late move to get its share of the then flourishing market of the superstrats - too late, Grunge played on vintage budget guitars was about to refresh rock music and close the era of hair metal (that was about to turn into thin hair metal - this joke is not mine but it makes me laugh a lot, if I was 15 and hiding my pimpled face behind long dyed greasy hair, I could even write LOL) - and initiated the current vintage cult. 

The M-III was then short-lived - Gibson like the other companies won't wait for decades anymore for a new model to catch - but its design is quite cool, modern and elegantly aggressive - it even has a Rickenbacker vibe, that can never be bad. It has 3 pickups, HSH, and the humbuckers are splitable, so with its 5 positions blade switch it makes 9 pickup combinations, the 10th one being a killswitch. 

The zebra humbuckers have a function, they make clear that this guitar can be a strat style 3 singlecoils instrument, as much as a more Gibsonesque HB one. The 'tigershell' pickguard is also nice, but is probably the source of very ugly pickguards proposed on Gibson failure models of the last 10 years... When the M-III was cancelled, its electronics went to the Les Paul Lite M-III with its super light balsa body, and its design was used to create the Epiphone EM series. 

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Gretsch 7685 with dice fingerboard inlays, dice headstock inlay, and dice control knobs!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Do you think there's a theme going on here?

Although this 1970s Gretsch 7685 could not be called original with its replacement pickups (Seymour Duncans) and non-original gold Bigsby, the dice inlays on fingerboard and headstock are original to the guitar, this supposedly being a rare model.

I can't say that I like dice-shaped volume and control knobs and the dice inlays, but they are infinitely preferable to that other cliché we see all too often on guitars: skulls.

Anyway, this particulary dusty example pictured here (I guess it hadn't been played in a while) recently sold on eBay UK for £621.99.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Babicz Spider electro acoustic guitar with "lateral compression soundboard" & adjustable neck

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Babicz guitars bring the acoustic right up-to-date with their patented innovations. The first is the "lateral compression soundboard"; as you can see from the photo, the strings are not anchored at the bridge but instead pass beneath a bar behind the bridge and radiate out in an arc to individual posts. This has the effect of energizing the soundboard and dispenses with the stress which would on a normal acoustic guitar be centred at the bridge. This, Babicz say, provides "a sonic enhancement — one might even say a revelation."

Furthermore the reduced stress on the top of the guitar means that it does not require the heavy X-bracing of other acoustics and instead has a delicate bracing pattern that further allows the top of resonate more freely.

Babicz's other secret weapon is a revolutionary adjustable neck joint that can be quickly adjusted for height without affecting intonation. some other guitars have a a moveable heel design that simply tilts the neck but this affects the intonation; the Babicz system, however, moves vertically on a rail and intonation remains true allowing the player to quickly switch from a set-up allowing fingerpicking to one for slide playing.

The Babicz Spider pictured here is currently being auctioned on eBay UK with a starting price of £400. That does seem very reasonable for such an innovative instrument, if it sounds as good and performs as well as they say it does.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

One-off mandolin-shaped guitar for southpaws

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Our left-handed friends all too often get the short-straw when it comes to choice guitar-wise, so I'm always keen to show lefty guitars that might appeal. The above-pictured left-handed mandolin-shaped guitar is a one-off built by its eBay seller, Jez Walker, who tells describes the guitar as follows:

A one off mandolin shape lefty guitar in antique sunburst. Proper left handed CTS volume and tone controls with sprague orange drop capacitor. Bubinga fingerboard, Ash neck with adjustable trussrod. Two-piece Pine body. Lovely tortoise pickguard, high power Entwistle humbuckers. Grover machine heads, Marvel straplocks. Lovely sound/playability.

Currently being auctioned on eBay UK with a starting price of £500.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Star Wars Return of the Jedi "B" Wing Fighter guitar

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The Star Wars movies certainly seem to have fired the public imagination in many ways and we see their influence everywhere, including in the world of guitars where for example Fernandes have produced several limited edition guitars with Star Wars graphics.

Here we have a "B" Wing Fighter guitar constructed from a model of the fighter spacecraft from Return of the Jedi, neck from a damaged Aria acoustic guitar, and Stratocaster electrics. It was created by Tom Bingham, who reinforced the "body" with plywood and filled it out to a solid bar by using Gorilla Glue. Tom tells me that he bought the "B" Wing Fighter model at a car boot sale for £8 and constructed the whole guitar in his bedsitter without the use of any electric tools and estimates that the build cost about £100.

He has previously made a Millenium Falcon Telecaster and other guitars such as a chessboard guitar, winebox guitar, cigarbox twin-neck, some of which we may look at in the future.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Höfner hollow-body jazz guitar with 512 blade pickups

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There've been so many of them over the last decades that right now I cannot identify this superb Höfner hollow-body guitar in spite of its quite unique and very German vintage pickguard. 

Its characteristic blade single coils pickups - called the 512 - have been used on Höfner guitars from the late 1960s until the 1990s, and the round Venitian (did you know that the Venitian/Florentine terminology has no historical base and is a pure invention of Gibson?) cutaway is also quite typical of Höfner's jazz guitars. I'll take some time soon to explore the vintagehofner.co.uk website and I should be able to provide extra info.

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Fender Jazzmaster CIJ mini guitar with on-board amp - hardly ever seen outside of Japan

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's another Fender guitar that is virtually unknown outside of Japan. It's a Crafted In Japan (CIJ) Fender Jazzmaster JM-CH mini with diminutive body, short scale, single pickup, and built-in amp and speaker. The amp has a three position switch for OFF, clean and distortion. The quality looks to be superb, as you would expect from Fender Japan; I hear that not for export models made solely for the Japanese market are among the best. This guitar would have been made 1995-1996.

This guitar is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $468.

See also this Fender ST-Champ, which would appear to be the Stratocaster sibling to this mini Jazzmaster, and which we looked at back in February of this year.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Another guitar from Mathias Lerche, this time it's a beauty in Wenge

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Hi Gavin

Thanks a lot for you post on my alu and walnut guitars back in December. I really enjoyed the feedback from you and the few comments that followed.

I've just finished the third edition in wenge (one of 4) and I hope it's worthy of a second post.

The whole shape has been scaled up slightly and a lot of attention has been given to the back to make it more coherent and smooth. The head has been added some facets and the tuning gears changed. The neck is fastened with machine bolts keeping the strap holder on the top right one. On the front the bridge and pick up have been countersunk to be flush with the surface of the guitar. The sustainer was difficult to add but I managed to fit in two batteries in the electronics compartment that also holds volume, sustainer mode and coil tap pots.

Still enjoy your blog daily!

All the best

Mathias Lerche

[More photos in the comments - G L Wilson]

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Very eccentric "Get The People" guitar is appropriately populated by tiny people

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This guitar is really quite eccentric. Built and played by guitarist Ben Simon who played it on the European tour of his band, Get The People, it has a partially chambered ash body with ambrosia maple top. The word "PEOPLE" serves as a soundhole in the chambered area, whilst hollowed out recesses in the guitar's top have been populated by tiny figures of people (apparently bought from a "model railroader's store"; I guess these are the sort of figures you'd see on a model railway layout, although I'm surprised that a Sumo wrestler is included!) which have been sealed into the top with epoxy.

The body shape with single cutaway and slightly exaggerated lower horn plus headstock with seemingly randomly-placed machine heads puts me in mind of the Musicvox Space Cadet. It's a fun guitar, but I would have thought that it means the most to its creator, and fear that the eBay starting price of $1,750 and Buy It Now price of $2,250 may simply be too high for such a curious piece.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Vintage Fender Telecaster with a "Love It or Hate It" design by T.Z. Wiyninger

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Errrmmmm... It's not exactly to my taste, that's for sure.

"You Will Never Ever Find Another One Like It!" proclaims the eBay listing. That could be a good thing.

Buy It Now for $9,500! Don't all rush now.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Electra MPC Outlaw X-610 bass with "Modular Powered Circuits" on-board effects

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We looked at a late 1970s Electra MPC Outlaw X-720 guitar last year. Now here's a bass version, the Electra MPC Outlaw X-610 bass currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $999. The body shapes are different, but the concept is the same with "Modular Powered Circuits" effects that can be snapped into place in the rear of the body. This bass has a Phase Shifter and Power Overdrive fitted in the photos; the seller doesn't mention if it comes with any other modules.

Via Greg Cadman on our Facebook page.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Post festival blues

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Photo: © G L Wilson, 2011

Please forgive the lateness of today's blog post. I've been at Guilfest all weekend, and haven't long returned home after a long journey. (The weekend's blog posts in my name were scheduled beforehand on Friday). On Saturday, the act that struck me the most was Alice Gold (pictured above). She normally performs with a band, but her bassist was involved in a motoring accident (and is thankfully OK), so she decided to play a solo set - just voice and guitar - and she was brilliant. Thanks to David, my brother in law, for the recommendation!

Another highspot of the day was watching Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel who actually finished their set with their biggest hit, "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)", a song which I heard he rarely plays live - or else does a reggae version. The acoustic guitar solo played by Robbie Gladwell brought a tear to the eye. Fantastic!

Photo: © G L Wilson, 2011

Sunday's highlight, for me, was Public Image Ltd. John Lydon was on good form and supplied the quote of the weekend with, "It's nice to see so many children. Your children are safe with Johnny..." Guitar duties were taken by Lu Edmonds, who played electric saz on several songs and on "The Flowers of Romance" also employed what looked like a 12-string banjo played with a bow.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Symphony with strange rail pickups - can't tell more

guitarz.blogspot.com

Can't tell anything about this guitar, where it's from, when it was made, I can only acknowledge its flashy sparkle perloid finish and above all its very special pickups - something I've never seen before and that should make it identifiable at first sight -, thick dual rails coming right out of the body. It's branded Symphony and the bridge has a slight German feel to me but I wouldn't dare telling more...

Anybody has a cue?

bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Teisco Mello-Tone J-2 - one of their more basic designs

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This is another blog post from "off the cutting room floor", so to speak. That is to say, it never made it past the draft stage and because the auction from which the images were culled finished a long time ago, we have nothing to link to. However...

We've been looking at a number of Teisco guitars recently. This one is probably about as basic as it gets: simple slab-bodied single-cutaway design, bolt-on neck, single pickup, no complicated vibrato or other hardware. I believe this dates from the late 1950s. It certainly has that old Danelectro-esque charm to it. My guess is that the bridge has been updated so as to allow intonation to be set for each string - I think the original bridge would most likely have been much simpler.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Rickenbacker Combo 600 - an all too often forgotten Rickenbacker from the 1950s

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This guitar should be legendary, but it is unfairly often forgotten in the shadow of more famous pioneer instruments. This is the Rickenbacker Combo 600, the first Rickenbacker model since Francis C. Hall took over the company in the 1950s and made the move away from lap steel instruments and towards "Spanish" style guitars.

Read more about the history of Rickenbacker and the Modern Era of Electric Guitar.

bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

John McGee's Dragon - a one-off guitar built by one of our readers

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's one for ya! I call it "The Dragon."

The idea was to make a guitar into a stylized dragon. The body of the guitar is the wings spread with talons on the ends of the wings, hence the points. The headstock becomes the head of the beast and reflects the body horns (talons).

This is almost a semi-acoustic. The entire body is chambered except for the area under the pickups and bridge. The sides are about 3/8" thick - WAY thicker than a true semi-acoustic. By design, it has to be classified as a chambered solid body, but it's about as close as you can get without actually being there. I put a 1/8" cap on the back and front, which is more akin to a semi's thickness.

Continuing the dragon theme are the f-holes and 12th fret inlay. I was looking for something special to really set this one off and pronounce the theme visually while still at least trying to appear reserved and classy like a traditional semi-acoustic. I don't think it went too overboard, but I suppose that's all a matter of taste.

The body is poplar, the top, headstock faceplate, and inlays are bloodwood. The pickups are Airline reproductions of the P-35 "Kleenex box" pickups.

John McGee

[Note: John actually sent us this email and photos last October, and for some reason the blog post never made it further than the draft stage. Sorry about the delay, John! - G L Wilson]

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

1990s Melobar doubleneck with Telecaster neck and angled Melobar neck for slide playing

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've looked at Melobar guitars here before several times. For those new to the concept they allow the steel guitar player to stand up and move around the stage by having a 45-degree angled neck mounted onto a slab body.

However, here we see a doubleneck with regular 6-string Tele-style neck at the top and a 6-string Melobar steel at the bottom. Note the way in which the necks are angled to allow the player unhindered access to the slide neck.

This particular pearloid-covered example has been listed on eBay UK (although the item for sale is actually located in The Netherlands) and has a But It Now price of £2,500.

Why do I feel that someone is about to mention Junior Brown and his Guit-Steel in the comments?

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Mosrite, Mosrite, Mosrite, who can resist to a Mosrite?

guitarz.blogspot.com

We've been showing our share of cool Mosrite axes on Guitarz (a.o. here, here and here) but not their most classic and famous model, and I cannot do better than to do it with this über-lovely Mosrite Venture Royal Mark I (I'm not sure of the official order of all these names) mid-90s reissue of a 1964 model...

You all know about the characteristic longer lower horn, the slanted P90 style neck pickup, the round pickguard, it's been copied so many times, so I will just focus on the impressive Mosrite trem (yes I'm still in my vintage trem fetish phase), it's not only quite unique, it also survived where so many models gave up and let us with Fender, Floyd Rose and Bigsby and that's all...

I think that I will go out now and rob some helpless old lady so I can finally get me a Mosrite.

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Bartolini / Morbidoni / Diamond Ranger 3 - more glitter and pushbuttons from 1960s Italy

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This guitar serves as a convenient reminder that you can't believe what an eBay seller tells you, even if they are someone who supposedly knows a thing or two about guitars, a guitar dealer or a guitar shop for example.

This glittery orange beast festooned with pushbutton pickup selectors is currently listed on eBay with the title:

1960s EKO DIAMOND PANTHER Electric Guitar ORANGE Sparkl

(sic)

There seems to be a tendency to proclaim any vintage guitar coming out of Italy as being an "Eko", much as vintage Japanese guitars will get labelled "Teisco" or "Matsumoku" without any foundation whatsoever.

So, having said that it should come as no surprise that this guitar is NOT an Eko and neither is it a model named "Panther" despite the Panther picture on the nameplate on the headstock. The major giveaway as to its true name is the actual NAME on the nameplate. (D'Oh!)

It's a Diamond Ranger 3 (the number denoting number of pickups), and from what I can ascertain is actually a guitar Alberto Morbidoni Castelfidardo produced by Bartolini. The Diamond brandname was applied for export to the United States and in particular Washington. Other brandnames such as Dega and Samferri were used for guitars supplied to distributors in other states.

Follow that? It is all rather convoluted and I think I got it correct. Italian speakers can check for themselves here. Anyway, it's currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $1,195.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1962 Epiphone Riviera with tremolo, reverb and tone expressor

guitarz.blogspot.com

It's strange, I have the feeling that I already saw this kind of guitar on the web but for now I cannot find any information about this 1962 Epiphone Riviera with its large Jolana-style pickguard and its strangely placed effects - tremolo, reverb and tone expressor as you can see on the close-up below... Is it a one-off mod, a forgotten limited edition or is it so stuffy in Berlin today that I'm not able to use Google anymore?  Anybody who can tell me more is welcome!

Edit: it' actually the 'Professional' model - a short lived series, some having also a trem bar like on this demo video, on which you can see that the knobs and switches are not so awkwardly placed has it would appear at first sight to a tight-ass 21st century guitar lover! Thanks to our sharp readers...

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Jolana

One-off handmade hollowbody bass by K. Pagratis

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This one-off bass from the 1970s, made by luthier K. Pagratis (who sounds Greek to me), has a very dated look to it, whilst at the same time having a classical beauty with its lyre-shaped body. Electrics are kept to a bare minimum with a single pickup which couldn't get closer to the bridge if it tried, and with no controls for volume and tone it is wired directly to the output jack, which - bizarrely - appears to be mounted on the upper side of the body. (Even if this bass was originally intended for a left-handed player, it's still a really weird location). The bass is supposedly a hollowbody despite an absense of sound holes, which results in a weight of almost 3 kilos (7lbs).

Hey, but it doesn't sound at all bad, as this video - made after the bass was "refabrished" - demonstrates:

Yeah, it's totally unique, it sounds nice, but I don't fancy the £6,500 Buy It Now price tag it has currently on eBay UK.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Alembic Dragon Wing bass as designed by John Entwistle of The Who

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Alembic surely must be one of the world's first - if not the first - makers of boutique electric basses. Notable players have included Stanley Clarke, John Entwistle and Jerry Garcia (yes, they did make the occasional guitar too).

This Alembic Dragon Wing bass is quite stunning and could be considered an evolved version of the late John Entwistle's Buzzard Bass design which were produced by Warwick basses.

This example from 2010 features Cocobolo top, signature electronics, two Purple Heart neck laminates, Abalone inlays, red side LEDs with amber at 12/24th fret, dragon claw headstock, scalloped and contoured body, dragon wing tailpiece, and a custom case.

Currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $6,290.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

One-off custom tenor guitar with whittled-down neck and el cheapo Japanese guitar parts

guitarz.blogspot.com:

...speaking of Teisco guitars, this custom tenor guitar not only has parts from an el cheapo 1970s-era Japanese Teisco (often branded as Kay in the UK) but the body shape seems to be based on the same, although with an extended "bottom".

Despite the interestingly-shaped headstock implying that the wooden parts were all custom made, it looks as if it was originally intended as a 6-string guitar because the neck has obviously been whittled down to the width of a 4-string - witness the change in width where the neck sits in the neck pocket of the body.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Teisco "GPO" semi-hollowbody in green flame

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Following on from yesterday's post featuring an outrageously over-priced Japanese-made 1960s Teisco guitar, today I want to show you another Teisco from the same period which has been priced much more realistically - bidding is currently at $224.72 with 15 hours left to go as I type this. The seller tells us that this is a:

...1960s era made in Japan Teisco GPO made for Crown Imports Pasadena. A green flamer to behold, all original very clean with the exception of a missing pick guard and tremolo arm. Structurally fine bolt on cosmetically very nice. Teisco made high quality MIJ with the good Teisco pickups. No modifications breaks or repairs, straight neck with working truss rod. All original working electronics. Neck angle fine but could improve with a shim at set up. This instrument has not been restrung or set we recommend it to be at its best. The guitar is void of any problems with set up this green beauty will be a fine playing, attractive and affordable vintage guitar. No case.

Now that's more like it, an honest appraisal of the instrument, rather than the BS that the seller of the guitar we looked at yesterday was giving us. Funny also that yesterday's Teisco was supposedly "Martian Burst" and this far more interesting green flame doesn't have a ridiculous Sci-Fi-esque name.

However, I am rather curious about the GPO branding (General Post Office?) which makes me feel instinctively that the guitar ought to be in bright Post Office red.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Teisco in "Martian Burst" finish (allegedly)

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This 1960s Japanese Teisco guitar appears to be in very good condition with all original parts present and current. The seller claims that this was a short-run finish known as "Martian Burst". Well, I have a couple of issues with that. First of all, the finish is in reality rather tame and not exactly "out of this world". It's just a sunburst finish with a slight greenish tinge to it. I wouldn't think it'd warrant as grandiose a name as "Martian Burst", but who knows, perhaps that's what the Teisco collectors call it.

Secondy, how can I be expected to believe an eBay seller who lists this guitar as a:  

RARE TEISCO GREEN "martian" BURST Vintage guitar strat

Strat? Whoah! Where did that come from? Does the seller honestly believe that this guitar resembles a Stratocaster? All it has in common, really, is that it's an asymmetrically-designed solidbody with twin cutaways. Only a fool or someone who knows zero about guitars could ever call this a "Strat".

Despite the nice condition of this piece, with a Buy It Now price of $999 this is definitely one to file under "Optimistic sellers".

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1930s Epiphone Electar 7-string lap steel featuring stunning Art Deco design

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's an early Epiphone from way before the company had any links with Gibson. We've seen guitars before with an Art Deco design to them; none seem to pull it off more successfully than lap steel guitars such as this Epiphone Electar 7-string lap steel, which the seller claims is from the late 1930s. This would partly be because being a lap steel instrument it's not subject to the same ergonomic constraints as a guitar played "Spanish" style, if I may borrow that antiquated term. Also, if it's from the 1930s then it's the correct period for this style of design so it's the real thing and not just a latter-day homage. I particularly like the ocatagonal control knobs which look as if they might be made from bakelite, although I can't imagine why there would be two tone controls for just a single pickup.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Sad news: "Würzel", former Motörhead guitarist, reportedly dead at 61

guitarz.blogspot.com:

For today I was planning on doing a small piece about a couple of custom guitars as used by Motörhead. However, it's with a kind of sad irony that another Motörhead-related story has turned up; believe me, I'd much rather be blogging about the guitars.

According to various sources such as the Motörhead online forum and Facebook, former Motörhead guitarist Michael "Würzel" Burston died yesterday (Saturday, July 9).

The guitarist had recently been working on new material with his new band, Leader of Down, who had previously announced the release of their debut single for early 2010.

For more information see here.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Vintage Framus Strato 5/155

guitarz.blogspot.com

We've seen a Framus Strato 5/155 on Guitarz a few months ago, but a heavily modified one.  

Here is a well preserved model, with its characteristic shape - an asymmetric double cutaway with short pointy horns, slanted single-coil pickups, a faux wood pickguard and of course a beautiful massive German vintage tremolo. Unfortunately the framus-vintage.de website that is usually resourceful when it comes to good old Framus guitars seems to be disconnected so I cannot bring extra details for now, but a mere contemplation of the guitar is rejoicing enough, isn't it?

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Rickenbacker 4001 bass from 1980 with Lichenstein pop-art finish, would suit fans of The Jam

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Paul Weller of The Jam famously had a Rickenbacker 330 with a pop art design based on Roy Lichenstein's painting "Whaam!" from 1963 as displayed in the Tate Modern in London (which in turn adapted a comic-book panel by artist Russ Heath from a 1962 issue of DC Comics' All-American Men of War). Apparently that particular guitar had issues and wasn't very playable so Weller reserved it for TV appearances where the band was asked to mime along to their own records. Even though the guitar didn't make live appearances, it is still well remembered and will forever be associated with The Jam.

The Jam's bass player, Bruce Foxton, favoured Fender Precisions and Rickenbacker 4001 basses. Here we see a Rickenbacker 4001 bass finished with the same pop-art design by way of tribute to The Jam. It'd be perfect for a Jam covers band, being in the spirit of that band, even though Foxton never had such an instrument. This bass is apparently over 30 years old and has had the top binding removed and the top edges contoured for comfort. I've heard from several Rickenbacker bass players about how their right forearms suffer because of the sharp top edge of the instrument, so this contouring does seem a perfect reasonable customization.

Currently being auctioned on eBay UK with bidding currently at £2000 as I type this.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

G&L SC-3 - early 80s budget guitar now considered desireable by those in the know

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Designed by Leo Fender, G&L's SC series from the early 1980s were intended as budget instruments - the natural successors to Fender's Musicmaster, DuoSonic and Mustang if you will - but their simple design coupled with great playability and fantastic tone - courtesy of G&L's Magnetic Field Design pickups - meant that these guitars were tracked down and hoarded by those who discovered this particular unassuming little guitar to be their particular six string Holy Grail.

Obviously this G&L SC-3 in graffitti yellow (neon-yellow?) has Stratocaster-like attributes with its three single coils and tremolo. The supposed lesser model, the SC-2 is said to be quite Telecaster-like in sound, and ironically it is this model that is perhaps more eagerly sought after, something that has possibly been fuelled by association with such bands as Helmet, Band of Susans and Devo.

Because of their cult status, these guitars hardly ever come up for sale. However , this SC-3 is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $850. A couple of years ago when I had more cash to fling about, I would have snapped this up.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Teisco TG-64 guitar - a bit of a rarity but so unmistakably a Teisco

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Ah, here's a vintage Japanese guitar that is unmistakably Teisco, despite being quite a rarely seen model. All the usual Teisco appointments are there: the metal hardware (including pickguard has been unexplainably painted black on this example), the offset block fingerboard inlays, the pushbutton pickup selectors, the chunky tremolo/tailpiece...

This model, the Teisco TG 64 also boasts a 4+2 headstock layout (decades before Music Man thought of adopting it as their signature look on their guitars) and what some might call a "monkey grip" (decades before Ibanez adopted something similar on their JEM series guitars). Actually, I was aware of the Teisco TB-64, the Bass VI version of this guitar, before I knew of this model. I always felt that there should have been a regular guitar version too.

Currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $700.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Vantage Avenger - cool understated 1980s Made In Japan guitar from Matsumoku

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Someone could do a lot worse than to snap us this Matsumoku-made Vantage Avenger which is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $200. It's an attractively designed but understated no-nonsense guitar with a single humbucker in the bridge position with coil tap allowing for tonal variation. I like the red satin finish which nicely shows off the grain of the natural ash body. The maple neck is very clean and virtually umarked.

The seller thinks that this Avenger might be a model AV-310, although this Vantage catalogue shows the AV-310 to be very similar although without the pickguard. It may not have the same model designation but is certainly from the same series. The brass bridge and the headstock shape also put me in mind of certain Westone guitars - another brand produced by Matsumoku - although the Vangage is much more pleasing to the eye.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Eric's Kingma acoustic bass - and you thought an Ernie Ball Earthwood was big!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Wow! Just look at the size of this acoustic bass (and here's an Ernie Ball Earthwood by way of comparison). This bass is owned by Eric Geevers, who tells us that:

[It] was built by Dutch luthier Y. Kingma in 1973. There's only one other built just like it and, according to Mr. Kingma's son, that 'other one' is owned by Robbie van Leeuwen (who wrote 'Venus', a US #1 for Dutch band Shocking Blue). Kingma made some more strange guitars/lutes/dulcimers, sometimes indeed only making one or two of them.

Thanks for sharing, Eric. Also, it's good to see photos of people playing their instruments.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!