Thursday, 18 October 2012

Lado Guitars "The Condor" - one of only 100 built from 1981

guitarz.blogspot.com:
From some angles this guitar reminds me of Brian Eastwood's Bender Distortocaster.

Built by by Joe Kovacic, a.k.a. Joe Lado, in Ontario, Canada, it's a Lado Guitars Rooster 1 from 1981 (you may have guessed the age from the presence of DiMarzio pickups, which were almost omnipresent on guitars of this era), and is #57 of only 100 such examples.

Currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $2,995.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

7 comments:

  1. The shape is very similar to Warwick's Buzzard Bass, supposedly designed by John Entwistle of The Who. I wonder which came first.

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    1. It is. I noticed this too after I had made the post.

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  2. According to www.buzzardbass.com Entwistle didn't design the Buzzard until after Live Aid (1985) so this one was well earlier. The similarities could be coincidence, of course.

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  3. Thanks again for your always adept curatorial eye, this not with standing the frothing rant I am about to deliver, is a cool and interesting guitar. My comments below are more about the seller/collectors,/ collectively known as Tuneyoursound. Has anyone else been off put by the air of uber-collector "the rich are different than you or me" (yes they can buy a lot of guitars, put them in warehouses unopened, unplayed and then decide to "share" their collection by RENTING out their instruments to those of us less well endowed)nose in the air attitudes that permeate this Ebay seller's auctions? Or is it just me? Well, their website is even worse, but I had a great laugh at the audacity of the semi-anonymous plutocrats who own this continent spanning collection (one of them has a warehouse somewhere near New York and the other is based in Luxembourg, probably in a Castle) where they declare themselves to be the "Glimmer Twins" of the guitar collecting set through exactly who they are "remains shrouded in mystery" (yes the website actually uses that wording). I know this is an rant of epic proportions and probably shouldn't be posted (but feel free to if you like and edit away), but there is just something that strikes me as COMPLETELY OFFENSIVE about these guys. perhaps it was the ebay posting where the Lord of Guitars fired some of his hapless "staff" because they accidentally threw out a shipping box that came with a NOS unplayed Mosrite (judging by the sheer volume of guitars these guys accumulate I am sure their staff spends plenty of time throwing out non NOS shipping boxes). I have nothing against people of means collecting guitars, cars, wine, etc... but I am offended when these Neo Arstistos lord it over the rest of us and then think they are doing us a favor by selling their collection cast offs (for top dollar too) or offering to rent their gear because what they really care about is the music!

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  4. here's the quote from the listing which the seller brags about firing his serfs, uh I mean "staff" for throwing out a shipping box:

    THIS IS A NEW GUITAR FROM 1967. I PURCHASED FROM THE SECOND OWNER WHO BOUGHT IT FROM HIS NEIGHBOR, Mr. X, IN THE MIDWEST WHO HAD WORKED FOR THOMAS ORGAN IN THE US FROM ITS START HERE IN THE 1960'S. When Thomas folded their tent and when back to the UK, these two guitars were given to Mr. X as partial settlement for compensation due him but not paid. He took them home and stuck them in a closet and forgot about them until the early 1990's when he did a cleanup and fold these. After seeing an ad for VOX guitars in a local sales paper, my guy bought them immediately-without even opening their boxes. When I received them, THEY WERE STILL IN THE SEALED CARDBOARD SHIPPING Boxes. I HAD THOSE BOXES UNTIL LAST YEAR WHEN MY STAFF DID A CLEAN UP OF MY GUITAR ROOM AND THREW THEM AWAY. THEY ARE NOW WORKING FOR SOMEONE ELSE. THE BOX WAS MY FAVORITE PART OF THESE GUITARS (THIS ONE AND THE STARSTREAM IN ANOTHER AUCTION).
    I will never forget opening these cases for the first time. It was like Christmas 1967 and these were my presents. They just smelled so new. And everything is with them. Look at all the extras VOX was giving out with these guitars.
    The cases are new but have a few small scuff marks from my moving them around to show them to friends. This is truly BACK TO THE PAST. Few guitar collectors, or guitar lovers, ever get the chance to buy a NEW GUITAR that is FORTY-FIVE (45) YEARS OLD. It just doesn’t happen. We are not calling these NOS (New Old Stock) simply because they are more than that. These are warehouse-never delivered-product that never reached a retail seller. To me, that is a big difference.

    Meet Hubris the Guitar Collector

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  5. They found 100 suckers willing to buy that hideous turd? I remember when this company was still around (presumably, they aren't anymore); I even had brochures. They made some butt-ugly instruments. Designing a guitar is not for the artistically challenged. But they do it anyway! Ought to be a law, I tell ya. Ought to be a law!

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  6. Not hideous at all. Kind of like a melting BC Rich.

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