Gretsch Roots Collection G9500 flat top parlour-style acoustic guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Guitarz reader Alan writes:

You gotta see this. Gretsch has rolled out a new guitar for their "Roots" series, recreating guitar models from a much earlier era. This time out they put their mark on a guitar that echoes the stylings of old plywood Harmony "Stella" models from the '40s-60s. Right down to the "Steel Reinforced Neck" stencil on the headstock.

Or, as Gretsch themselves put it:

Crackerjack quality at a sober price! Faithfull to the Gretsch "Rex" parlor guitars of the 1930s, '40s and '50s, the all-new G9500 Jim Dandy Flat Top parlor-style model embodies everything that was great about everyone's first guitar. Everything and then some, that is, because the G9500 is crafted with select guitar woods and is fully lined and braced for warm and pleasing tone, with a 24" scale for endless hours of playing comfort.

Indeed, it is a guitar that appeals. I've always had a soft spot for parlour-sized acoustics, and absolutely love those retro looks but with  the added bonus of modern quality materials and construction it should sound and play a whole lot better than its influences.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Fender Japan Mini Telecaster MTL-32, discontinued 1990s model by Fujigen

guitarz.blogspot.com:
I don't know whether or not it's a gross generalisation to say that the Japanese have an obsession with miniaturisation, but since the advent of Fender Japan there have been several "mini" versions of popular Fender guitars, a couple of which we have already looked at on this blog (e.g. MST-32 mini Strat).

This 1992/3 MIJ Fender Mini Telecaster MTL-32 has an alder body and maple neck, weighs aproximately 2.15 kg / 7.06 lb, and has a scale length of 470 mm / 18.5" (which puts it into the same scale territory as a tenor ukulele). Note that is uses the same hardware as on a regular size Tele which gives it a strangely stunted appearance.

I'm not really convinced of the attraction or need for these small scale guitars. They seem a little too pricey for a kids' novelty, and I guess if you wanted to play in a higher tuning you could always employ a capo on a regular scale guitar - your fingers are going to be cramped up together either way. My suspicion is the Fender Japan created mini guitars like this Tele just because they could.

Currently listed on eBay with a starting bif of $599.99.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Crazy Australian Pioneer tripleneck mandolin / guitar / slide guitar

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We've shown a few Matons on Guitarz before now, but perhaps we don't feature enough Australian guitars. However, I don't think they come much wilder than this Pioneer tripleneck which has necks for mandolin, 6-string guitar, and slide guitar. I'm not sure how the slide neck is supposed to function, whether the player needs to sit down and play this beastie lap-style whilst on that neck. I love the matching headstocks, especially the mandolin headstock with all eight tuners in-line.

Apparently, it was built by Arthur Bianchi of Pioneer Guitars, Rockhampton in the early 1960s.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of AUS $3,950 (Australian dollars).

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Here's another you don't see every day: Micro-Frets Swinger

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've commented several times before on Guitarz that Micro-Frets were a highly innovative and pioneering American guitar manufacturer, albeit sadly one that is almost forgotten today.

I'm showing you this Micro-Frets Swinger a little too late, I'm afraid, as the eBay UK auction is ending in just under an hour and a half as I type this. It's unmistakably a Micro-Frets design, despite the upside-down, almost left-handed, appearance with the longer lower body horn. Alas I know nothing about this particular model, I just wanted to include it here on Guitarz because it's such an interesting looking piece.

Bidding is at £566 at the time of writing. [EDIT: The winning bid was £720.]

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Brigitte Bardot plays an Eko 500/2

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We've seen before that Brigitte Bardot had her own Wandre guitar named after her.

However, in this psychedelic video clip which also features Sacha Distel (a fine jazz guitarist, by the way, in his non-crooning career) and Serge Gainsbourg, it seems that BB is being unfaithful to Wandre as she plays a guitar from another Italian manufacturer, namely an Eko 500/2.

Dare I mention at this point if anyone is after an Eko 1100 (the bass sibling to the Eko 500) then I have one that I want to sell?

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

H.S. Anderson Houston

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H.S. Anderson is a sub-brand of Morris Guitars that is itself a sub-brand of Moridaira Guitars, Morris being Mori anglicised - we're talking 1960s Japanese guitars there, and H.S. stands for Shiino Hidesato, a Moridaira employee who designed the famous Mad Cat - well actually famous as Hohner's 'the Prinz' (played by Prince) - a typical rebranding by Hohner USA of this Japanese take on the telecaster (I know, it's getting complicated, and we didn't even start on the pictured guitars).

Here we're having two different versions of the remarkable 'apple guitar' released by H.S. Anderson in the 1970s - the green one is the Houston model, the redburst one with the single coil being a Houston HS-A1. I saw different gear combinations - single coils, humbuckers, pickup rings, wraparound bridges... - and different finishes on many models but only on Japanese websites, so I can't tell much more about, sorry...

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

A cartoon guitar for the southpaws: Fernandes Um Jammer Lammy

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've looked at one of these guitars before, but if I remember correctly this example is more faithful to that pictured in the original Um Jammer Lammy video game artwork, being left-handed. If you want names and model numbers, it's a Fernandes UJL-2000, but it's easier to remember as the cartoon guitar based loosely on the Les Paul design. According to the eBay seller:

It is a three-dimensionalized guitar that Um Jammer Lammy, lead guitarlist for a band "Milkcan", main protagonist uses in the video game, "Um Jammer Lammy" published by Sony for the PlayStation video game console. Looks a toy but was built carefully by a Japanese famous make, Fernandes. It has 609 mm / 24 inch scale as Fender Mustang has.

The weird thing about this particular example is that it's been converted to right-handed playing. Imagine, someone actually chose to play this strange-looking guitar and then played it upside-down! How odd that must have looked. Hopefully for the adventurous-minded southpaw, it won't be too difficult to convert back to left-handed.

Currently being offered for auction on eBay with a starting price of $1,499.99.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Millimetric guitar and bass

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Florian Schneider, a luthier from Montréal, informed me about his instrument brand Millimetric.  He builds guitars and basses under the professed influence of Travis Bean and Obstructure, transposing some of their aluminium innovations for wooden instruments. I love their minimalism and Japanese-style (not Japanese guitars, but Japanese traditional design), and the Travis Bean headstock looks pretty cool in wood. Now I imagine them made out of ebony...

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Bunker touch guitar and bass headless doubleneck

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I don't think I've ever seen one of these come up for sale on eBay before. It's a Dave Bunker GTT-1000 Touch Guitar, a doubleneck headless instrument consisting of a 4-string bass and a 6-string guitar with an ultra-wide fretboard for touch-style playing. The insturment requires a special playing style with both halves of the instrument being played together, the bass section with the left-hand (played tap-style - or using hammer-ons against the frets), and the guitar section being tapped with the right-hand. Note the cover over the guitar strings on the body so that the right forearm can safely rest in that position.

This guitar is currently being auctioned on eBay with a very low starting price. I'm not sure of the age of this instrument - you may want to compare with the contemporary Bunker Touch Guitar (priced at $6,995).

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

SG-type guitar from Argentina

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I wonder if vintage South American-made guitars could be the new collectables in the same way that "Behind the Iron Curtain" soviet-era guitars from Russia and Eastern Europe are becoming quite sought after in certain quarters. Here we see a vintage Argentinian-made guitar that has been quite clearly modelled after the Gibson SG. Note that, as on certain other SG-derived copies, the body shape here is symmetrical, but of course on a "proper" SG the body horns are slightly offset with a bias towards the bass-side. I think the eBay seller hits the nail on the head with the following observations:

Did you know Argentina produced lots of superb electric stringed instruments in the 60's? Honestly, we didn't. Argentina suffered in the end of the 20th century a string of political and economic problems before recently recovering, but it was until the 70's one of the world's most advanced nations, with a cultural creativity that had nothing to envy to Europe. Given its geographic isolation, the country could develop a guitar industry all of its own.

These are the most European guitars ever made outside of Europe. They look like coming from a parallel but similar universe. Besides economy models there are highly elaborate artefacts, extremely well made in every detail. Some of them have shellfish-shaped peg buttons that are among the coolest things ever seen on an electric instrument. Who wouldn't want a guitar like that to grace his collection?

Currently listed on EBay in Italy with a possibly unfortunately optimistic Buy It Now price of €850.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Eko C01 'Super Cobra'

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The Eko C01 is a later Eko guitar from the early 1980s, and follows the trends that arose in Japanese guitars in the late 1970s: 3-piece neck, natural finish (though here it's glossy, must be the Italian touch), uncovered humbucker in bridge position, simplified controls and tailpiece.

It has the body of a Cobra, one of Eko's most successful model from the 1960S, turned into a C-series the same way strats became superstrats in the same period, so I call it a 'supercobra'!  

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

1968 Gibson Barney Kessel Custom

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We've seen several cool vintage archtop guitars in the last days, let me complete the series with one of the most beautiful electric guitar ever: the Gibson Barney Kessel Custom. 

I know, it's not the first time I post one (see here and here), but I never have enough of it!

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Musima 1657B hollow body bass

guitarz.blogspot.com

This Musima 1657B may seem unimpressive - a mere approximative copy of a Gibson EB-2 bass -, but I like it a lot: not only have I a thing for hollow body basses but I myself have a Musima 1657B and I'm very happy of it. 

I bought it by chance for 150€ on a Berlin flea market - I just wanted a cheap bass to learn how to play, but it got me into vintage guitars and east-European instruments! It's dark red and is better preserved than this one, which had its pickups, knobs and tuners replaced. 

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

King Kameamea Lap Steel Guitar

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This King Kameamea lap steel guitar is a one-off copy by German luthier Ralph Falk of a vintage National instrument (I think the New Yorker model but i don't know much about lap steel guitars). Definitely a looker, isn't it?

By the way, Kamehameha was a 19th century king of Hawai, who unified the island.

Bertram D

Edit: it seems to be based on the National Dynamic model - with its own color scheme...

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Framus 5/113 Atlantic

guitarz.blogspot.com

We've seen a Framus 5/113 on Guitarz before, but with a very different finish, and it's a lovely guitar, so it's worth having another look at it! Note the vibrato - again another model, as if German luthiers invented a new one for each new guitar! - and the single coil pickups slanted at different angles!  

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Silvertone 1446

guitarz.blogspot.com

This mid-1960s Silvertone 1446 semi-hollow body guitar is not only a cool looking vintage guitar, but also a higher end model of Silvertone, a music instrument brand of department store chain Sears (I precise this for non-American readers, who have no idea what Sears is). Silvertone guitars were built by different companies, this one was made by Harmony, with stock and exclusive Gibson mini-humbuckers and a Bigsby vibrato, and was a replacement for the previous Espanada model. 

This guitar, discontinued in 1967, is currently a well sought after vintage instrument, and not only for fetishist reasons, being still used on stage - a. o. by Chris Isaac.

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Wandrè Davoli Tigre bass

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It's been too long since we last showed a Wandrè on Guitarz: here is a very cool light blue Davoli Tigre bass. It's one of the later designs of Wandrè, and is not as radical as his earlier models, but it's elegant and inventive nevertheless. I love these wavy lines! 

It still has an aluminium neck, even tough it's not as exposed as they have been, and the headstock is typical Wandrè, as are the pickups.  The big pickguard is as strange as you'd hope and combines beautifully with the instrument outline - that is the work of a genuine artist. 

There was also a Tigre guitar, that really needs to be reissued in my opinion! Anybody?

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Perl Gold archtop

guitarz.blogspot.com

We've already shown a very similar PerlGold archtop guitar a couple of years ago (here) but I don't know if the differences of finish, knobs, headstock and pickguard are just cosmetic or indicate different models. My feeling is that is a later PerlGold model, from the 1970s - the only documentation I found is from the 1950s and show mostly acoustic guitars - flattop and archtop -, also lutes and harp guitars;  here we are closer to Musima's style with its 3 pickups and tremolo...

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

1958 Gibson ES-225 T

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You know I can't help regularly showing here a good old Gibson archtop with a florentine cutaway (the rest of the time I would just rant about Gibson's current lack of creativity) - that to me is kind of the perfect guitar (and an unreachable dream)... This time it's a 1958 ES-225 T - this one has been poorly refinished and most of its parts seem to have been updated, but still it's a mesmerizing vintage guitar - and I love a P90 in middle position!

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

1967 Custom Kraft hollow-body

guitarz.blogspot.com

This Custom Kraft semi-hollow has some killer details - the beautiful Custom Kraft headstock, the double pickguard, the flash-shaped soundholes, the one bloc bridge/stoptail... I cannot tell if the strange positions of the knobs is incoherent or practical (I was playing my 25 year-old Ricky 620 today and I still don't get what knob does what - they have been on 10 all this time...)

When this guitar was made, Custom Kraft was a brand of the short-lived company created by the fusion of Kay and Valco, struggling to survive in the late 1960s and about to make room for the upcoming Japanese invasion. In just two years it released several very cool guitars, we'll definitely have to show some of them here! 

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Ultra-cool 3-pickup Hagstrom Impala spotted in Chet Faker video

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We at Guitarz are big fans of Sweden's Hagstrom guitars, and although we've featured a Hagstrom Impala on these pages before, it's always nice to get to see a cult classic guitar in action and to hear the kind of coolness that it is capable of. In the video below we see it in the hands of the guitarist in the band of Melbourne musician Chet Faker (aka Nick Murphy) as together they perform a live take of "No Diggity". I'm afraid I don't know the name of the guitarist (if someone can enlighten me, please do!), but he obviously has very good taste in guitars if not in headware!



Thanks to Peter for recommending we take a look at this video.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

BJ & Byrne Roundhouse electric guitar handcrafted in London, UK

guitarz.blogspot.com:

BJ & Byrne Guitars were started in 2006 by luthier Brian "BJ" Troup and financier/guitar enthusiast Tommy Byrne. Their range of electric guitars are all named after famous British music venues, and thus we have the Cavern, Marquee, Apollo, Troubadour and - as seen here - Roundhouse models. These guitars have earned themselves rave reviews for their playability, build quality, and vintage-style tones.

BJ & Byrne have also been developing an exciting new technology to produce what they call "The Green Thing". To quote from their website, this technology:

... organically turns soft woods, such as Pine into a hard, denser wood. This technology also increases the stability of the wood by over 80%. Essentially, this intellectual property is able to effectively limit the amount of moisture absorbed in and expelled out of the wood to unheard of levels. Consider a guitar neck, body or in the case of an acoustic guitar, it's Sitka Spruce soundboard which was not affected by the climate. No warping, bending, expanding etc, all of which constantly tests the integrity of the guitar build and constantly throws your axe out of tune.

So now, imagine a guitar that is a little bit lighter, has tremendous tone and sustain that does not dry and crack in the winter or in any dry climate as well as being impermeable to moisture in humid environments. NOW, on top of all of that, IT'S MADE FROM PINE !!! One of the most abundant natural resources on the planet!

Though all standard handmade BJ & Byrne electric guitars are made out of English Ash and Mahogany, we are custom building guitars using this new technology and looking to manufacture them on a larger scale once we have hit our stride in our Research & Development endeavours. We are also experimenting with this Green technology on acoustic guitars.

Indeed, this sounds like absolutely groundbreaking work in the world of luthiery, and I look forward to hearing more from BJ & Byrne on this topic in the future.

In the meanwhile, the above-pictured BJ & Byrne Roundhouse guitar is being offered for sale on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £380. It is a used guitar, but compare that to the price of £895 for a new example.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

This handmade Explorer-esque bass is quite an oddity

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This hand-made Explorer-like bass is, if not luthier-built, at least assembled by someone with a high degree of woodworking skills. I'm thinking that the hardware and very possibly the neck (the neck plate looks very 1960s/70s Japanese) have come from a donor instrument. However, the truly interesting feature is in the woodwork of the body, which features a sandwich of several types of timber; however rather than running in the direction of the length of the instrument, the sandwiching - and indeed the grain of the wood - has been set at a diagonal. I don't think I've seen a guitar built with the grain of the wood running diagonally before... but maybe you know differently...

Currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $499.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

3 pickups Orfeus Hebros

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Orfeus is one of the worst documented guitar brand on the internet - roughly all we can tell for sure is that it was a Bulgarian company from the communist era and that's it... Still some instruments pop up regularly to be auctioned online, such as this Orfeus Hebros - though the name Hebros is not confirmed (there was a Hebros bass similar to this guitar but noone can tell if the name was used for the guitar - and I saw a few different Orfeus models tagged Hebros...). 

Anyway this one seems to be the higher end model with 3 pickups and big inlays on the fretboard (though I cannot tell if it's something nicely done...). The wide burst finish is typical of Orfeus that has been noted for its original finishes (we've seen some on this blog...). You'll notice that the pickups have 'Orpheus' written on them when the headstock sports 'Orfeus' (and since Bulgarian uses cyrillic alphabet it should be Орфeyc or Орфей...)

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

1959 Framus Grand Star 5/125

guitarz.blogspot.com: 

That is a sexy old lady! 

You can recognize this 1959 Framus Grand Star at first sight with its Framus trademark chromed pickguard / control plate / pickup holder that is still used on some current models. The Grand Star engraved stoptail is also some nice piece of metalwork! 

That's a guitar I'd happily own and play!

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

D-Scala - another wacky guitar from 1960s Italy

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I'm afraid I can find no information about this supposedly 1960s Italian-made D'Scala guitar, not even on Fetish Guitars (unless it's buried away at the bottom of a page somewhere), so for now we'll have to be content just to look and marvel. The orange burst finish is quite interesting, if you'll excuse the euphemism, and possibly the only time I've seen a burst applied separately to a pickguard outside of Fender's Antigua finish.

Currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $695.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!