guitarz.blogspot.com:
Here's a 1960s Japanese-made guitar that is more unusual than most. It's a
prototype Guyatone Telstar, has a very oddly shaped - and rather over-large - body with a "zolatone" finish (looks rather like Ovation's textured finish), and a 24-fret neck. This latter feature is very unusual for a guitar of this vintage - the Ovation Breadwinner which dates to the early 1970s is widely regarded as the first production model guitar with a 24-fret neck, although I believe there may have been other contenders to this particular crown. You'll note that despite the 24 frets, the top of the neck isn't particularly accessible with this body shape. Note also the bizarre almost exclamation mark-shaped position markers.
Thanks to Antony M who saw this guitar on eBay and posted it on the
Guitarz FaceBook page.
Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $6,500. It may be a rare guitar, possibly even a one-off, but I still feel that price tag is a tad optimistic.
G L Wilson
© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.
"the Ovation Breadwinner which dates to the early 1970s is widely regarded as the first production model guitar with a 24-fret neck" - first time I've heard this! The Burns Artist and Vibra-Artist both had 24 fret necks and were first manufactured in 1960. The 31 fret Danelectro Guitarlin was released a year before in 1959. The Ampeg Dan Armstrong plexiglass guitar and bass from 1968 both had 24 frets. There's bound to be more than that, but you get the idea...
ReplyDeleteYes, I did insinuate there were others. There were a lot of claims made about the Ovation Breadwinner: 24-fret neck, first production electric guitar to feature active electronics, first ergonomic body design... I guess it'd be safer to say it was the first production electric to have ALL of those features.
Deletehttp://guitarz.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/link-wray-his-ray-men-play-rawhide-on.html
ReplyDeleteYou mention the (31 frets from 1959) Guitarlin on this very site only a few days ago!
Indeed, but it wasn't something that was ever replicated on a large-scale thereafter.
DeleteSorry to be such a pain (insert more exclamation marks if you wish).
ReplyDeleteThat's OK - it's what the comments are for!
DeleteGuyatone had a 24 fret LG-200T IN 1965, this looks to be a little later. Probably a one-off made with left-over parts- the pickups and headstock are the same as an LG-180T, the bridge is the same as a LG-150T. That vibrato assembly looks pretty lame, Guyatone made better ones on their top models. That's a lot of money for a pretty sketchy guitar that is somewhat beat up.
ReplyDeleteZolatone paint is still available, used mostly for commercial applications.
I'm pretty sure that the 24-fret Ovation Breadwinner was introduced in 1972, and that Rickenbacker moved to 24-fret necks on various models (330, 340, 360, 370) in 1970.
ReplyDelete