Luthiery meets taxidermy: the ever-so creepy Zulu War Lord "dead deer and steer" electric guitar

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Mark Rubel saw this rather creepy looking guitar listed on Craigslist in Nashville, where the seller describes it thus:

Classic "Strat Style" Warmoth Body with Compound Radius Neck ~ 1980's Dimarzio pick-ups ~ Just enuf fur, deerskin, and eyeballs for those primal screamistic tones ~ All kidding aside, this guitar sounds and plays really well ~ I purchased it in 1988 in it's "raw" form and decided it needed some "showbiz flair"... call me crazy but I definitely had fun adding the real deerskin and eyeballs from my local taxidermist and the signature steerhorns, which by the way can be removed to fit in any standard soft or hard case. Kahler wammy bar and locking nut system ~ Headstock is left blank so you can "brand in" your name of choice.

$425 offers considered, or possible trades for vintage pygmy blow dart gun ~

Just for once I think I'd prefer the dreaded dice or skull control knobs!

G L Wilson

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Fender Coronado doubleneck XII + VI semi-hollowbody one-off electric guitar

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I've had an email about the above-pictured guitar from Guitarz reader Andrew K, who says:

...appears to be two Fender Coronados stuck together. I mean that literally. The bit that seems most hodgepodge is the point in the middle where the two 'horns' meet. I've seen a fair few fender one-offs (fanboy that I am) and they all demonstrate a high level of craftsmanship and that point the middle just looks... Cheap. It also begs the question, just how are the bodies joined together? There isn't any logical structural integrity to the hollow body Coronado that would allow for the join, so how was it done? And, how well was it done? will it separate come a few years from now?

I'm almost of the suspicion that it was built by a luthier using two guitars. But claiming it was factory makes it a little more valuable, so.... Guess I'll leave it up to the buyers to decide.

Actually, I wouldn't be at all surprised at all if this was a Fender-made proto-prototype. Their R&D department was known to mock-up weird and wonderful guitars from parts, and some of these were quite crudely executed. We've looked at some of them already - if you want crude then check out this example!

As to construction, my guess would be that it has a solid block in the middle where the two bodies meet.

More importantly, what did Fender think they were doing? The Coronado is know for having a big body as it is. Making a doubleneck Coronado is going to result in a super-wide guitar. Not the most convenient instrument to take out on stage with you. I think the Fender R&D department probably just enjoyed making these Frankenstein jobs just for the sheer fun of it.

Currently listed on eBay Australia with a Buy It Now price of AU $22,000 (i.e. Australian dollars).

G L Wilson

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Funkadelic - Maggot Brain featuring Eddie Hazel and Michael Hampton

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Apologies to regular readers wanting their daily dose of Guitarz. Again, I am too busy for a proper post. Let me just quickly leave you today with this video clip, which I hope you enjoy!

G L Wilson

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1960s Italian-made Meazzi Hollywood Supersonic with built-in amp

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I don't have much to say about this 1960s Italian Meazzi Hollywood Supersonic other than it is refreshing to see a guitar with built-in amp and speaker that doesn't look like a cheap and nasty effort thrown together to amuse the kids. This guitar looks to be nicely built and has that coolness factor. As to how well it performs in reality, I am unfortunately unable to comment.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of €749.

G L Wilson

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1960s Ibanez "handcrafted by Goldentone" Model 5902 Bison Bass

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It seems funny to think that Ibanez - now a high prestige guitar manufacturer - were once just yet another Japanese brand churning out "copy" guitars. Here we see Ibanez copy a British manufacturer with this 1960s-era Ibanez Model 5902 Bass which appears to be an amalgam of several Burns designs, although it is particularly Bison-like in the horns. Quite who "Goldentone" were supposed to be, I couldn't say. It's probably just another random brand name that the Japanese factory thought would look impressive. Note the headstock with its 3+1 tuner layout - yet ANOTHER design pre-dating Music Man but that doesn't stop Ernie Ball thinking it's their intellectual property.

Currently listed on eBay UK with a starting bid of £400 and a Buy It Now price of £599.

G L Wilson

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1968 Eko Kadett Bass

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We've looked at a few of these Eko Kadetts on Guitarz before, but I have a soft spot for 1960s Italian-made guitars and basses and always enjoy a bass design that owes very little to Fender's Precision or Jazz Bass. Their short scale and very thin, almost parallel along the length, necks don't make basses like this play anything like a contemporary instrument. Personally I wouldn't think a bass like this would be perform particularly well for live work, unless you're trying to play a crazy fuzz bass lead part or something. I'm not denying its coolness factor; as a former vintage Eko bass owner I will readily admit that for recording there are some very interesting tones to be had, but generally speaking I'd say this was one for the collectors.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $495.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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More 1960s innovation: the WEM Fifth Man Project IV guitar

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Here's another all-but-forgotten guitar innovation from the 1960s. From Watkins Electric Music in London, it's the WEM Fifth Man Project IV guitar which could perhaps be thought of as a pre-cursor to the Fernandes Sustainer. Magnets either side of the top (i.e. body end) of the neck are used to create a magnetic field across the strings resulting in a sustaining drone effect. Check out the below video to get a better understanding of what it does.


The guitar pictured at the top of this blog post is currently listed on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £749, but please note that it is in need of restoration, of example one of the neck magnets is missing.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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1978 Bunker Pro Star electric guitar from a true design innovator

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We've looked at Bunker guitars and basses several times before on Guitarz but I couldn't resist showing you this Bunker Pro Star guitar from 1978 as currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $1,999.

Dave Bunker was a guitar builder way ahead of his time. His designs date back to the 1960s and pre-dated the headless craze of the 1980s; this particular example is effectively headless - note how the headstock is not structurally part of the neck.  More interestingly, the guitar features Bunker's "tension-free neck" in which:

"... a heavy brass nut [was] fixed to a thick brass bar that was attached to another block of metal in the body. A wooden neck was routed out and slipped over this brass core. Strings were anchored into the nut and stretched down to tuners on the butt end of the guitar. The brass neck core took all the tension of the strings, keeping the wooden neck free of any tension whatsoever."

(Via My Rare Guitars)

How well in practice this actually worked, I couldn't possibly comment having never seen one of these "in the flesh" as it were, but I am reminded of the skeletal metal Born To Rock guitars and basses which also featured a floating neck which uses the strings themselves to actually position itself correctly.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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Unknown 1960s four-pickup leftie guitar - Can anyone help identify?

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This 1960s four-pickup leftie solidbody guitar looks in need of a little TLC and a renovation! But what is it? Does anyone out there recognise it? My thinking is that it is probably Japanese, but I'm going mainly by the headstock shape which does seem strangely familiar. The finish on the front of the guitar and the face of the headstock has been stripped. I'm wondering if it may have had some kind of plastic/celluloid coating - could those strange marks on the stripped surface be where it was glued?

Currently being auctioned on eBay with bidding at US $109.26 at the time of writing.

G L Wilson

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Dean Z-X Fake leopard fur fabric-covered Explorer

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Some crazy crazy dude - very possibly inspired by ZZ Top - has covered this Dean Z-X Explorer type guitar in fake leopard fur fabric. Need I comment any more? Other than to say that I hope whoever plays this guitar doesn't get too hot and sweaty on stage as it could end up being really stinky, and it's not like you can just bung it in the washing machine.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $475.

Thanks to Tony E for bringing this guitar to my attention.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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1961 Hagström Deluxe 90 in blue sparkle finish

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I know we've looked at these particular glitzy celluloid-covered guitars before here on Guitarz but they don't come up for sale very often on eBay, and not only does this example currently listed have some nice clean close-up photos, but it's also one of my personal favourites and so I reckon it's worth looking at again.

To borrow from the eBay listing:

This [Hagström Deluxe 90] was made in Sweden around 1961 (batch 499). This is a sparkle and pearloid model. The top is has blue sparkle finish with the rest done in a pearloid wrap. The fretboard is acrylic. 22 frets and 23 1/4 inches scale length. Four single coil pickups and six buttons. Tremar tremolo system.

The neck is straight and it is easy to play. The guitar is all original with no restoration. The original pick holder is still on the back of the headstock. It is a lot of fun to play.  I am including a vintage case for shipping.

This is the nicest example I have seen of one of these guitars. The pearloid wrap and binding tends to shrink over time and it exhibits some minor cracks. Much less than I have seen in most examples of this guitar.

It's interesting also to note that this guitar is currently located in Arizona in the USA, yet it carries the original Hagstrom name and has not been re-branded Goya as you'd expect to see on the "American" version. No doubt it has belonged to a collector at some point.

Currently listed on eBay with a starting bid of US $949 and a Buy It Now price of US $2,200.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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Ampeg Big Stud - a 1970s Japanese take on the Precision/Telecaster Bass

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We recently looked at an early 1970s Fender Telecaster Bass which itself was a reissue, or rather, a reinterpretation of the original pre-redesign Fender Precision Bass. Here we see another 1970s interpretation of the same design by the Japanese, marketed under the Ampeg brandname. This particular model was named the Ampeg Big Stud; there was also a Little Stud model fashioned more in keeping with the traditional Precision bass.

When I first saw this bass I did wonder momentarily if it was a short or medium-scale bass, but it does indeed have the full 34" long scale length. I think it must be an optical illusion created by Ampeg's choice of a smaller 2+2 headstock.

Notable users include bassist Senon Williams of Cambodian pop/psychedelic band Dengue Fever.

Currently listed on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £375.00.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Original 1970s John Birch bass

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At one time back in the mid 1970s barely a week could go by without seeing an example or two of British guitar maker John Birch's work on BBC TV's Top Of The Pops. They were fairly ubiquitous on the UK music scene, being used to artists such as Slade, The Glitter Band, Wizzard, Mud, Black Sabbath, Brian May, Ritchie Blackmore and others. Here we see an original 70s John Birch bass, which has obviously been very closely modelled on a certain famous American bass guitar design. It deviates from that design however in use of hardware such as John Birch's own Hyperflux pickups, the maple fingerboard, and the green burst finish. It also seems to have a baffling number of control knobs - this is something that John Birch instruments are particularly known for.

The image of the rear of the bass shows a heel-less neck-through design, and also - quite bizarrely - a huge backplate that covers the entire rear of the body. I'm thinking that maybe this conceals a larger than usual control cavity - maybe there's some specialised tone circuitry in there and controlled by the two extra pots on the front of the body.

Currently listed on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £1,500.

G L Wilson

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1950s Herrnsdorf archtop jazz guitar - an early stereo guitar perhaps?

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Here's a fine old German-made Herrnsdorf archtop guitar from the 1950s. It's quite a sophisticated guitar for its age seeing as it has two pickups - one sliding Otwin unit as can clearly be seen in the photos, and another pickup hidden in the top of the neck in the fretless section. (The seller refers to this as a piezo pickup, but I'm pretty sure it's another magnetic pickup). There are also separate "banana plug" outputs for each pickup beneath the scratch plate... which begs the question, was the guitar designed to have two separate outputs to go to separate amplifiers (i.e. an early "stereo" guitar), or was it designed to be used with a special plug equipped with two banana plug pins?

More photos are available here.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of 1,800 Polish Zloty (approx £356 or US $596). Item currently located in Poland.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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All in all it's just another brick in the ... Telecaster

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This isn't just another bog standard "relic job". It's a Fender Custom Shop "Brick" Telecaster. I'll let the eBay seller explain:

This is one of three ever created and below is a description of the guitar and its builder, it comes with a certificate from Fender and has been played by Roger Waters who also signed it. It was build by Fender to celebrate Pink Floyd's "The Wall", they put a lot of thought into it and all three were made by hand so in reality each one is unique as there are slight changes to each one.

This Guitar was flown to New York to Roger Waters home where he signed it for me, he commented on the sound of the guitar on how unusual it was plus the attention to detail that Fender had put into the making of this guitar which he thought was unbelievable as he was very impressed.

This custom Telecaster was created by Fender Master Builder Paul Waller, who, throughout his 9 years of dedicated work at Fender, has created custom guitars for artists such as U2’s Adam Clayton and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood!

This incredible guitar is 1 of only 3 that Paul built for the 2004 NAMM show - one of which went straight into Paul’s own personal collection. The body and neck feature an entirely hand crafted 3D design, whilst the ebony (yes, ebony!) fingerboard continues the brick theme with a highly detailed inlay. To top it all off the guitar has been authentically aged, enhancing the overall character and understated charm of what is quite possibly one of Fender’s most interesting creations.

Currently listed on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £15,500.

Thanks to Ian W for alerting me to this guitar on eBay.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Retro-V - it's gotta be such hard work thinking up new guitar designs...

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Design-wise this Retro-V RV-II (a handmade guitar so it's the only one in existence) is a real melting pot with Stratocaster, Flying V, Randy Rhoads Roswell and violin bass all being thrown into the mix for good measure. It actually looks to be very nicely constructed and features a five-piece mahogany and maple neck.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $600.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Fender Telecaster Bass from the CBS era, circa 1972/73

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The Fender Telecaster Bass was a product of the CBS-owned Fender company of the 1970s. It was a quick and easy way of dreaming up a "new" model without having to try too hard. But it's a bit of a curiousity being based loosely on the original design for the Precision Bass (before it was given a Strat-inspired make-over). Unlike the original P-bass which was equipped with a single centrally-mounted singlecoil pickup, the Telecaster Bass has a huge Fender humbucker placed right up at the top of the neck, so tonally it must have been a departure for Fender having a more Gibson-like EB-0/EB-3 sound.

It's hard to imagine these days who it would appeal to other than those actively seeking dub reggae bass stylings. The slab-body is remarkably Tele-like (hence its name) and, yes, of course it an upper horn so that it balances nicely on a strap (unlike the recent Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster Bass which copy the Tele guitar shape far too literally).

I'm actually undecided whether I like it or not. I admit I'm not the greatest fan of Fender basses in the first place, but in a way have an almost grudging respect for an oddity like this that most bassists wouldn't look twice at. Bidding on this eBay item is currently at US $1,016 with the reserve still not met. Which seems very high for an instrument produced during the period within which quality control at Fender was known to be at an all time low. Even the seller admits that this particular Tele Bass has issues:

Bass output but its uneven. "G" is hotter than other strings [...]

I would rate this item between a 70-60% (VG-G)

Make of that what you will, but to me it doesn't sound deserving of whatever the auction reserve is.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Idol semi-hollowbody electric guitar, huge body, crazy design

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Last month we looked at a vintage Japanese-made Idol electric guitar; it was guitar brand name that I was previously unfamiliar with, but now here's another one also being offered for sale on eBay. This time it's an Idol semi-hollowbody electric guitar. Again it has the rather exaggerated body shape; in fact the body on this particular model looks to be huge.

This guitar is currently listed on eBay with what I would call a highly optimistic Buy It Now price of US $1,249. Bear in mind that the last Idol guitar we looked only fetched US $115. If you like the looks of this semi and can live without the vibrato you'd probably be better off buying a Pure Salem Electric End, which surely must be inspired by this guitar but at $825 is a lot cheaper and will have modern-day quality and playability.

Pure Salem Electric End

G L Wilson

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From Wampler pedals: the HAIR-stortion with built-in fan!

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From Brian at Wampler Pedals:

We've been secretly developing a new pedal for limited release..

I'm a huge fan of 80's rock tones, and I was raised during the "glam band" era where all of my favorite guitar players would stand in front of fans, prop a high-top shoe on top of a monitor while they stood in front of a fan to get that look that so many guitar players attempted to emulate back in the 80's.

Finally, we created it! I PROMISE you, you've never seen anything as unique as this...

Check it out here: http://youtu.be/rBDyv-EEZ9g

Thanks,
Brian
Wampler Pedals

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Please read our photo and content policy.