Herbert Todt / Pergold violin bass

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This astonishing violin bass was created by luthier Herbert Todt for East-German company Pergold - that was probably a brand used by workers of bigger companies in Markneukirchen like Musima when they made higher end instruments in their personal workshops - for example this one has a carved solid archtop, not a plywood one, and laminated neck. 

And it has 'comma' soundholes, similar to but more specific than the ones of the Migma we saw a few days ago, and for which colorful names have been proposed by our readers...

Bertram D

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Ampeg Dan Armstrong-modified Danelectro bass, circa 1969-70

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Dan Armstrong, the man who created the line of clear lucite-bodied guitars and basses bearing his name for Ampeg, freely admits that he was influenced by Danelectro:

Danelectro^® instruments served as far more than merely inspiration for the clear guitars and basses, as Dan virtually built his business on these guitars practically from day one. When Dan opened up his shop on 48^th Street he almost immediately began taking Danelectro instruments and stabilizing them to make them play better. 

According to the book Electric Rock^© by Richard Robinson - Jesse Colin Young used a Danelectro bass in the Youngbloods^® that Dan had modified. 

In the same book Dan went on to say "I was in the repair business in '65. I had a repair shop and wanted something to sell and due to all the stiff competition on 48^th Street I couldn't sell Fenders^® and Gibsons^®, there was no way to do it. I could improve the ones that people brought to me but there was no way to buy them new." The problem here was the fact that the large musical stores already held the franchise on these instruments. 

Still Dan wanted something to sell, and later said "Danelectros were so doggone cheap. I could buy them new and they were basically pretty doggone good. Most of the good parts on those things were engineered in the design which I always appreciated, and with some finishing up they could have been really done well, even out of the factory. But they just didn't have time, it was an economy instrument. I've always been an improver anyway. I enjoy that kind of thing, to find something that's made almost well and try to fix it up. It was all basically right so I just took them apart and cleaned them up a little bit."

Danarmstrong.org

Here we see a Dan Armstrong modified Danelectro bass currently being offered for sale on eBay. This is the AMPEG tagged version with serial # DDB 90, which means it's the 90th one made. DDB=Dan Armstrong Danelectro Bass. 

Modifications made by Armstrong to the original Danelectro design include Kluson tuners, rewound pickups,upgraded electronics, reshaped headstock, re-shaped  smoother cutaway, branded pickguard, micro tilt neck, and double strap buttons on bottom so the guitar can be stood upright more safely.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of S $1,499.99.

G L Wilson

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Merlijn shows us his Welson

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Merlijn writes:

Hello everybody from the Guitarz blog! I love reading your blogs but I want to know something from you. On the photos [above] you can see an old guitar from the brand 'Welson'. It was a famous guitar brand during the 50s and 60s. This guitar belonged to my father. I'd like to get more info about it. Could you help me?

Sincerely, Merlijn.

Hi Merlijn, whilst I can't give you much specific information about your father's old Welson guitar, I can tell you that the Welson brand name belonged to a Castelfidardo-based (i.e. Italian) accordion making company founded by Orlando Quagliardi in 1921. Welson guitars were distibuted in Germany as Dynacord and in the USA under the Wurlitzer and Orpheum brands.

For more information see the always fascinating Fetish Guitars website.

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.

To all our regular readers..

...I feel I owe you guys some kind of an apology about the recent scarcity of posts. I also need to thank Bertram while I am about it, as without him we'd have had zero blog posts this last week. Not only am I getting busier and busier these days just being a musician, but I've not been able to provide you all with a regular dosage of Guitarz due to my internet connection having been either AWOL all week or otherwise so SLOW that successfully posting onto a blog would be a monumental feat of endurance. Please bear with me guys... In fact, if anyone would like to join the team and help post weird and wonderful guitars on here, then I'd like to hear from you.

G L Wilson

1978 Music Man Sabre 1

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Usually I don't care for strat-shaped guitars but the Music Man Sabre has an interesting story and it's not a mere copy, since it was conceived by Leo Fender himself during his short time in the company. By the time the hugely successful stratocaster shape had become an industry standard, so it was not improper for Mr Fender to re-use his own design, even if he was not owing Fender anymore.. 

The Sabre has the cool sternness of 1970s guitars and its almost awkward big metal control plate feels like they needed room for extra electronics and controls, too bad for the design… The massive bridge with tele-style saddles seems more reliable than Fender models and like the Stingray - the other guitar Leo Fender made with Music Man, humbuckers have been favored to single coils, but by then guitars are not made for country music any more, but for rock! 

Bertram D

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Migma hollow-body

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It's been too long since I last shown a Migma guitar here - the odd twin company of more famous East-German Musima. This hollow-body model has their trademark strangely shaped pickguard, extra long whammy bar and sound-holes for which I guess there is no descriptive name (feel free to propose one!)  

Bertram D

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The Flying B

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This blog post is the latest in a very occasional series on guitars shaped like letters of the alphabet. Obviously there's the Gibson Flying V and various other V-shaped guitars (including doublenecks that resemble a W), Explorer-style guitars that are quite Z-like in shape, Takamine's acoustic Flying A guitar, and even an S-shaped guitar.

And now there's this The Borealis guitar, apparently one of 100 made, commissioned by the Aurora String Corp. and shown at the 2012 NAMM show. The body design is based loosely around a letter B, which is reflected in the shaping of the headstock.

The seller's estimated value of this guitar is $2000-$5500, and the starting bid on the eBay auction for this particular example is £1,700.

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.

Johnny Pro solidbody electric guitar from 1980s Japan

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Just when I thought I had quite a good handle on the world of guitars, along comes something else that is totally unknown to me. Had you shown me the above picture, suggested that it was Japanese in origin and asked me to identify this guitar, I'd have probably have said it was something from Daion's range of guitars, mainly because of the rear cutaway.

However, this guitar is apparently a Johnny Pro. That's a brandname I freely admit that I have never heard of before. It's of 1980s vintage and Japanese-made. Maybe they weren't marketed in the UK. This particular example is being sold in Germany. I really like the simple understated design of this mahogany bodied beauty. The bridge pickup is worthy of note seeing as it has a coil tap switch in the centre of the casing. I guess there's no chance of hitting it by accident there, but it should be easy enough to engage/disengage using a guitar pick.

If anyone out there has any more information about Johnny Pro guitars, please do share it with us!

Currently listed on eBay in Germany with a Buy It Now price of €549.

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.

Acoustic lap steel / Hawaiian guitar is quite a lapfull!

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This acoustic lap steel or Hawaiian guitar has been hand-built using a large plywood box. Whether the box was made specifically for the guitar or whether it was an existing box that has been repurposed, I could not tell you. Whatever, with a soundbox that big it ought to have plenty of acoustic volume. I think if it was mine I'd be tempted to put legs on it.

Currently listed on eBay UK with a starting price of £10.

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.

Gibson 2013 EB Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

These days I mainly play bass gigs. If I do pick up a 6-string more often than not it's my Fender Bass VI. But I'm quite happy in the bass department with the four basses I have in my collection. However, had I been seen this beauty when on the lookout for a bass, I think I would have been very tempted.

It's a Gibson EB bass from 2013, a model that I admit I was hitherto totally unaware of. It bears little relation to the various vintage Gibson basses in the EB series, in fact stylistically it seems to owe more to Fender and Music Man.


However, in tried and trusted Gibson style it does feature a set neck. Note the heel-less neck join, which is made all the more apparent for having a maple neck set into the black finish of the body. For more info, full specs, etc, see Gibson's own EB page.

This particular example was recently listed on eBay UK and sold for under £550. I'm thinking someone got themselves a bargain there.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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What's that guitar that a young Jimi Hendrix is playing?...

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...asks Guitarz reader Raul.

Looks like an Epiphone Wilshire (circa 1960-62) to me.

Unless you know differently!

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.

1960s Alamo Fiesta

guitarz.blogspot.com

Two things are sure about Alamo guitars: they are rare vintage US cheapos, and they do have strange shapes - strange outlines, strange pickguards, strange pickups, a look at this Alamo Fiesta says all… 

Alamo was an early amp company from Texas that released guitars in the 1960s, and anything I could write about it would be copied on this www.vintageguitar.com article, so it's better to read it if you're interested. One surprising thing is that this guitar is not mere a planck, but is actually hollow - that is almost sophisticated… 

Bertram D

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

Moses Graphite 42" scale headless Vertical Jump Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

From Moses Graphite, this is a strange one. The Moses Vertical Jump Bass straddles that indefinable area between bass guitar and electric upright bass. It is indeed designed to be played in a vertical position - I'm guessing that bizarre elongated horn allows for a shoulder strap to keep the bass in the correct position. It also has a whopping 42" scale length - we're definitely in upright bass territory there. (Apparently, 42" scale is what you'd expect to find on 3/4-size double basses. 4/4-size double basses are, apparently, very hard to come by. The world seems to prefer 3/4-size. They have become the standard by default).

However, various of the Jump's other appointments are firmly rooted in the bass guitar camp: it is clearly designed to be worn on a strap rather than being a free-standing instrument. It has a magnetic pickup, flat fretboard... and notice there that I said FRETboard instead of fingerboard. This vertical bass is fretted, so whiltst I'm hard pressed to imagine how it could sound like a traditional upright bass, I appreciate that as it is a five-string model with a 42" scale length it ought tonally to sound pretty impressive.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $1,500.

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.

One-off fretless baritone guitar with Kramer headless alu neck

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A fretless baritone / bass VI (depending on the strings you use - with a 78 cm scale, around 30 inches, you have the choice) is a challenging instrument, definitely one I'd love to try - though I'm really not sure I can get something good out of it! 

This one-off was built from a 1980s Kramer Duke short scale bass aluminium neck (with wooden inserts in the back and Ebonol fingerboard), modified for 6 strings, and has separate electronics and outputs for the different active and passive pickups.

Bertram D

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

Bassix Jazza - yet another eccentric electric upright bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

No, it's isn't a giant wooden spoon, it's another eccentric upright bass design from UK-based upright bass specialists Bassix. This model is called the Bassix Jazza, and again it appears to feature a bass-guitar friendly 34" scale length.

Unlike the last Bassix EUB we looked at, this particular model does not fold in half. Neither does its body serve as its own carry case.

Currently listed on eBay UK with a starting bid of £200.

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.

One-off vintage hand-made violin bass guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Who's to say how old this one-off vintage hand-made violin bass guitar actually is, although I'd wager that it was post-Beatles seeing as it was McCartney that popularised the violin-shaped bass. The ingenuity that's gone into making this bass is something else. The neck appears to be from an old 6-string folk guitar - it still sports six tuners on the headstock - although the greater scale length required from a bass has necessitated a body extention to the back of the neck. Obviously the nut was replaced, plus a whole new fretboard for the bass scale, frets in the right places, etc.

The pickup is an old Kent WC-16 unit, which you'd usually see installed on a archtop acoustic guitar. The pickup is of the sliding variety which allows for repositioning so as to adjust the tone.

Currently listed on eBay with a starting bid of US $300. Auction ends later tonight.

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.

Can you help identify this contemporary-looking Jaguar-like guitar?

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Casey writes:

What is this guitar? Some fellas and I are having a conversation about it at the tapeop forum, and we cannot figure it out. Some think it is a Fernandez, but the logo is wrong as well as the headstock and the location of the controls...

Any ideas, guys? I'm sure I've seen something like this myself, but can't pin a brand/model name on it.

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.