Rare Burns Steer from the early 2000s. Possible prototype.

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Thanks to Bill Lovegrove on the facebook Burns Guitars and Amplifiers page for posting this Burns Steer. 

This rare and possible prototype guitar looks like the love child of a regular Steer and a Brian May signature Red Special. Burns was producing both models at the time so the intermingling was quite likely. 

Though the body, neck,  and headstock are those of a cutaway Steer, the floating tremolo, Burns Trisonic pickups, and switching are very much Brian May. I wonder if the pickups are wired in series as on the Brian May model.

Currently listed in South Africa. 

I wonder if the seller will ship to Canada.

R.W. Haller

© 2016, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Hohner EGS Ergonomic Guitar from 2007

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I must have missed when Mr. Wilson posted the Black Hawk version of the Hohner EGS guitar. I'm sure I would have remembered seeing something like this before.

Though it's not really to my taste, I can see this 2007 Hohner EGS being appealing to some players. It has a lot of decent hardware including Schaller Locking tuners, Ebony fretboard, and shadow piezo pickup. It also has an adjustable aluminium wing for ease of play. If it's detachable it could help make this a decent travel guitar, but at $1500 that would be a very pricy traveller.

R.W. Haller

© 2016, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Rare Fender Deluxe Millenium Edition Telecaster

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This simple, sober Telecaster may not look like anything special but it was apparently one of only 30 made in the first week of the new millennium. I'm not sure if that was even really a "thing' or not but it does make for a great sales pitch.

That said, I'd definitely welcome this Tele into my collection as it's likely a real player with Fender noiseless pickups, maple fretboard with pearl inlays, and red wine finish.

R.W. Haller

© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Gretsch Elliot Easton signature guitar from 2005

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This awesome Elliot Easton Signature guitar has all the awesome "G's" happening. It's a green, gold, and glorious Gretsch. 

What more could a boy ask for?

R.W. Haller

© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Parker P36 Leather Wrapped Guitar from 2008 with Piezo pickup

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I have a love/hate relationship with Parker guitars. I've played a few of them and they have all played and sounded great. I love that they are inventive with design and were one of the first, I believe, to offer piezo acoustic sounds as a standard item on their guitars.

Now for the hate: I think they are ugly.

It's that plain and simple. Though i often love "ugly" or non-conventional designs almost wholly because of said ugliness, i cannot find love for the Parker.

This leather wrapped Parker P36 is no exception to the rule. It's almost as if they found a way to make it even less attractive to me. Luckily there are only 144 of these reptile-meets-bovine atrocities out there so I'll not likely be seeing one in real life.

What do you all think? Is there love for Parker out there?

R.W. Haller


© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Tokai Woody Talbo Hollow Body Rare Made in Japan

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've looked at the Tokai Talbo before, but here is a newer one that is not made of aluminum.

I'm having a hard time finding anything not to like on this Tokai Woody Talbo. It has a great unique body shape that is both modern and retro at the same time. I love the Hamilton Green colour, which is very seafoam or surfy. I also like the look of the replacement pickguard that is, according to the seller, too flexible for a secure mounting of the pickups. That would be an easy fix or replacement.

Currently listed on eBay for $559.99 US

R.W. Haller


© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Mahogany Fender Toronado

guitarz.blogspot.com

With its natural finish on mahogany and minimal gear, this mid-2000s Fender Toronado makes me think of these stern but desirable Japanese guitars from the 1980s that arrived after the copy era, and made the sound of early metal. But the Seymour Duncan P90s make it clearly a contemporary guitar, and not a mere attempt to sneak into Gibson's market (both company regularly release unsuccessful models using their competitors' pickups/scales/headstocks/...)

With their straighten Jaguar outline, Gibson scale, humbuckers and four knobs, the Fender Toronados were introduced in 1998, renewed in 2004 and discontinued in 2006, and existed in many different designs - the most remarkable being the big tortoise-shell pickguard or the L-shaped racing strip on metallic finish. They had a kind of Ibanez simple cool - you know when Ibanez is not losing its time going all pointy) and it's a pity Fender didn't leave it time enough to settle down - 10 years is too short to go standard.

Bertram D

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

Cyan FU Virgin

guitarz.blogspot.com

This FU Virgin by German company Cyan Guitars is the signature guitar of Farin Urlaub, the frontman of Die Ärzte, one of the most famous German punk-rock bands. Classic and classy (Urlaub's personal model sports a skull, fortunately non standard), it combines an elegant outline with an impression of strength and efficiency I'd call German if I didn't want to avoid pointless clichés. And I love these modernist soundholes!

It's not only the looks, the pickups choice is special, on the same guitar you have a Di Marzio Megadrive in bridge position and a Duesenberg Grand Vintage in neck position - that probably allows a great range of sounds.

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Ibanez Prestige Saber 2020XAV with piezo and Floyd Rose trem

guitarz.blogspot.com

This Ibanez Prestige Saber 2020XAV has two jack outputs - one for the regular magnetic pickups and one for the piezo pickup, something that allows a quick change from electric to acoustic  sound (don't know about you but I never find that piezo sound like acoustic - not bad, but definitely not an acoustic hollow body guitar).

This guitar was on the 2000 Ibanez catalogue, but it looks so 20th century, was it so long ago already?

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Squier goes Superstrat: the Stagemaster

guitarz.blogspot.com

This Squier Stagemaster is quite an unusual guitar, for it is both a strat and a superstrat: it has a classic Fender Stratocaster body (just a little but thiner though), but all the attributes of the superstrat - no pickguard, H/S/H pickups configuration, Floyd Rose tremelo, reduced electronics, 24-fret neck, contoured heel, neck-through-body construction, and even a reversed headstock...

The Stagemaster was shortly released in the early 2000s and is based on the mid-1980s Fender HM Strat (HM stands for Heavy Metal), a previous attempt at the shredding market of the post-CBS era, poorly received at the time. But it is different enough from the HM to be considered as an original Squier model. And the colour is unique!

Bertram D

Edit: a comment allows me to precise that this model is actually the Stagemaster HSH Deluxe - the regular Stagemaster had a bolt-on neck a just 2 humbuckers. A 7-string version of this guitar was also available. 

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

Quiz: the mystery guitar strikes back!

guitarz.blogspot.com

Don't look at the lower picture, just focus on this one and try to guess what famous brand released this bizarre guitar, with a carved Telecaster outline, uncovered humbuckers, a strat fixed bridge, minimal controls (including a split coil push/pull tone knob) and glossy metallic blue finish. 

Usually when I show this kind of hybrid guitars on Guitarz, people protest in the comments that they are pointless, if you want a Tele, you take a Tele, and if you want a LP, you take a LP, but I like it and to be honest, I only read dithyrambic reviews about it, though it's been very short-lived (it seems that it's been a prototype for an also short-lived model from a more high-end brand) - it's from the early 2000s - and stayed mostly unknown...

So did you find what it is? It's a Squier Double Fat Tele Deluxe!

Bertram

PS. Usually I don't do that, I don't talk here about my personal blog, but yesterday I posted on it a new series of guitar design sketches that I quite like, and I want to invite Guitarz readers to have a look at them - partly with the hope that one day I will meet a guitar maker - a luthier, or a company, or an amateur - looking for new guitar designs, since I'm still a debutant maker and won't use a 100th of the ideas I have - and willing to collaborate...

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Squier M-80

guitarz.blogspot.com: 

At first sight, this M80 doesn't look much like a Squier - isn't Squier supposed to just released budget versions of Fender guitars? -, but more like these Matsumoku guitars from the early 1980s that prepared the guitar world to the metal era: unspectacular outline and wood, transparent finish, Gibsonesque gear and pickups - even an Ibanez-style headstock! But the M80 is a real - though short-lived - Squier guitar from the mid-2000s, about which there is little online information, but several very positive reviews. 

This one has seen its Duncan Designed HB replaced by Seymour Duncan open ones - like many Squiers, it seems that the M80 has been a good base for upgrades and modifications! It's easy to overlook this guitar - though it has a refreshing feel of honesty that made me want to know more about it -, but when you read what Tod Krause, its designer, says, you may reconsider:

“I’ve been working on the M-80 for a long time. I designed it for somebody who was playing at a club, working with a label, about to be signed, or had been signed. I wanted to build a “workingman’s” guitar for a new generation of players. That guitar evolved from many years of seeing things in guitars that I like or dislike. A lot of designs on that guitar are my gut-level reaction to what I see people playing, my playing, and what players tell me they like and dislike – or find comfortable and uncomfortable.

 “There’s a lot of design in the M-80 that doesn’t meet the eye. For example, the body comes from a shortened Mustang guitar. If you put a longer-scale Neck on a Mustang, you have to shorten the body so it feels right. I placed the strap buttons, so that when the guitar is hanging, it feels familiar. Let me put it this way … I’ve got 25 years in the business, and the M-80 is the accumulation of 25 years of designing and building guitars for the world’s most discriminating players.” – Todd Krause

Strange that the guitar was discontinued so quickly...

Bertram

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Fender Telecaster Thinline JA-90 Jim Adkins signature guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com

Just a Fender Telecaster, not a vintage model but a particularly beautiful one, the thinline Jim Adkins signature model with Seymour Duncan P-90s, Adjusto-matic bridge and magnificent transparent black finish. 

The way it combines the simplicity of the good old Tele with a jazz guitar sophistication, how can one not love this guitar?

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!