1978 Bunker Pro Star electric guitar from a true design innovator

guitarz.blogspot.com:

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

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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!

Bunker 6-string guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:
We looked at a 1970s-era Bunker Bass back in November 2009. I hadn't realised that there was a guitar version too, but here it is! I refer you again to that previous post for more info about Bunker guitars.

ON A DIFFERENT TOPIC, both Bertram and I will be going away for a few days and will not have internet access for the remainder of the week, so - alas - there will be no new Guitarz posts for a few days. Please accept our apologies in advance. (No, were not going away together. I'll be in a tent in Devon; you'll have to ask Bertram later what he was doing.)

Gavin

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

1970s-era Bunker Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:
This Bunker Bass is an interesting one. It has the appearance of a Gibson Grabber/Ripper with some serious body surgery. It's interesting to note that the tuners are on the body beyond the bridge, predating headless designs such as the Steinberger by several years. Unlike the Steinberger, the Bunker Bass does have a headstock, although this would seem to be purely for aesthetical purposes.

Additional (4 Nov 2009): I found some more information in an article in the My Rare Guitars newsletter, as follows:

...Dave Bunker of Puyallup, Washington, began to turn his thoughts to a better guitar idea. Bunker, born in 1935, began playing guitar in around 1949 and in around 1951 started teaching in Puyallup. Then in 1955 he saw the traveling demonstration show put on by the great tapping guitarist Jimmie Webster and Dave adopted that technique. Conventional guitar design is not optimized for tapping, so naturally Bunker began to experiment and in around 1961 started making his own guitar designs. One of his ‘60s inventions was the idea of the “tension-free” neck. Basically this consisted of a heavy brass nut 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. Like Les Paul’s “log,” Bunkers guitars often had variously shaped wings that could be bolted on to give more of an illusion of “guitar,” but he was getting down to the bare minimum!

Off with her head!, by Michael Wright, the Different Strummer

G L Wilson

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Bunker Guitars have an intriguing instrument called the Touch Guitar.

They say that:

"When visiting our showroom you may be treated to a live demonstration of the Touch Guitar! We'll even teach you how to play a lick or two so you can experience, for yourself, just how easy it is to play this wonderful instrument. You will be amazed that, in 5 minutes, you can actually play bass and guitar together. Even if you have never picked up a guitar or bass before!"

A bold claim, I feel.

Nevertheless, it all looks very interesting.