El Daga one-of-a-kind "art guitar" looks surprisingly familiar...

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This oddly-shaped and very brightly coloured "one-of-a-kind El Daga art guitar" does indeed look very familiar. Never mind the very peculiar outline defining the shape of the body, the reflective (vinyl?) affixed to the surfaces or the metallic plastic trim used as binding, the real give-away is the sweeping wave-shaped pickguard.

Could it be that the El Dega is really a re-modelled and tarted-up 1960s Japanese Zenon guitar? Popularly believed to have been made by Teisco, this model appeared under various brand names.

I think I prefer the non-carved up version.

El Daga Art Guitar: Buy It Now for $1,295.

1960s Japanese Zenon guitar: currently being auctioned on eBay with bidding at $48 at the time of writing and just over a day left.

Thanks to Vince Gotera who spotted these items on eBay. Also, many thanks to Bertram who has been ensuring that we have a daily blog post here on Guitarz whilst I've been in my sickbed since last weekend.

G L Wilson

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

Diodati doubleneck made by Tokai and with fluorescent artwork by El Daga

guitarz.blogspot.com:

The Diodati Guitar Company describe themselves as "a small Christian-owned firm located in Southern New Hampshire" in the USA, with guitars being made at overseas facilities and distributed by Pete's Trading Center. The owner, Peter J. Diodati, Jr. explains that by cutting out all the middlemen associated with all the big name guitar companies, he can sell to the consumer at approx half the price an equivalent "name" guitar would cost.

Diodati use the same factories as the big companies; in the case of the doubleneck pictured here, it is made by Tokai (Tokai Gakki Co., Ltd) although whether that is at their original facility in Japan or one of their Korean or Chinese plants, I couldn't tell you.

This particular doubleneck features fluorescent artwork by the artist El Daga. I can't work out if the the black circle between the pickups on the 12-string side of the guitar is a soundhole or part of the artwork.

This guitar is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $1,995. That doesn't appear to be one of the affordable prices that Diodati pride themselves on, but then this would appear to be a rather special model.

G L Wilson

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