Micro-Frets Signature one-off short-scale fretless bass from the early 1970s

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here at Guitarz, Micro-Frets is one of our favourite "forgotten" American guitar manufacturers. We've written plenty about this innovative company before (and their most innovative guitar must surely be the Orbiter) but we haven't previously looked at any of their bass guitars.

This particular example is a one-off Micro-Frets Signature short-scale fretless bass made for an employee of the company in the early 1970s. Note the compensated nut in the above photos, an original Micro-Frets innovation from long before Earvana "re-invented" it and claimed it as theirs.

Currently listed on eBay with a possibly optimistic Buy It Now price of $1,750.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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Here's another you don't see every day: Micro-Frets Swinger

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've commented several times before on Guitarz that Micro-Frets were a highly innovative and pioneering American guitar manufacturer, albeit sadly one that is almost forgotten today.

I'm showing you this Micro-Frets Swinger a little too late, I'm afraid, as the eBay UK auction is ending in just under an hour and a half as I type this. It's unmistakably a Micro-Frets design, despite the upside-down, almost left-handed, appearance with the longer lower body horn. Alas I know nothing about this particular model, I just wanted to include it here on Guitarz because it's such an interesting looking piece.

Bidding is at £566 at the time of writing. [EDIT: The winning bid was £720.]

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

Micro-Frets Caliber I from another almost forgotten American guitar innovator

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Micro-Frets guitars turn up very rarely on eBay, and even less so on eBay UK. This Micro-Frets Calibre I, circa the turn of the 1970s, is currently listed with a Buy It Now price of £750, which isn't bad at all for an American guitar of this vintage in good condition. The seller points out that a set-up to your own requirements may be needed, but hey, any new guitar out of the box needs a good set-up these days, so that's no biggie.

And if you don't know why Micro-Frets were so innovative, I suggest you read a couple of blog posts from the archives, here and (perhaps even more pertinently) here.

G L Wilson

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

Micro-Frets Golden Comet

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Micro-Frets Inc was founded in the 1960s by Ralph Jones, a man of a keen engineering persuasion given to innovation and invention. One such Micro-Frets' innovation was the Micro-Nut, as seen clearly in the photo above, which was essentially a fully adjustable compensating nut allowing for perfect intonation and the ability to have the guitar play in tune all the way up the neck. Remember, this was decades before Earvana or Buzz Feiten.

The above-pictured guitar is a Micro-Frets Golden Comet (Micro-Frets often had space-age names). This is quite a basic model without the Micro-Frets Calibrato (a vibrato which allowed the strings to stay in tune relatively while the pitch was being altered) but nevertheless is still a much desirable model. It is of semi-hollow body construction with distinctively shaped f-hole and features pickups desgined by Bill Lawrence and which look decidedly P90-like.

This Golden Comet is currently being auctioned on eBay with the starting price set at a quite reasonable $500.

For more about Micro-Frets guitars see their official website at: www.microfrets.com

G L Wilson

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

1971 Micro-Frets Spacetone

guitarz.blogspot.com

We already posted about Micro-Frets guitars on this blog, an interesting company born in the 60s with quite an innovative spirit, and recently revived. Here is their Spacetone model, their most famous guitar I guess (saw it in the hands of Carl Perkins and Dave Gore).

It's a hollow-body with a characteristic F-hole, a Bigsby trem (that is strange since they usually use their own model), P90 pickups, a double pickguard, cool double dots fretboard inlays and of course the superb Micro-Frets headstock.

bertram

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

Micro-frets Orbiter - the first wireless guitar?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Ralph Jones founded Micro-Frets Inc in Maryland in the 1960s. Coming from an engineering background he was an enthusiastic inventor and incorporated several innovations into the company's guitar designs. One such innovation was the "Micro-nut" which allowed for perfect intonation at both ends of the strings. This was DECADES before anyone had ever heard the names Earvana or Buzz Feiten.

This particular guitar currently being offered for sale on eBay, the Micro-Frets Orbiter, is one of the more eye-catching designs. It dates from 1970 and was designed to be wireless. It would originally have had a radio transmitter fitted into the extended upper body horn.

Other interesting features are the discreet volume and tone controls hidden between the two-layer pickguard, and Micro-Frets' own vibrato, the "Calibrato", which was designed to keep the strings in tune whilst the pitch was being altered.

G L Wilson

Additional: I just want to include this photo before the auction ends and the pictures are lost forever. This shows the upper horn of the guitar and the recess into which the radio transmitter would have been installed. GLWilson

NB: There are a lot of blogs STEALING content and bandwidth. If you read this anywhere else but on guitarz.blogspot.com then you are reading a blog that STEALS content. Please support original bloggers!

...and whilst we're still on the subject of Micro-Frets guitars, here's a photo of Wreckless Eric (a.k.a. Eric Goulden) which I took last week on the occasion of the launch of his autobiography at The 100 Club, Oxford Street, London on 21 August 2003. And, yes, that battered green guitar is a Micro-Frets.

I would highly recommend Eric Goulden's "A Dysfunctional Success - The Wreckless Eric Manual", which is available for a mere £10 from www.theturkeyzone.co.uk

Photos of Micro-Frets guitars courtesy of www.fetishguitars.com.

Speaking of Micro-Frets guitars: Micro-Frets Guitar Secrets Revealed!

Presenting the Earvana compensated nut.

(Wasn't that the same idea behind the nut on the now legendary Micro-Frets guitars?)