1978 Renaissance bass in black lucite

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Following on from the fabulous Fender lucite prototype, here's another lucite-bodied guitar, this time it's a Renaissance Bass from 1978 with a body fashioned from opaque black lucite rather than the usual see-through variety.

Renaissance guitars also appeared with see-through lucite bodies (such as this example) and with smoked-effect lucite (see this other example).

Renaissance guitars and basses were produced between 1977 and 1980 in Pennsylvania. As well as lucite bodies, guitars and basses featured DiMarzio pickups and active electronics.

This bass is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $2,795.

G L Wilson

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

1970s Renaissance plexiglass guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Wow! A rare Renaissance plexiglass guitar listed on eBay with a starting price of $249. Is that too good to be true?

Errrrmmm... yes, it seems it is.

The problem with plexiglass-bodied guitars is that they tend to be somewhat on the heavy side, and it seems that the owner of this USA-built 1978 Renaissance guitar decided to do something about the weight and has carved away material from the back of the body and absolutely peppered it with holes.

Argh! What a crying shame!

For those who are interested, here's the info copied from the listing on eBay:

This is a rare Renaissance guitar made in Pennsylvania in 1978, The founder of the company was John Marshall who trained locally under Eric Schulte, along with Augie LoPrinzi of New Jersey. The company lasted from 1977 to 1980. They are very well made guitars. This one has had some "customizing" done. Due to weight, someone cut out the back and drilled holes into the body. Very cool looking, but rather unfortunate to alter a rare vintage instrument. The weight of the guitar is now a little less than 8.5 lbs. Dimarzio pickups. Active electronics, CTS pots are dated 1377833 which dates the guitar to 1978. Brass hardware. Flame maple two piece neck which is straight. Ebony fingerboard with 24 jumbo frets. Some minor fretwear. Action is excellent. The guitar plays and sounds great. They only made 250 - 300 guitars. Mostly basses. Less than a 100 guitars were produced. This is definitely a rocker and would make a great stage guitar.

Long-term Guitarz readers might remember that we previously featured a Renaissance guitar in smoked plexiglass - this shows what it should look like without the holes.

G L Wilson

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

Renaissance plexiglass guitar from 1979

Apparently only a very limited number of these USA-made Renaissance guitars were built. Which might explain why I've never heard of them before (not that I'm a walking encyclopaedia of guitar builders and luthiers).

The body is made of a smoked effect transparent acrylic and has a neck of flamed maple with an ebody fingerboard. The pickups are a pair of DiMarzio humbuckers with a volume and tone control for each plus pickup selector. It would appear to have a pair of coil-tap switches also, allowing for a versatile range of sound options.

Note how the control cavity has a metal plate at the front and back of the guitar. It should be nicely screened, at least.

It's a classy-looking guitar, and with those DiMarzios in a perspex body, it should be able to scream and sustain along with the best of them.