Ultra-rare & ultra-weird Roberts Roto-Neck guitar on eBay: lots of photos!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I hope I'm not being too cheeky copying all these photos from the eBay listing for this Roberts Roto-Neck guitar from the first series (circa 1991), but then again the eBay seller did quote from our article on The Evolution of Lubani RotoNeck Guitars so hopefully he won't mind. If you want to know more about this very unusual guitar, then read the article.

This guitar is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $4,500.

G L Wilson

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

Another mystery guitar needs identifying

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's an email from Jack:

Hi Gavin

I've been an avid follower of your blog for a few years now and I have always admired your ability to identify random guitars!

Attached is a pic I took at a gig in Bristol earlier this week. It was the support band for Morning Parade and the guitar was seriously unusual.

Don't know if its that obvious from my (very bad) pic but the guitar had slanted lipstick pickups on humbucker sized plates, an old varitone switch on it and what looked like a small pushbutton switch, in addition to a pickup selector and volume. Tune-o-matic and then through body stringing. Unusual finish too. Not sure if it was modern or vintage... not a lot of help I know! I couldn't read what it said on the headstock, annoyingly!

I think the support band was called Jet something but I didn't quite catch it. Probably not a lot of use but you never know, someone may know what it was. It sounded awesome, by the way!

Thanks for any help you can give.

Jack Floyd

Thanks for the praise, but I don't think I'm going to come up trumps in this case. This is a design that I feel I should know and am sure I have seen somewhere before, but unfortunately I cannot put a name to it. If any of our readers can help, please tell us what you know via the comments.

G L Wilson

EDIT: It's a Roberts Iris and the band are called JetKing. Thanks to Bid Red X for that info!

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

Roberts Tezuka

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I've had an email from Vaughn who asks if I am aware of Roberts Guitars, a small company producing original quality guitars right here in the UK, in Bristol, to be precise.

Well, yes, I am aware of them and have been meaning to feature them on this blog for a very long time. I'm always very keen to feature our own "home-grown" guitars if I am able.

Pictured above is Vaughn's own Roberts Tezuka. He writes that:

"Its got different pickups than the majority of the ones they made - I wanted more vintagey pickups and Roberts obliged.

The finish is described as "burnt chocolate matt" and the pictures don't do it justice... got a really nice sheen to it. The guitar weighs more than a Les Paul but I find it comfortable enough for prolonged playing and the density adds to the tone and sustain considerably."

It certainly is a looker! The Tezuka features a hand-cut hand-finished body of solid ash (alder is also available) married to a set-neck of maple topped by an ebony fingerboard with hand inlaid custom markers. The headstock is topped with walnut and features Roberts' own fine tune machine heads. Pickups would ordinarily be Roberts' custom-wound Z2 Power Pro split rails; however it's nice to know that they were happy to oblige with the request for vintage pickups instead. Electrics comprise two volumes, one tone and a three-way selector switch, with a coiltap being offered as an option.

G L Wilson

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