Believe it or not: 1980s Kramer Ripley stereo guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

At first glance you'd be forgiven for asking "Are there enough controls on that single pickup guitar?" However, of course, the Kramer Ripley is not a single pickup guitar as such, rather it is equipped with a Bartolini hex pickup which essentially consists of individual pickups for each of the six strings. The guitar features a stereo output and individual panning controls allowing each string to be assigned its own position within the stereo spectrum. This particular example is one of only three made that includes an on-board "Hex" distortion allowing levels to be individually set for each string, and it is also the same guitar that appeared on tracks on Mick Jagger's Primitive Cool album from 1987.

Eddie Van Halen is also known to have played a similar Kramer Ripley guitar, and its stereo effects can clearly be heard on the song "Top Jimmy" from Van Halen's 1984 album.

This particular guitar - which has been played by Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger - is currently being offered for sale on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £1,800.

G L Wilson

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

Alray Cougar vintage stereo guitar - a Wurlitzer in all but name

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Previously on Guitarz we have looked at a Wurlitzer Cougar stereo guitar, part of the Wild One series which also included the Wildcat and the Gemini. These guitars all share the same pickups and stereo circuitry which includes jazz/rock settings for each pickup - basically switching between different capacitors for to affect tonal change. Wurlitzer guitars were built alongside the now legendary LaBaye 2x4 guitar at the Holman-Woodell factory in Neodesha, Kansas in the mid to late 1960s.

However, if you look closely at the Cougar pictured above you'll notice one or two differences from the example we previously featured. The headstock design is quite different, and notice also that the vibrato base plate is missing its Wurlitzer "W" - in fact this vibrato unit looks identical to that employed on the LaBaye six stringer.

The reason behind this is that this particular Cougar is not a Wurlitzer - it instead carried the Alray brandname. From the information I have gathered, Wurlitzer offered the Wild One series guitars from 1965 to 1966. The seller of this Alray Cougar on eBay suggests that this guitar is circa 1967/68. Maybe this was assembled from left-over Wurlitzer stock after they had decided to abandon their guitar line?

This guitar is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $1,200, which is in a similar price bracket to Wurlitzer-branded guitars (if and when they come up for sale).

G L Wilson

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

Emperador stereo hollowbody guitar, probably 1960 Japanese

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's another vintage guitar to identify. It's a thinline hollowbody, looking similar to early Yamaha semis, but has the split stereo pickups similar to those on the 1960s Goya 12-string semi-hollowbody that we looked at on Friday.

The name on the headstock is Emperador, yet another name that is new to me and is quite likely a brandname for a particularly retailer. My feeling is that it is Japanese in origin, although it is conceivable that it may be European.

If anyone has any more info on this instrument please let us know in the usual way!

Thanks to DeeCee who found this guitar for sale here, priced at €800.

G L Wilson

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

1971 Crucianelli élite stéréo

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here we see a Crucianelli élite stéréo archtop guitar from 1971, currently being offered for sale on a French website. Made in Italy, Crucianelli had strong ties with Eko (as discussed here) and this same body was also used for the Vox Super-Linx which was also produced in the Eko factory.

The most interesting feature of this guitar, however, must be its four pickups - two for the treble and two for the bass strings - and the independent pickup selectors for treble and bass. No doubt this allows for some interesting pickup combinations, which would be made all the more interesting by the stereo output.

Thanks to Dirk Lubbe for bringing this beauty to my attention.

G L Wilson

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