Jeff Lynne playing a Veleno aluminium guitar with ELO in 1973

guitarz.blogspot.com: Speaking of aluminium guitars...

I saw this archive clip on television earlier this week: the Electric Light Orchestra playing "Showdown" from a 1973 edition of BBC1's Top Of The Pops. I was very interested to see that Jeff Lynne was playing a Veleno guitar. Veleno guitars were legendary for having been completely crafted from aluminium and for featuring a real ruby inset into the headstock.

Note how in typical Top Of The Pops fashion, when the song goes into the guitar solo, the camera focusses on the drums! When the camera DOES alight onto the guitar then they apply a colour synthesizer to the image. Frustrating for all us guitar spotters!

As well as having a new solo album of cover versions due to be released, Jeff Lynne has recently re-recorded 12 classic ELO songs playing all the instruments himself, which is being released as "Mr. Blue Sky - The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra". You can read more about this project in this Music Radar interview.

G L Wilson

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Aluminium-bodied Veleno guitar

I'm always happy to show photos of these beautiful guitars from Veleno. (Please excuse the fact that I've obviously rotated the picture by 90 degrees to the right, but the guitar looks better onm the page this way around).

These guitars are made entirely from aluminium and have a real ruby inset in the face of the headstock.

This particular guitar as pictured is for sale, so if anyone is seriously interested in buying it please contact me and I will pass on the current owners details to you. Also, bear in mind that these guitars don't come cheap!

Sonny Bono's Veleno aluminium guitar on eBay

Last week I commented that the metal-bodied Liquid Metal Guitar put me in mind of Valeno guitars.

Well, here's an actual original Veleno as owned by Sonny Bono (of Sonny and Cher) for sale on eBay right now with a Buy It Now price of £14,500.

As is customary with all Valenos, the guitar is made entirely of aluminium (yes, the neck too) and has a real ruby inset in the headstock.

Veleno aluminium guitars - these legendary instruments are real class, and what's more is that they are being manufactured once again. Yours for a mere snip with prices beginning at $8,995.