Crucianelli has been building guitars distributed all over the world under different brands. This Elite G-502V was distributed by Hagstrom, but Vox had exactly the same model named Challenger. It's a rather high-end model, meant for rock as well as jazz, with a sober SG-inspired double florentine cutaway, and a crazy batwing scratchplate and a looooong trem arm.
We've previously looked at these Greco semi-hollowbodies with crazy V-shaped pickups before on Guitarz (see here and here) but the example pictured above is all the more rarer for being a 12-string. This guitar differs from the 6-string Greco Shrike in that it doesn't have the same contoured - almost German carve - top, plus the pickup selector switch panel is located on the upper horn rather than on the lower bout. Note too the body and neck binding and proper f-holes rather than the Shrike's diamond-shaped soundholes.
I'm not sure if technically it is a "Shrike" - the eBay seller lists it as being a Greco Model GR-960. The neck plate of the guitar mentions that the pickup design is U.S. patent pending, SH0-42-12136. I do like the single volume control. I often think that's all you need.
Currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $1,595.
Again, there've been so many Höfner models with so many variations over time that they are difficult to identify with certainty, but I have enough elements to say it's a mid-1960s 4578 - the continental equivalent to the Ambassador model sold by Selmer in the UK.
It's a beautiful classic guitar, and like usually my heart melts for an archtop with double florentine cutaways - but I'm right-handed so this baby is not for me.
We've seen several cool vintage archtop guitars in the last days, let me complete the series with one of the most beautiful electric guitar ever: the Gibson Barney Kessel Custom.
I know, it's not the first time I post one (see here and here), but I never have enough of it!
I have no idea what this guitar might be... It's much likely German from the 1970s, though the shape makes me think of a Defil - a Polish brand. The pickups look quite Musima - or one of the many Markneukirchen guitar brands -, but the pickguard could be from Höfner, and I've seen this kind of bridge and trem on many German guitars.
It has obviously been refinish in this quite peculiar glitter khaki green and the knobs probably come from a radio, so I bet it's a Frankenstein, still something tells me I should recognize the original model - am I not a double florentine hollow-body guitars fan?
You know by now how fond I am of semi-hollow archtop guitars with double florentine cutaway, such as this beautiful Hoyer. I don't understand why this design is not more successful - or maybe it is its rarity that makes it so attractive!
I couldn't identify this model made in the 1970s, in spite of its characteristic and admirable engraved stoptail, so all I can offer you is mere contemplation, combined or not with lust...
Have you seen anything as attractive as this Eko Florentine 360? A double florentine cutaway is always beautiful, it's a plus if it's on an archtop, but when the two horns have these Bison-esque curve, I just can't resist! Add to this the fancy double pickguard and big square white switches and you wonder why you weren't born 50 years before and in Italy, when it was ordinary for guitars to be so cool!
We've seen a Gibson Barney Kessel already on Guitarz but I can't help showing again this extremely desirable guitar, with one of my favorite feature: a double florentine cutaway on a semi-hollow body! (Actually on the top of my guitars wish list is the Vox HDC 77, one of the coolest guitars ever, as much for its looks than for its technical specs, check it if you don't know it yet!)
Barney Kessel was a key musician in the evolution of electric guitars playing - as a jazz musician, solo, fronting a band or as a side man for the giants (Charlie Parker, Oscar Peterson, Sonny Rollins...), or as a session musician supporting the Beach Boys, Phil Spector or the Monkees...
Couldn't find a video on YouTube featuring Kessel playing this guitar, but I can't resist showing this song (if I'm not wrong he's playing a Gibson L5 with a Charlie Christian pickup, tell me if you know better). It reminds me of this classic joke: when you do jazz, you play 3000 chords in front on 3 people, when you do rock, you play 3 chords in front of 3000...
The Goya Rangemaster in not unknown to Guitarz readers, since GL showed one with blonde finish last year (with detailed information). Here is a magnificent 12-string version with good photos allowing to enjoy all the details of this great guitar: the split pickups, the twos switches plates (nine switches all together!) , the strangely shaped pickguard and the bizarrely placed small F-holes.
For me who have a soft spot for double florentine cutaways semi-hollow guitars, I cannot find a better combination of classicism and vintage Italian eccentricity: I just love this guitar!
I'm afraid that there's nothing I can tell about this Kay semi-hollow guitar (Kay is a complicated topic), but that I love semi-hollow body guitars with double florentine cutaway, the sliding pots are really cool, the F-hole is quite special, and the pickguard looks like the batwing ones you find on some vintage Höfners.
This one is a cool one! A Jolana Disco with a double florentine cutaway between a SG and a Bison, a huge humbucker in middle position, and the strange pickguard resulting. If I wasn't saving for another guitar, I'd jump on this one - and not just for the look, remember that Jolana was probably the best guitar brand in communist Europe...
I didn't know so far the beautiful Gibson Barney Kessel Custom (there are also plenty of interesting guitars on this website) - and I don't remember ever seeing before a semi-hollow guitar with this kind of double florentine cutaways (the model presented here is the custom one with the Bigsby trem).
Its line is stunning, another example of what you can get when you slightly twist a classic design, it's both familiar and disturbing - a powerful combination. Actually when it was released in 1961 it wasn't so successful, probably too aggressive for its jazz target... This guitar was discontinued in 1973, but I'm sure that if Epiphone would release an updated version today, it would be a hit for all the post-Queens of the Stone Age guitarists!
A similar but downsized design was used for Johnny A.'s signature Gibson model in 2003 - and it doesn't work, it looks like a SG front glued on a semi-hollow body, it doesn't have this generosity of the shape that you also find on some thinline Rickenbackers.
And it looks super cool with black finish like here. Another guitar to put on my GAS dream list for when I suddenly become a billionaire without doing anything to make it happen.
