Awesome Headless Scorched Wood Sankey Guitars Bast

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Though this Sankey Guitars Bast model is far from my usual taste, I find that I'm drawn to it's looks. It could be that they scorched and burnished the body, which is made of douglas fir, and then when the reliefs were carved the true wood was exposed.

The seven piece neck is made of layers of ebony, cocobolo, and purple heart. This was done for stability in the Californian desert climate, but it also looks fantastic.

The Bast also sports a polyphonic pickup and preamp allowing for strong piezo acoustic sound and hexaphonic midi. On top of that there is a standard magnetic pickup as well.

R.W. Haller



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Fasan Holiday Guitar from 1968 with incredible "finish"

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I love the look of this German made Fasan Holiday. There is nothing better than fake plastic trying its best to look like fake wood. In a fake news world this guitar should get all the headlines. The metal embossed pickguard, and a well aged tremolo only add to the character of this late 1960s beauty.

Currently listed for $500 Canadian

R.W. Haller


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The BEANO official merchandise Dennie The Menace Guitar from John Hornby Skewes

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Ah, seeing this Dennis The Menace official licensed BEANO guitar takes me right back to my junior school years, where I spent many happy hours reading comics, of which The Beano was my favourite. This BEANO guitar has been issued by John Hornby Skewes, they of UK budget brands Encore and Vintage. The headstock is the same shape as used on Vintage branded Les Paul style guitars. Very cool indeed. I've seen it priced as high as £180 but this example I found on eBay is a very reaonable £115 including free postage within the UK.

For confused Stateside readers, I'd better quickly explain that the UK and USA both have their own completely separate cartoon characters called Dennis The Menace. Coincidentally both cartoon characters made their comic debuts in the year 1951.

G L Wilson

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Chinese counterfeit super bizarrely shaped thing labelled BC Rich

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Words fail me!

OK, I'll try harder.

I saw this earlier on Aliexpress.com (via Facebook). For those not in the know, Aliexpress is one source of Chinese-made counterfeirt guitars, copies of Fenders, Gibsons, Rickenbackers (often dubbed Chenders, Chibsons and Chickenbackers) amongst others such as Gretsch, BC Rich, Ibanez, etc. Occasionally they have an original design or two, perhaps a hybrid guitar based on a particular brand but which never existed. And then there are things like the above pictured guitar, mad designs of their own. In this case they've cheekily put the BC Rich logo on the headstock (yhe headstock itself has the barest amount of shaping from the basic paddle blank shape). You can imagine the thinking here: "Oh, BC Rich do some wacky shaped guitars, just put their logo on it."

Poor ol' Bernardo Chavez Rico must be spinning in his grave.

G L Wilson

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1977 Burns "Jubilee" Flyte with faded UK Union Flag finish

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As I have mentioned many times in the past on this blog, I am a big fan of the Burns Flyte guitar, even though the only time I have actually seen one up close and personal was last year when my band was playing a psychedelic festival and Nick Saloman of The Bevis Frond, who were also playing, let me have a look at his.

However, I'm not so sure about the patriotic finish on this "Jubilee" example from 1977. (1977 was the year of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee, i.e. she'd been monarch for 25 years). Even though this is the original factory finish, the Union Flag - popularly known as the Union Jack but technically speaking it shouldn't be referred to as such unless flown from a ship - has been poorly rendered with very thin crosses and not enough of a pinwheel effect on the diagonals. It's made to look all the more bizarre by the process of ageing which has turned the blue background to green and the white to yellow - in fact when I first saw this I was trying to decide if it was supposed to be the Union Flag or not. If you didn't know it was supposed to represent the flag of the United Kingdom, then perhaps it'd be easier to think of it as an abstract design. Still don't think I'd like it.

Like it or not, it's still a very interesting piece. This particular example was being sold by Denmark Street Guitars in London but is marked "Out Of Stock" which implies that it has either been sold or else withdrawn from sale. Unfortunately this means I cannot give you a price or value. However, three years ago, a Burns Flyte with "supposedly" original rare red finish was being offered for sale in Germany with a price of €1444. My feeling is that this Jubilee edition would be more valuable. Burns experts please feel free to correct me!

G L Wilson

© 2016, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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This New York Pro has been abused

guitarz.blogspot.com:

The seller of the guitar keeps it short and simple. 

"New York Pro, refinished, new strings, tuned, sounds awesome"

Let's dissect it a little:

It's a New York Pro -  Hard to dispute or confirm as the headstock is not shown, but it looks like it's likely low range Korean offering.

Refinished - Well if you count intentional damage as a refinished job, then I guess so. Seriously, it looks like Marcellus Wallace got all medieval on it with a blow torch and pair of pliers.

New Strings - Phew, and I thought I was going to have to buy my own. There's a few bucks saved.

Tuned - Think of the hours I'll save. I wonder if I'll be able to get the seller to do house calls and tune it again if it ever should need it.

Sounds Awesome - The sound of an instrument is a very subjective thing, but I think that the judgment of this seller cannot wholly be trusted.

I generally don't like to be mean spirited when posting here, and yes we've called out horrible relics, bad customizations, and general guitar abuse in the past, but I feel this seller may be trying to dupe a potential buyer though, and sadly there are folks out there who wouldn't know that they were getting ripped off. 

Am I wrong? This is not a good guitar, is it?

For $250 I could have bought 8 of these guitars.

R.W. Haller

© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Cort AS-1 thin bodied acoustic guitar with red binding and inlay

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There is a part of me, one clearly rooted in the 1980s I'm sure, that would love to have this Cort AS-1 acoustic guitar. I did a quick search and found very little information about this guitar other than a few reviews that go from poor to a comparison to a Chet Atkins signature guitar. I would suspect that it was manufactured in the early 1990s even though it screams 1987 to me and that it was likely made in Korea. 

The seller claims that this is a "rarest of the rare" guitar and it may very well be. But sometimes items are rare because they weren't good enough to make a lot of them. That said, the seller also claims that this was a $1400 guitar when purchased new, so it may be an example of higher quality from Cort. There is a huge diversity in the Cort guitars I've played, so I guess it's possible that this is one of the better ones.

Has anyone played one of these?

Currently listed at $299 Canadian.

R.W. Haller

© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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Rare Carved Shiraki Acoustic made in Japan 1981

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I'd never heard of Shiraki Guitars. They were apparently part of the Matsumoku fold in the early 1980s, so you know that it is likely a quality instrument. It also seems that they did some level of collaboration with Alvarez as well.

Though it's really not my taste with the intricate carving and lack of a sound hole ( I wonder if projection through the carved area is any good ), I'd gamble that this cedar top dreadnought from 1981 plays and sounds quite nice. Note the neck joint. Is it glued in, bolted on the inside, or a different kind of joint?

I'm reminded of Blueberry Guitars and wonder if there was some influence from these Japanese rarities.

R.W. Haller


© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Highly "customized" Martin D-16GT makes me feel more than a little blue.

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I'm just going to leave this here, along with a few quotes from the seller.

"I'm just the type of person that always has to customize things and this production came out of that"

" Most stock guitars I've found have thicker than necessary soundboards that don't resonate as well as if it were thinner, so I thinned the top so that the guitar could respond and resonate better with a lighter softer touch"

" The neck was also thinned down a bit to make it more easier to play, and the fretboard slightly scalloped ( not yngwie malmsteen type scallop as you can tell) giving every note more air/openness and better control over bending and vibrato"

"So if you are crazy left brained perfectionistic about things please go buy yourself a stock whatever"

This custom Martin was listed at $1999 U.S. but see now that the listing has ended.

Did it sell?

The link is still active if you want a complete description from the seller.

R.W. Haller

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Hand made One of a kind Bovine Infused Guitar - With apologies to PITA? (The guy from Hunger Games?)

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Because I have no words, I'll leave you with the sellers own:

"It just screams Billy Gibbons :) 

Real horns and real cowhide (sorry PITA) 

Sherif star, Scull knobs 

Rotary pickup selector switch is mounted to Magnum 22 caliber drum 

Spanish Cedar body, spalted maple back 

24 fret 25 1/2" scale maple/rosewood neck 

Texas Special single coil pickup set 

Comes with customized megasturdy flight case."

R.W. Haller

© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.