Stewart hollowbody vintage guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:
This Stewart-branded semi-hollowbody caught my attention on eBay. The body shape has offset double cutaways like a Strat rather than the more usual 335 shape aped by many semis.

I wish I could tell you more about this guitar, but I do not have a lot of information to go on. Apparently, when Epiphone was acquired by Gibson's parent company, CMI, in 1957, they shifted production from Philadelphia to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Some of the former employees went on to work for a company called United Code who built guitars with brandnames such as Mansfield, Premier, Defender and Stewart. Possibly this is one of the latter.

But if that is the case, why do I think it looks Japanese? I'm sure I've seen those pickups on vintage Japanese guitars before.

One thing I do know is that it almost certainly isn't the same Stewart Guitars who build the Stowaway - a Strat-a-like that can be dismantled to fit inside a standard-sized briefcase.

If anyone has any more info on this beauty or on Stewart Guitars in general, then please let us know via the comments!

G L Wilson

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

Thanks to Micha

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Before today's main post, I want to say thanks to Micha who designed the new Guitarz header. I'd been meaning to change the old Hendrix Woodstock Strat header for ages now - it's served us well since 2007.

G L Wilson

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

Squier '51 - stock and customised examples

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Fender's subsiduary Squier are mainly known for producing budget-conscious versions of Fender guitars such as the Stratocaster, Telecaster, Precision and Jazz Basses. Occasionally they have been known to do something more adventurous and issue an original model guitar not based directly on any Fender design.

The Squier '51 is one such guitar, and whilst I say it is "original" it very clearly borrows and combines elements from three Fender designs, namely the Strat, the Tele and the original '51 Precision Bass.

Essentially you could say that it has a hardtail basswood Strat body married to a Tele neck, with a '51 P-Bass pickguard. It has a single coil pickup in the neck position and a humbucker at the bridge. There is no tone control but a rotary pickup selector and a coil tap option for a range of sounds.

Judging by comments I have read about this guitar on the net, it seems it was a very popular instrument. Such a pity that it was only in production from 2004-2006. Of course, it was a guitar very popular with tinkerers and guitar modders, and judging by the number of photos I've seen on eBay and elsewhere I wonder how many stock examples are left in the world, because so many seem to have been upgraded.

Pictured above we see two examples in Vintage Blonde. On the left is an untouched stock Squier '51, and in the middle and on the right a customised example featuring upgraded pickups including a P90-style in the neck position, and a Dynamic Fender Vibrato as found on certain other Fender guitars such as the Mustang. (Finally, an S-type guitar with a tremolo that might actually work nicely!)

The Squier '51 was one of the guitars in my "500 Guitars" book, but the publishers unfortunately used an incorrect photo of a Squier Strat.

See the Squier '51 Modders Forum for more customisations!

G L Wilson

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

Glen Campbell's electric resonator guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Tone Deaf Radio has written to me asking what guitar Glen Campbell is playing in the above clip?

This red electric resonator guitar is also pictured on the front cover of his album "Hey, Little One".

Anyway, my suspicion was that it might be a Mosrite - I don't know why I thought that - but it's been vindicated by this page here where we see a very similar guitar in black for sale (pictured right). I did wonder if it was it was a genuine collaboration between the Dobro and Mosrite companies, or if the name Dobro is being used to describe the type of guitar, i.e. a resonator. Dobro is one of those brand names, like Biro or Hoover, that has passed into the language and is applied to similar items not of that brand. However, a look at the full-size photo clearly shows both names on the headstock.

G L Wilson

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

Forrest Custom Telecaster with B-bender in Green Paisley

guitarz.blogspot.com

More Telecaster and more paisley - aren't you amazed by my consistency? 

But this Forrest Custom Telecaster is is not only a sweet looking guitar, it has a device that to my shame I discovered only recently (I have excuses though, I know nothing about American country music for which it's mostly used), the B-bender. 

Look at the back of this Tele, this spring and levers mechanism connects a device at the bridge that bends the B-string  to the higher tone, to the front strap lock, so you can use it just by pulling  your guitar up and down. If it's interesting I can't tell, since I'd have to listen to country music and that's something I can't do, but a little search on YouTube will give you all the information you need.

bertram

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

John McGee's Mockingbird

guitarz.blogspot.com:
We've seen a couple of John McGee's self-built guitars before. Today we see what happened when he turned his attention to one of BC Rich's most iconic designs. I'll let John talk you through it:

Here's a Mockingbird I finished up earlier this year. I'm a fan of the more unusual body shapes, and the Mockingbird has long been one of my favorites.

This one has a mahogany body. I don't know what strain of mahogany it is, but it's dang heavy. In hindsight, I really should have thinned it down a lot more than it is, but oh well. If it bugs me too much down the road I can always just make another body for it. :)

The flat top of the BC Rich version never looked right to me, so I gave all of the edges a soft bevel. Except for the "axe" - it had to stay sharp. You rarely see a guitar painted a really in-your-face yellow, so that was the way to go for this one.

The neck was a bit of an experiment. I glued up purpleheart and lightly flamed maple with the intention of dropping the truss rod in from the back, like on some Fenders. After wrestling with how to fill in the trench in the back, it was suggested to just slice off a piece of the neck blank, use it for the fretboard, and drop the truss rod in the front. As it was from not only the same piece of wood but the same place IN the board, the purpleheart glued back almost seamlessly.

For anyone who might be concerned about the strength of a pinstriped fretboard, you shouldn't be. 99.99% of the time, a properly glued joint will be stronger than the surrounding wood. Fender has been putting a walnut skunk stripe in the back of their necks for decades without issue.

The pickups are a story unto themselves. A friend of mine winds pickups for me in exchange for bodies. He made these with purpleheart bobbins to match the neck. Using wood bobbins isn't too uncommon in the high-end custom shops that wind their own pickups, but they don't come cheap. I'm extremely fortunate to have this friend. These are wound pretty close to PAFs, but a touch brighter.

Chrome hardware and a Kahler finish off the guitar. The electronics are as simple as I get: a 3-way switch, 1 volume, and 1 tone.

John

Thanks for showing us this fine looking guitar, John. I particularly like the multi-lam neck, and the sculpted contours of the body (it's very yellow isn't it?).

G L Wilson

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

Aria SB-800 bass with 6-bolt neck

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Tyler Beard writes:

This is a rare variant of the famous Aria SB-1000. From the front it is an SB-1000, but turn it over and you'll see a brass neck plate. Indeed, it is a bolt-on. The neck plate is relatively large because there are 2 hidden screws under it. Why exactly this hidden screw design was chosen, I can't say. Otherwise, this bass is every bit the SB-1000, and equal in its quality and sound. It runs on an 18-volt active circuit. It shares the SB-1000's B.B. Circuit and is a tone monster. Brass bridge, nut, and back plates, aluminun knobs. Has sealed tuners that are very high quality. The body is, in the style of Matsumoku, a neck-through look-alike. It's a laminate of Oak, Maple, and Walnut. Also has the Matsumoku trademark 5-piece maple neck.

The neck also has some features that are atypical of your average. It has almost no taper, so it's consistent and if you feel the need to shred like Cliff Burton (I often do), no problem. Also, the neck is sculpted at the neck joint so that your hand slides onto a smooth curve and not a sudden block where the neck and body join. And the instead of using a scarf joint, the angled headstock is given added strength through leaving excess wood where it goes to the neck. I also feel this bass puts the neck joint=sustain argument to rest. This can easily hold a note long as any set neck or neck through.

Curiously, mine has 2 serial numbers. One on the neck plate, and one on the back of the headsotck. The bass can only date to 1978 (the neck plate agrees), as it was only produced for that year. The headstock says it would be a 1981. I find it unlikely this is a replaced neck, though. It's possible parts were overproduced. The headstock design (the "bat-ear") also dates to the late 70s models as opposed to those in the 80s, and no SB had a neck like this with 6-bolts and the heel so it could not be a transplant off of another model.

~Tyler Beard

Thanks for showing us this bass, Tyler. I couldn't possibly comment as to its rarity value, but it's certainly true that the through-neck style is much better known when it comes to this design of Matsumoku-produced Aria basses. If anyone else has any more information, please leave a comment below, in the usual time-honoured fashion here at Guitarz.

G L Wilson

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

The guitars of Christian Blandhoel

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Christian Blandhoel is a Norwegian visual and audio artist.

He has quite a collection of self-customised guitars which form his "Sonics" series of art works. These aren't guitars for conventional playing. They can have any number of strings, oddly-positioned pickups, springs as bass strings, pickups behind the bridge, etc. Some don't even seem to have a neck as such.

For more of his work please see here and for the guitars specifically here. Much of it is in Norwegian, but I still found plenty to look at and thought it was utterly fascinating.


G L Wilson

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

Galveston Lucifer

guitarz.blogspot.com

This is the Galveston Lucifer. 

Can't tell much more about it since there are no information on Galveston on the Internet! I just found that's it's the US front brand of a Korean company, and they have an Internet address that leads to no site! 

Though this kind of guitars is not my cup of tea, I think that its design is quite nice. It's well balanced, dynamic, not ridiculous and ergonomic, with an updated 80s Peavey taste - much better than most BC Rich monsters. Do we face a glam-metal come-back?

bertram

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

Ras Allover's The Crotch bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Regular readers might remember Ras Allover's Log bass which we looked at in March 2009.

Now he's back with a new log-based 4-string creation, named "The Crotch" which he claims is possibly the sexiest bass alive today.

Specs

Body: Ash *
Neck: Rock Maple w. Walnut Skunk Sripe
Bridge: BADASS
Pickup: MAXXON Vintage Single Coil
Strings: Heavy Gage ELIXIR Nano-Web Coated
Controls: Stacked Concentric Volume - Tone
Hand made in Toronto, Canada

Sounds and plays great with an exellent sustain and a deep rumble bassy tone.

Won 1st Price at the 'Six String Garage' instrument competition in Toronto, Canada!

Ras has even sent in an accompanying joke, which must be a first for Guitarz:

A tree grows up in the forest and doesn't know what kind of tree it is. So it decides to ask the Maple tree: 'Hey, Mr. Maple, I am trying to figure out what tree I am!' So Mr. Maple looks at him and says: 'I am not too sure, why don't you ask Mr. Pine over there?'

Ok so the young tree goes: 'Hey, Mr. Pine, I am trying to figure out what tree I am, can you help me out!' And Mr. Pine says: 'You know, I can't really tell from where I'm standing, why don't you ask Mr. Oak, he's been around the longest.'

So the little tree goes: 'Hey, Mr. Oak, I am trying to figure out what tree I am, any ideas?' Mr. Oak looks at him and says: 'You know, I am not too sure whether you are a son of a Beech or a son of a Birch, but your mother was definitely the best piece of Ash in the forest ...'

So there you go, a wood-based joke for all you luthiers and lovers of tonewoods. (Don't I remember an episode of The Phil Silvers Show in which Sgt Bilko was trying to persuade a bunch of TV executives that wood was currently what everyone was laughing at?)

G L Wilson

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