1930s Wappen classical guitars

guitarz.blogspot.com

Being from the 1930s, this Wappen nylon string guitar is more than vintage, it's antique! So antique that it was not strung at first with nylon but with gut (ox or cat) like all classical guitars did until the late 1940s - actually when all the gut was used as surgical thread for the wounded of the WWII, urging guitarists to discover nylon that was invented in 1935 and used so far to make fishing thread - a.o.

It's a German guitar, with a quite different design than the more regular models from southern Europe (France, Italy and Spain) that fixed the shape in the 19th century and made it universal. Germany's contribution to guitar design didn't start with electrification!

bertram

Edit: lots of extra info in the comments!

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

This is a long one one one one ne ne ne e e e e e e

In a slight departure from my previous posts, I'd like to talk about a couple of things that interest me. Echo machines, an echo machine that's on eBay right now and eBay in general.

I've always been keen on echo machines and I've owned quite a few different makes over the years.

One of the great things about tape echo, apart from the sound quality, is being able to manipulate the tape for on-the-fly effects like grabbing hold of the tape guide, finger pressure to slow down the repeats or when it's recording (when you let go it speeds up). Great for dub effects and "experimental" music styles. The Echoplex goes one step further and incorporates a moving head which opens up a whole bag of possibilities. This video on Youtube shows it in action and you don't even need to plug a guitar in (that can't be right).

Anyone interested in the possibilities of the Echoplex only has to listen to John Martyn (Solid Air is a good place to start). It's hard to believe what he was doing in the 70s and it still sounds fresh today.

The down side of tapes is they wear out and start to get noisy pretty quick but even that can be a source of sound texture. The down side of those old machines themselves is the motors can be pretty noisy and earthing (grounding US) standards weren't so stringent in those days so it's not a bad idea to get an electrician to go over it as simply earthing it can cause a hum loop.

I was intrigued by this VERY-OLD-GUITAR-RECORDER on eBay as it was obviously not a recorder but a tape delay. Unfortunately the pictures were so bad and the description so scant that it seemed a dead end. Guitarz to the rescue. Gavin suggested it might be an Echoplex but it's not how I remembered my own one from years ago. Google to the rescue. A few minutes of Googling and the track was getting warmer. It was some kind of Echoplex but I couldn't find anything that looked similar. Photoshop to the rescue. A little enhancement with curves (Image > Adjustments > Curves) and a lot more detail was revealed. This has been modified and flight-cased (professionally?) to give a much longer loop and extra playback heads. Now I'm really intrigued but Google hasn't been able to throw any more light on it. Is this a standard mod (a kit?) because it seems pretty well done?

Can any of our readers shed some light?

As we are uncommonly fond of eBay and while we're on the subject, here are some of my eTips.

1. Put a few GOOD pictures of your offering. Especially important if you're not sure what that gizmo is yourself. There are a lot of generous eBayers out there who will offer information on your obscure or mis-titled treasure.

2. Describe it. Does it work? That's a good one, always works for me. If it's a guitar, the single most important and problematic to fix is the neck. Is it straight? and what's the action like? I am a lot less likely to trust something where they say "I'll let the pictures do the talking" and I'm especially suspicious of guitars which are "set up for slide".

3. Delivery. I know it's a fag taking stuff to the Post Office but if you live in Lower Uppington-in-the-Marshes, the chances of finding a buyer who can collect from you but only Wednesday mornings is greatly reduced. And, once you've dragged yourself all the way down to Post Office, there really isn't any difference sending it to another country. That will increase your selling chances greatly.

4. Do your homework and find out what's a reasonable price. One of the techniques that real auctioneers use to get a little competition going is starting off on an attractive price. If it's too high you reduce the chances of even getting started. There was Vox Organ Guitar sold recently after being listed three times. It went for a lot more than her BIN price in the first listing and there was a flurry of activity in the closing moments. The only thing she did was add a little more info and start off on a lower price. I know coz I was bidding for it and I gave her that extra info (see 1 above).

5. As much as you want to get the highest price for your treasure, what you paid for it has no relationship to what you can expect to get for it. There is a six month old guitar on eBay right now with a BIN price that's higher than the price (including delivery and guarantee) from both Thomann and Amazon.

Any more eBay tips?

David in Barcelona

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Not just RARE but EXTRA RARE. Soviet rare doubleneck guitar YEREVAN #089 double neck

This is one of my favourite eBay sellers. Not because I've ever bought anything from him (yet) but simply because of the wonderful instruments he digs up. AND THIS BEAUTY IS NO EXCEPTION.

Those Soviet manufacturers were no slackers when it came to souping up the humble six string. This one even has an extra neck. Not to mention enough wood in the body to make three normal guitars. I've not heard of Yeravan until now but this is certainly an eye opener and I will be researching this brand in the not too distant future.

To be perfectly honest, it's not really my cup of tea but it does have a decidedly WTF aspect to it that would be hard to ignore. The solid black colour is pretty restrained considering the shape of the body and the pick ups are nicely understated but the single horn and the strange shape of the rear edge, the mismatched headstocks, the apparently cheese cutter action all conspire to make this hard to justify it's $500 (plus shipping) price tag. To me, the word "rare" is bandied about a bit too much in the vicinity of odd guitars. And don't get me started on "extra rare". That should only be applied to steaks, according to my missus. It may well be extra rare but in this instance, I'd say there was a very good reason.

David in Barcelona

guitarz.blogspot.com:Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Vintage 1960s Imperial Guyatone Teisco Kawai whatever project

guitarz.blogspot.com:

There are two of these Imperial guitars on eBay at this very moment and neither seller knows exactly what the make is so they're both throwing around cool, collectible, desirable, hip, MIJ, Sears catalogue, rare, vintage, 60's brand names in the hope they'll catch the attention of hip collectors.

This is my kind of vintage project so it did catch my attention. I love the mix of old - sunburst, pearloid, traditional headstock, script logo - and new - jaggedy scratchplate, sharp horns, rocker switches. It's like they didn't know which market to go for so went for both. Notice the Strat jack socket too.

Had I seen this beauty in a car boot sale in Banbury for ten quid back in the day, it would have definitely joined my project collection.

A nice little note regarding "project" guitars: one of the sellers says "Put this poject in your basement and take it out of mine". As someone who, at one time, had 24 project guitars (I counted them) in various stages of never going to be finished, this has an ominous ring of truth about it.

David in Barcelona

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

Hola from Barcelona

First of all, a big thank you to Gavin and Bertram for inviting me to contribute to Guitarz. I've been sending in odd bits and bobs - mostly from the wonderful Aladdins cave known as eBay - over the months and now it's official. I'm now one of the family. Don't forget my birthday. You know what I want.

In keeping with Guitarz's venerable traditions, I want to kick off with a few Ebay treasures that I've uncovered just this very evening. In case anyone thinks it sad to be blogging (even on Guitarz Blog) on a Saturday night, we are heading out later to catch a live band. Don't fret.

So, where to start?

OK. A Teisco Tele Star. It looks in great nick, the colour is a superb rich red and it has four pickups and a set of block rocking rocker switches. No! No! No! No! What more could you want from a guitar? The aluminium scratchplate is brutally simple and the headstock has more than a hint of (one my favourite guitars) Microfrets about it. I guess the hole in the tailpiece plate is for a, long lost, tremolo arm. I'd have though it would get in the way of the strings...

According to the seller "This 20 fret, trussrod adjustable, 4 pickup truly awesome rockin' guitar is perfect for both the collector and player". Who am I to disagree?

PS. The link below is my Soundcloud page which has a little about me. One day I'll get a proper blog of my own going.

David in Barcelona

guitarz.blogspot.com:Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

More Marma - a pure beauty

guitarz.blogspot.com

Once again, I have very little to tell about this Marma solid body, but that it has one of the most astonishing designs I've ever seen in a guitar. And it's not only original, it's beautiful, dynamic, elegant, joyful...

I stated this several times already, but I do wish someone would revive this kind of extremely cool European vintage guitars, not only American or Japanese ones like Eastwood does!

bertram

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

So, Musima, Migma or Marma?

guitarz.blogspot.com

Dear readers,

that will be the question that all true guitar lovers will ask themselves henceforth: is this unbranded vintage East-german guitar a Musima, a Migma or a Marma (the three leading electric guitar brands in GDR, that - according to a comment about the previous Marma post - used to subcontract parts making to each others since they didn't have to compete, thus making some models almost impossible to differen-tiate)?

bertram (thanx to David B and Karl)

Marma hollow body guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com

Another brand about which I have very little to tell (in these times of vintage worship, I wish someone would seriously write the ultimate book about unknown electric guitars), this time from East-germany. This Marma is not as exuberant as the guitars from West-Germany of the time, but it's very elegant with its classic shape, curved pickguard, sound holes, control plate and tail, and its long tremolo arm.

Marma produced also solid bodies, banjos and some guitar devices that I will present soon here (and all information about Marma is welcome).

bertram

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

1978 Electra MPC Outlaw X-720

guitarz.blogspot.com

Another model with built in effects, the Electra MPC Outlaw X-720 allows to choose 2 effects out of 12 modules available (MPC stands for Modular Powered Circuits). With a original and minimal design (I particularly enjoy the 4 knobs in line and the very elegant headstock), it has a neck-through-body, two humbuckers - one zebra in bridge position, one with a chrome cover -, big abalone fretboard inlays and a massive stoptail.

Electra was another of these excellent and creative 70s Japanese guitar brands that emerged from the previous copy era. I guess that the same thing will happen with Chinese guitars in the coming 10 years!

bertram

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

Tempest Japanese Strat with built-in effects

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Remember the Fresher Straighter Japanese Strat-a-like with built-in drum machine? Well, here we have a similar guitar with built-in effects (sustain/drive, phase and auto-wah) this one bearing the Tempest brand. With a solid ash body and excellent build quality, this is one to look out for if you don't mind the bizarrely-shaped pickguard and all those extra controls.

G L Wilson

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