Vintage & Rare guitar of the week: Wandre Rockbasso - 1960s Italian sculptural minimalism

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This vintage Italian Wandre Rockbasso is a perfect example of a guitar that is both sculptural and minimalistic.

It's a short-scale bass with a single pickup at the neck and a single volume control behind the tailpiece at the base of the instrument. This particular Wandre model allows you to see how the backbone of Wandre's steel neck passes straight through the body of the instrument all the way down to the tail-end. I'm guessing that in this instance it is also carrying the wiring from the pickup.

Someone has rather inexpertly removed the frets, which unfortunately may devalue the instrument slightly. I say "inexpertly" because no effort has been made to fill in the empty fret slots and refinish the fingerboard. It all seems such a waste of effort, because to get the best advantage of the fretless sound, a shortscale bass with a single pickup mounted at the neck does not present the best candidate for conversion. It also contributes to rather spoil this classic vintage bass. On the plus side, because the fret slots haven't been filled in and lacquered over, it should make refretting a much easier task if someone decides to restore this bass.

This bass is currently being offered for sale by Palm Guitars in The Netherlands via Vintage & Rare, price available on application.

If you thought you'd seen something similar previously on Guitarz, we looked at the 6-string guitar version, the Wandre Rock 6, back in May 2008.

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Rickenbacker 260 El Dorado

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I usually avoid to label a guitar as being rare, since it is usually just a cliché intending to add value to a banal instrument - and often it is its only virtue. In the case of this Rickenbacker 260 El Dorado, it might well be true, and it's just a detail because it's above all a Ricky and you can't be disappointed... But you won't find this guitar on rickenbacker.com, it's a short-lived model from the early 1990s and there are not many traces of it left on the Internet, just a few positive reviews here and there...

At first sight, though its quite discreet design, the El Dorado looks bizarre: it has a typical Rickenbacker feel but looks like no other of their more famous models, more like a double cutaway version of a telecaster, if I may say so (another Fender-esque trait is its bolted neck). Its pickups looks like nothing else - they are actually mini humbuckers, very Ricky as are the headstock, the pickguard (more a control plate) and the binding. This one has a fireglo (red burst) finish and golden gear.

The 260 El Dorado doesn't have the presence of a 620 or a 330 but it has the lines of a classic. I'd be curious to know what made people at Rickenbacker release it then cancel it so quick - I'm not against experimentation, on the contrary, but creating a new model is quite a lot of work and investment, it feels like a bad business move...

Bertram

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Double Dragon guitar offers impractical body design and very silly headstock shape

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A few years ago we here at Guitarz were accused of only ever showing hideous or amusing guitars on the blog rather than beautiful or desireable guitars. I do believe that we have reversed that situation in the intervening years, but I am still drawn to the occasional abomination that I would like to share, such as the Double Dragon guitar pictured here which is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a starting price of $275.

I suspect it may be from the same Far Eastern maker that produced the Squashed Frog (supposedly another "double dragon") and whatever this is supposed to be. My guess is that these guitars are inspired by some of ESP's wilder Japanese guitar designs (you know, the ones featuring angels with intricately feathered wings), but I doubt these are of similar quality. What is similar is the totally impractical design, and what must surely be the worst headstock design I've seen since the Kramer Triax. Did they not know that a straight string pull is desireable?

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1960s Japanese Mosrite-inspired semi-hollowbody

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What with the popularity of The Ventures in 1960s Japan and the whole "Group Sounds" phenomenon, it was inevitable somehow that the one of the most emulated guitar brands was Mosrite. Note how this particular 1960s Japanese-made Mosrite-inspired guitar even has the "M" headstock. It is lacking a name badge or logo, and I guess could have appeared under one of many brand names.

One feature I thought was particularly interesting is the volume and tone controls mounted discretely beneath the pickguard's edge - surely a throwback to how electrics were originally mounted on archtop jazz guitars.

The guitar is "untested" and as such is being sold for parts or repair. It's currently listed on eBay with bidding at $188 at the time of writing.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Gibson Explorer Shadow Bass from 1986 - but where are the pickups?

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Graphics like these appeared on a number of mid-1980s Gibson Explorer guitars and basses, but more unusually this 1986 Gibson Explorer Shadow Bass appears to have no pickups. Of course, it does have pickups but not of the magnetic variety that you'd usually expect to find on a solidbody instrument; the bass features piezo elements in the bridge saddles courtesy of Shadow pickups. This specific model bass was produced in very small numbers, and were apparently only in production for one year.

This bass is currently listed on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £1,075 (approx $1,690 USD at the time of writing).

Another example is listed by an American seller on Vintage & Rare and priced at $2,500.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Here comes Noddy... (No, not Noddy Holder from Slade... the other one...)

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I feel it would be rather mean of me to make any disparaging comments about this nylon-strung acoustic guitar decorated with what appears to be wrapping paper featuring Enid Blyton's "Noddy" character (a citizen of Toy Town, his neck was made from a spring which meant that his head was always nodding, hence his name). It brought a smile to my face, and kids will probably love it, so that's good enough for me.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Andreas by Infeld stratoid guitar

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We recently saw the radical Andreas Fierce Shark, here is a more tamed model by Andreas (in collaboration with Austrian guitar strings company Thomastik-Infeld), still with the typical mix of elegance and high-tech design, soft coat finish and brushed aluminium plates, but a more classic stratocaster pickups configuration.

Bertram

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Vintage & Rare guitar of the week: Pagelli Splash Bass

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I don't know how many bassists could get away with playing a bass like this Pagelli Splash Bass because it makes a very visual statement. Maybe someone like Adam Clayton of U2 or Gerry Casale of Devo (although as a left-hander he would have to play it upside-down, which might actually look more correct with this design!).

Pagelli guitars and basses are designed and hand-built by Claudio Pegelli in Switzerland. Pagelli designs are certainly fresh and interesting compared with the mainstream. This Splash Bass is a perfect example of a fully functional bass guitar that is also sculpturally exciting as an art work. Pagelli describes it very succintly:

Simply funky! Body alder, neck maple, pick-ups by Harry Häussel / covers and tunerknobs by Pagelli.

This bass is available from Pagelli via Vintage and Rare, price on application.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Oddball Italian acoustic is not quite what you'd want on your spaghetti western soundtrack

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The eBay seller of this guitar has listed it under the title Vintage Italian Acoustic Guitar Rare and Cool Spaghetti Western Guitar, which must surely be rather wishful thinking. I can't imagine this guitar being much use on an Ennio Morricone soundtrack. It's obviously one of the cheaper guitars churned out of Italy during the 1960s Beat Boom when the musical instrument makers of Europe couldn't produce guitars fast enough to satisfy demand. However, it is not without its charms and has a certain innocence to it. Witness the plastic bridge and sound hole rosette, and the assymetrically mounted tuners. The two additional soundholes couldn't accurately be described as being f-holes, and serve to make the guitar all the more curious.

Currently listed on eBay with a possibly optimistic starting bid of $240.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Can anyone identify this double Florentine cutaway semi-hollowbody bass?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Rui writes:

I would like to know something about this bass. I bought it in the internet. I suppose that is from 60s or early 70s. Good warm sound and lightweight. Did not have a brand but a serial number behind the awful painting. Thanks in advance.

Rui from Portugal

I'm afraid it's not one that I recognize. Does anyone out there have any ideas?

G L Wilson

Edit: It's an Egmond Colorado! (See comments).

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!