What's up, Doc?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This guitar has a Kramer Baretta body married to a Custom Dreams neck (Custom Dreams being the name used by Garden State Music in New Jersey). It also features - as you may possibly have noticed - a Bugs Bunny graphic, possibly painted by Dennis Kline (who worked for both Kramer and Garden State Music) or possibly it's a copy of Kline's work; the seller isn't 100% certain. Unfortuately the finish is slightly marred by several surface cracks.

This guitar is currently listed on eBay with a starting bid of £999.99.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

1982 Japanese Matsumoku-made Aria Pro II Urchin Junior model

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've looked at a 1980s-era Matsumoku-made Aria Pro II Urchin before, but I hadn't reaslised that they also made this 3/4-scale "Junior" version of the Urchin which the seller tells us was manufactured in 1982. (I could have done with a short-scale guitar like this recently for a piece that required playing in an A-a tuning).

This guitar is currently listed on eBay Uk with a Buy It Now price of £315.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

unidentified Hopf solid-body

guitarz.blogspot.com

You cannot have a full frontal picture of this beautiful Hopf guitar, because the mirror effect of its amazing chrome front plate would show the photographer - that is not the purpose (even if he/she is fully dressed). Hopf was probably the most creative guitar company - and my favorite - of cold war West-Germany - less conservative than its fellow companies and more in the spirit of the East-German ones... Their hollow-bodied Schlaggitarren are easy to spot - the Saturn 63 is a deserving star -, but the solid-bodies are less known and mostly still undocumented on the Internet.

This one looks like their most common model Telstar - with the Jaguar-based body en vogue in Europe in the 1960s - but the pickguard shape doesn't fit, though the chrome frenzy is typically Hopf. It's actually such in a good state that I've considered that it's been retrofitted - the body finish seems to have been changed too - but who would redo such a complex thing with all the (marvellous) knobs and switches?

I love this guitar, I should buy it - after all my kid doesn't really need snow boots and winter coat, and all these piano lessons, does he?

Bertram D

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

When is a Burns Bison not a Burns Bison?...

guitarz.blogspot.com:

...when it's a 1960s Japanese-made Kawai Telestar!

These days it seems the only guitars that get copied are the same tired old designs from the likes of Fender or Gibson (and throw Martin into the mix too when considering acoustic guitars), but not too many decades ago the Far Eastern copyists (in those days, Japanese) were much more adventurous. This Telestar is a beautfiul recreation of the Burns Bison, complete with batwing headstock shape, TriSonic lookalike pickups, split pickguard (or should I say "scratchplate" seeing as it's a British design), and even Burns' trademark Wild Dog, Treble, Jazz, and Split Sound tone settings.

This guitar, which surely must be as collectable as the real thing, is currently listed on eBay UK with a starting bid of £249.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

Shergold Custom Masquerader with extra pickup for stereo

guitarz.blogspot.com:

After Sunday's lovely 60s Vox Grand Prix, we have another classic British guitar. This time from the 70s.

This beauty is currently on Ebay. The seller doesn't go into much detail except to say that this is a 70s Shergold Custom Masquerader with extra single coil pickup with its own output for stereo use. He doesn't say whether it's an original variation or a later addition but as it is a "custom", maybe that's its customisation.

Judging from the same (slotted) screws on all the plates and the (surprisingly still present) bridge cover, it may well have been done by Shergold themselves. Shergold were an offshoot from Burns and Hayman, and are similar to the Haymans of the early seventies. Check out the Shergold site for more info.

Anyway, the other thing he doesn't say is how gorgeous this instrument is. It definitely fits in the "cracking" category. I love that yellow colour. A little reminiscent of Fender's Monaco yellow Strat. The first time I remember seeing one was being played by Chris Salmon of Stump on their "Chaos" video and have had a hankering for one ever since. This Shergold seems to be in pretty good shape and with a starting bid of £395, is giving me a very sunny feeling and is quite tempting.

David In Barcelona (I've been a bit quiet of late but hopefully I can get back into the swing of posting).
© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

Massive 1960s Ibanez Nashville 690-F dreadnought acoustic guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Never mind that this 1960s Ibanez Nashville 690-F dreadnought acoustic guitar has a 6-in-a-line headstock as more commonly associated with electric guitars, just check out the size of it! It's huge! See the more regularly-sized dreadnought guitar pictured next to it on the right hand side of the above photo montage. Soundwise the seller claims that it has a "deep, big, profound tone" that is "Morricone 'Once upon a time in the West' through and though"!

Currently being offered for sale on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £275.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

1967 Vox Grand Prix V286

guitarz.blogspot.com

There's been an interesting conversation about vintage Vox 

guitars in relation to this scary picture in a 2009 post, but it

was before Blogger had all the blog comments wiped off!

We've always been ardent admirers of vintage Vox guitars here at Guitarz - their instruments combined the genius of both British and Italian lutherie! Can you imagine a more dazzling vision than this Vox Grand Prix V286? 

It has everything a guitar lover can expect in a guitar: first a design that combines classicism with killer details - the trademark Vox anti-Fender headstock, the fierce claw-like florentine cutaway, the curved control plate... Then it offers several technical innovations such as a E-tuner, a hand-activated wah, other onboard effects such as a fuzz (labeled distortion but based on the circuit of the Vox Tonebender fuzz), a treble/bass booster and a superb repeat percussion (one of my favorite effects lately).

Onboard effects are really out of fashion nowadays but I have a softspot for them - must have been cool back then to just plug your guitar in your amp and still have a wide array of sounds at hand... There was no reason to be a purist in more innovative times!

Anyway, to help you to really get the point of this guitar, I add a scheme and a demo video - thank you Internet for providing all kind of documentation! And have a look at what instruments the new Vox proposes since a few years, their guitars keep the innovation and the good looks of the origins up to date, and a model like the HDC-77 is high on my wish-list!

:  

Bertram D

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

...and speaking of Indian instruments, Pete List plays the shahi baaja

guitarz.blogspot.com: It's not a guitar but it is a fretted, stringed instrument of sorts. Sometimes referred to as the "Indian Banjo", the shahi baaja is like some weird amalgam of guitar, sitar and typewriter! That description makes it sound like some eccentric cobbled-together Heath Robinson contraption, but it does sound amazing, especially in the capable hands of someone like the above Pete List.

Thanks to David in Barcelona for bringing this video to my attention.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

Mystery no-name red electric guitar, possibly Indian in origin

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I find myself strangely drawn to this single pickup "mystery" red electric guitar, which the eBay seller describes thus:

This guitar is clearly vintage but I have no idea who made it as there are no markings on it. The previous owner told me he believed it to be made in India but again there are no markings so I cannot confirm this. I do know that the guitar plays fairly well and works fine. That said it is a relatively budget instrument. The single pickup sounds ok but not great. The tuners are sort of cheap and while it stayed in tune for light playing it went a little south when I banged on it hard. There are bumps and bruises from normal play wear. I have no idea what kind of wood it is made of. It comes with a gig bag.

So, it's obviously a cheapie in the Kay/Harmony mold, but I can't halp thinking it'd be great for banging out some of those old garage band tunes.

Currently listed on eBay with a possibly tad optimistic Buy It Now price of $375.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

Piotrowski one-piece solidbody electric 12-string for sale in Canada

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Rich H brought this hand-made one-off Piotrowski one-piece solidbody electric 12-string to my attention. I don't know who Piotrowski is and whilst I don't particularly care for the exaggerated body horns, I have to admit it does look to be quite a neat piece of work, being carved out of a single piece of wood. Note how the neck smoothly transitions into the body without any heel. Conversely, check out the headstock: that's quite some volute up there! The guitar features two humbuckers with coil taps - probably a good idea seeing as the sound produced by humbuckers on a 12-string could be way over the top. Currently being offered for sale for $1,000 (Canadian, I assume).

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!