Sunday, 1 August 2010

1959 Valco Airline

valco airline

Another original of these vintage Valco Airline guitars re-issued by Eastwood in the 2000s. 

Airline was a house brand of department store Montgomery Ward - built by Valco - and we already posted about the complicated cross-brand background of this kind of guitars...

bertram

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

Saturday, 31 July 2010

1959 Silvertone 1423 aka Jupiter

silverstone

Another baby of the inevitable cross-brand electric guitar industry in the 60s, this Silvertone 1423 was actually built by Harmony (as the H49 Stratotone Jupiter), equipped with DeArmond pickups and released exclusively in black / gold sparkle finish. Its chambered body made it very light and highly appreciated by beginners.

Silvertone had its models based on Danelectro, Harmony, Kay, National or Teisco guitars - they were actually manufactured by these companies with slight variation and branded by Silvertone that was the music instrument brand of the Sears Department Stores from the 30s until the early 70s.  

Bertram

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

Friday, 30 July 2010

Jackson Custom Shop "Black Beauty" Dominion Mark Morton signature

Jackson Custom Shop Dominion Mark Morton Black Beauty

This Mark Morton signature Jackson Dominion is a very honorable neck-through, chambered mahogany body, double humbucker guitar with a descent classic no-nonsense design, slightly twisted but without the hint of genius you would expect from this kind of instrument. 
It was conceived by Jackson for Mark Morton who plays in some metal band called Lamb of God and who wanted 'a guitar with which he could also play rock or blues'.

The guy just invented electric guitar it seems!

bertram

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

Thursday, 29 July 2010

Fender Jaguar Special HH

Jaguar HH

The Fender Jaguar Special HH could seem not so special - well, it's just another Jaguar -, but - beside its name - it's very special to me since I'm the proud and happy owner of one of these babies.

It was love at he first sight (and I was a Fender hater until then - now I'm just a strat hater) after being faithful for about 20 years to my Rickenbacker 620 and my Ovation Breadwinner! It has a kind of perfect look, not with the classicism of a Les Paul or a ES-175, but in its own twisted way despite the venerable age of the Jaguar (see the previous Jaguar post).

So the HH (as it's often nicknamed) has the usual design, 24' scale and typical complex electronics of a Jaguar, but it's mounted with Fender's Dragster Humbuckers - sounding really superb - and a tune-o-matic style stop tail (official name is Adjust-o-matic, must be American humor). It has a simple black nitro finish and black pickguard and lots of chrome, and a super cool 1969 strat headstock with vintage tuners. You put your fingers on the neck and they start to play on their own and to do things you didn't know you can do.

It was made in Japan in the 2000s, and I found contradictory information about it being exclusive to the Japanese market or not. I thought so for a long time and it was sold to me as an import - and you don't see it so often around -, but this is not mentioned on the Fender website so it's doubtful. There is also a baritone version (a real baritone, not a 6-string bass), that I will accept as a present any time.

bertram


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

Wednesday, 28 July 2010

50s Premier/Multivox Custom doubleneck guitar in gold sparkle finish

Gold double neck

This Premier doubleneck guitar is one of the craziest looking one I ever saw, and by crazy I don't mean just bizarre for the sake of it, but joyful and eccentric. And it definitely predates the glam era since it's from the 50s - though probably just one of its kind - only the Bigsby and the stoptail have been recently changed. 

I would write more about it but I'm mesmerized by the gold sparkle finish. I think that the ETs are trying to contact me!

bertram

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

Tuesday, 27 July 2010

Henman Bevilacqua S1

Henman-Bevilacqua S1

With this Jazzmaster-looking Henman-Bevilacqua S1, Henman Guitars proposes an interesting combination of classicism and... well, I cannot say modernism or high-tech, since electric guitar is ontologically modern and high-tech, so let's say progressiveness. You could say that there's nothing new in the two humbuckers (tappable though) and Bigsby trem but if you look closely at all the details, you will see that this guitar has clearly something (I just wish they wouldn't spoil a transparent black finish with a figured maple top when the body is made of solid mahogany...). 

If you are interested in this Hen-Bev S1, go and have a look at their website, they have plenty of technical specs about stuff like their avant-garde tuners and truss rod, plus a couple of video demos that allows you to hear its terrific sound (very rock/blues though - but it seems that it's what 99% of players expect - ah, and someone should tell the demo player that an emo haircut after 21 is pathetic).

About the Jaguar/Jazzmaster design, it's strange but I have to admit that though it's been introduced in 1958 - shortly after the Telecaster (50), the Les Paul (51) and the Stratocaster (54) - and widely spread in the 60s by European companies (mostly Italian and German), it didn't turn into a boring cliché but kept a radical feel - probably because it wasn't overexploited by Fender. So Henman played it safe when they chose this design, both familiar and with a maverick spirit.  

bertram

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

Monday, 26 July 2010

BC Rich Gunslinger Power customized in Swarovski crystal

gunslinger crystal

Usually I don't post about wacky guitar finishes, but it's summer, all our readers are partying in Ibiza or hiking in the Appalachians, and this one is really really special.
So put on your shades and look at this BC Rich Gunslinger Power customized in Swarovski crystal by the Crystalz Rock company - yes, there is definitely a glam gene in Brits' blood that can be triggered any time.

Making such a guitar requires to glue 5000 crystals by hand, one by one, but playing it cannot be without 30 cm platform boots, tight lamé catsuit, glitter make-up and big big hair.

bertram

PS. nothing to say about the BC Rich Gunslinger - it's just some superstrat...

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

Sunday, 25 July 2010

1967 Gibson Kalamazoo KG2 serial number 00001

Gibson Kalamazoo KG2
Here is the Gibson Kalamazoo KG2, Gibson's response to Fender's Mustang at a time when the two dominant companies didn't yet carefully split the market. And it is probably the most Fender model produced by Gibson ever, not only by its design but with the single coils pickups, bolt neck, 6-in line tuners, tremolo (though it's a very Gibson short Vibrola trem with  Tune-o-matic bridge).

Kalamazoo was a short-lived budget line released by Gibson in the late 60s - there was two models, this one and a SG-style one, each with one or two pickups (KG1 & KG2) and with 2 different scales (both short), with bodies made of artificial wood (MDF) and cheap gear.

And this one has the serial number 00001 - it can interest collectors...

bertram


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

Friday, 23 July 2010

Yamaha Pacifica with mirror fingerboard

yamaha pacifica


This mirror fingerboard guitar  is intriguing - at least for me who know very little about fretless guitars. I crossed just a few on my way (but never played one) and they used either hardwood or metal...

Mirror feels a little fragile to me but I can credit the maker of this customization for being innovative - though I wonder why he would do that on a low-end Yamaha Pacifica (unless it's just a prototype)...

If anybody has extra info, it's welcome!


bertram

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

1968 Zen-On Morales ESP-290 Black Bison

zen-on morales bison
An hollow-body guitar with Bison Style horns, who could dream of a cooler guitar? This Zen-On Morales ESP-290 Black Bison is a beauty (the pickguard is not original) and I wonder why pointy horns are so rare on this kind of guitars (there is an other example with the Barney Kessel models - a.o. this one by Gibson).

Like many 60s Japanese guitar companies, Zen-On is a blur entity. It is spelled either Zen-On or Zenon - that is very different - before shifting to Morales (why this one is a Zen-On Morales I don't know), but has been labeled also Futurama, while producing a few Jaguaresque original models (remarkable for their contoured pickguards) , but also Mosrite or Teisco clones... And it seems that in the 70s they shifted to acoustic guitars but without a FetishGuitars.com website for Japanese vintage guitars, it's hard to tell.

bertram


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

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