Here is a good old DDR Musima-Herrnsdorf archtop. Herrnsdorf was another Markneukirchen-based instruments company started in the 19th century, turned electric in the 1950s - producing inevitably cool Schlaggitarren, mother-of-toilet-seat covered Hawaiian guitars and solid body upright basses - then merged with Musima in the early 1970s. The top of the guitar sports a Musima logo and the all-in-one scratchplate / control plate / pickup cover the Herrnsdorf brand.
It seems unlikely that in the 1970s anybody would still produce this kind of device to turn an acoustic archtop into an electric one so I guess this guitar is probably old stock put together - after all Herrsndorf pickups were also known as Rellog, a quite famous East-German brand, so they had to be used, even if the guitar itself - though elegant and well proportioned - has nothing of the flamboyant models of the 1950s...
Bertram D
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Wow, highest action I've seen in a long time! Cool guitar though.
ReplyDeleteThe pickup/pickguard thingie doesn't look like it's original-there are two extra holes in the side of the body from where it had a different pickguard at some point.
ReplyDeletegood point Jake, it's a retrofit!
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