Auerswald Instruments Viva - German design, luthiery and engineering a mere snip at $10,000

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's a guitar from a maker which we are not used to seeing turning up on eBay with any kind of frequency. It's an Auerswald Instruments Viva, numbered 12 in a very limited series.

Auerswald guitars and basses are boutique instruments handcrafted in Germany by Jerry Auerswald, and used by the rich and famous, people like Prince, U2's Adam Clayton, and Chico Hablas ("Who?" you may ask. I've tried finding out more about him myself, for he played one of my favourite ever guitar solos on the song "Desire" by Yello - other than his work for Yello I know nothing about the man).

This particular Auerswald guitar looks positively normal alongside some of their other designs (see for yourself at www.auerswald-instruments.com). Note the use of proprietary hardware rather than the same generic parts seen on, well, just about everything these days - and with a price tag when new of approx $40,000, I should think so too! However, you could snap up this particular example for a fraction of that price, as this guitar is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $10,000.

G L Wilson

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

What's that weird guitar on page 15 of the book "500 Guitars"?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Via the Amazon.com page for "500 Guitars", Thomas Kelly has asked the following question:

What is the guitar on page 15? According to the book it should be the 57 Chevy but I can't find this model anywhere on the internet.

My answer (which a friend has posted on Amazon.com for me because having a UK Amazon account I am unable to post on the American site) is as follows:

Hi Thomas,

I wish the publishers had let me check through the proofs before going to print because they got a lot of the pictures wrong. I did offer to do this for them and was never taken up on the offer. Right at the start I was told I could choose ANY guitars I wanted to write about and that their art department would find the pictures, and that it wouldn't be a problem.

The guitar in the picture on page 15 is a guitar made by Auerswald Instruments, a German company specialising in innovative designs. On page 22 there is a write up of the Auerswald Model C guitar, but the picture on page 15 isn't a Model C. It's not a model currently on their website but you'll see from the other guitars in the range that stylistically it shares many traits including the "Sustain Bow" arm connecting the head to the body.

If you want to see a picture of a 57 Chevy, just Google "American Showster 57 Chevy" and check the images!

G L Wilson

STOP PRESS...  Antoine L tells us that:

"It is not a Auerswald. It's a model inspired by Auerswald made ​​by Ed Roman:
http://www.edroman.com/guitars/abstract/kingpin.htm

Grrrrr... This is what happens when you let your publishers collect together the photos to go in your guitar book.

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1993 Auerswald 'Chico Hablas'

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I really hate this kind of guitars, but hey, it's part of the family, and this one is quite noticeable with the Auerswald trademark 'sustain bow'. It's supposed to have a terrific sound and extra sustain (and I counted the frets, there are 31 ones, it's much worse than 8 strings).

Still the look is a little bit familiar since German luthier Auerswald built a couple of guitars for Prince (I never stopped calling him Prince, and that's cool because he calls himself Prince again now), including the iconic Love Symbol guitar.

Check the links for and more pictures and specifications.

"Purple rain, purple raaaaaaain !!"

Bertram

EDIT: There are more and more fake blogs out there, that are stealing material from real blogs, thus also stealing bandwidth. If you read this post on any blog that is not the Guitar Blog > http://guitarz.blogspot.com, you are on such a fake blog that is just trying to get people to click on their ads and make money dishonestly, such as http://www.rehearsalbarn.com/blog/guitar-blog.htm, http://www.boondocksblues.com, http://www.electricguitarshack.info, http://guitarismylifealltime.blogspot.com,... We don't know yet how to prevent this, so the readers must help, please blacklist them and join the real thing.

Happy Birthday to U2's bassist Adam Clayton, who is 44 years old today.

By the way, that mad looking bass is by Auerswald Instruments.

Auerswald-instruments: Did you ever wonder where Prince got that Symbol guitar from? A fascinating selection of innovative space-aged instruments.

I notice that there is a Chico Hablas model. All that I know about Chico Hablas is that he played guitar on certain songs by swiss funsters Yello; in fact his laid back but Oh So Cool solo on "Desire" on the album "Stella" has got to be one of my favourite guitar solos ever. Other than that I know nothing about the man. If anyone has any more information on Chico Hablas, please get in touch!