1959 Barth Mark VIII sunburst electric guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

From one of America's forgotten guitar companies, this beauty is a Barth Mark VIII from 1959. Paul Barth was perhaps more famously a guitar designer for Rickenbacker which I think is quite apparent  in the design here. He also designed guitars for Magnatone and Mosrite, not to mention the infamous Black Widow guitars and basses which appeared under his own Bartell brandname and also Hohner.

As this guitar is supposedly named the Mark VIII, I do wonder how many other models there were. I know that there was certainly a single pickup version of this guitar because we've looked at that on Guitarz before.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $2,999 which I personally think is optimistic.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

1959 Barth guitar looking strangely familiar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

The ebay auction for this Barth guitar from 1959 ends in just a few minutes, although I suspect it may be re-listed. It currently has a Buy It Now price of $899; maybe it'll be a little less with the next listing.

If you think the design looks familiar, bear in mind that Paul Barth, besides designing for Magnatone and Mosrite, was also a designer at Rickenbacker. It does look very Rickenbacker-like, doesn't it?

G L Wilson

EDIT: Sure enough it's been re-listed, although the price remains unchanged.

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

1960 Bartell doubleneck - looking a bit Mosritey perhaps?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've looked at the creations of Paul Barth before here on Guitarz. This Barth 6+12 doubleneck does not have the elegance of his celebrated but hard to track down Black Widow guitars but is no doubt even rarer. There is more than a hint of Mosrite to it - not surprising when you learn of the links between Paul Barth and Mosrite's Semi Moseley (they had worked together at Rickenbacker and later a quantity of Black Widow guitars were produced by Mosrite), but the whole guitar does have the look of an instrument that has been thrown together from whatever spare parts were lying around. Witness the shape of the control plates and the pickguards - those on the upper six-string neck have no reason to follow the body contours that they would on a single-necked guitar. Note also that the necks look identical - the six-string headstock looks huge and appears to be the same size as its 12-string twin.

Thanks to Mark Rubel who spotted this one on eBay where it is currently being offered for sale with a Buy It Now price of $2,495.

G L Wilson

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