Awesome Vintage 1960s Goya Rangemaster with funky original case.

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I'm not sure i could describe this 1960 Goya Rangmaster with near the enthusiasm of it's seller:

"Wow, FAB, Groovy, Cool, What a Gas, Baby . . .

Dig THIS, Daddy-O~! Far-OUT, Man.

Freaky Flower Child, Pop Art, Jazzy & Right On.

This Gorgeous Vintage '60's Axe WILL Bring YOU

Right back to the Hip Psychedelic '60's . . .

Sock It To Me, this Bad Ass Git is Outta Sight~!

Crazy multiple switching pickups selectors & tone controls.

Artsy faux wood pickguard, neato neck dot inlays, PRIMO~!

This beauty plays as good as her awesome Italian looks.

Great, semi-chunky neck, wonderful frets, smooth action.

Several minor battle scars as expected of a 50 plus year old instrument.

Original Italian Art Goya Case, everything operational (missing trem arm).

This is one fabulous piece of music art history and plays like a mo-fo...

Dig it, man, this jive axe can be YOURS right now. Freaky… "

Freaky, man. Freaky indeed.

Currently listed for $850.

R.W. Haller

© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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Guitarz helps me solve my own mystery. The Goya Rangemaster Album Cover

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In my continuing pursuit to become the world's fattest hipster I can be found hovering around discount record bins quite often. Last night I found this Guitars Unlimited record and the main guitar on the cover caught my eye more than the pretty country gal holding it.

I'd never seen the Goya Rangemaster before, and I was going to post here and ask for your help. But alas my quick search for Goya on Guitarz brought me to this post. I must have missed it the first time around as I would certainly have remembered those crazily located f-holes and those incredible pickups.

R.W. Haller


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Please read our photo and content policy.

1961 Hagström Deluxe 90 in blue sparkle finish

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I know we've looked at these particular glitzy celluloid-covered guitars before here on Guitarz but they don't come up for sale very often on eBay, and not only does this example currently listed have some nice clean close-up photos, but it's also one of my personal favourites and so I reckon it's worth looking at again.

To borrow from the eBay listing:

This [Hagström Deluxe 90] was made in Sweden around 1961 (batch 499). This is a sparkle and pearloid model. The top is has blue sparkle finish with the rest done in a pearloid wrap. The fretboard is acrylic. 22 frets and 23 1/4 inches scale length. Four single coil pickups and six buttons. Tremar tremolo system.

The neck is straight and it is easy to play. The guitar is all original with no restoration. The original pick holder is still on the back of the headstock. It is a lot of fun to play.  I am including a vintage case for shipping.

This is the nicest example I have seen of one of these guitars. The pearloid wrap and binding tends to shrink over time and it exhibits some minor cracks. Much less than I have seen in most examples of this guitar.

It's interesting also to note that this guitar is currently located in Arizona in the USA, yet it carries the original Hagstrom name and has not been re-branded Goya as you'd expect to see on the "American" version. No doubt it has belonged to a collector at some point.

Currently listed on eBay with a starting bid of US $949 and a Buy It Now price of US $2,200.

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.

1960s Italian-made Goya Rangemaster with split pickup

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The very mention of vintage 1960s Italian guitars makes me think of gaudy finishes, arrays of push button switches, and guitars with four pickups squeezed in between the top of the fretboard and the bridge. This Goya Rangemaster is more minimalist than most with just a single pickup, but then you can trust the Italians to do things differently and this pickup is split into two halves with a bass emphasis on the three bass strings, and a treble bias to the three highest strings. You'd think with a pickup like this the guitar might be wired for a stereo output but no mention is made of this in the eBay listing and I suspect that it is not the case.

This guitar also comes complete with its original case (minus the upper lining). Now, haven't I seen a recently produced very expensive "designer" guitar case that looked almost exactly like that? Hhhmmmmm...

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $690.

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.

Never mind the paisleys, here's a 1960s Julio Giulietti/Goya psychedelic flower-power guitar

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We've all seen Fender's pink paisley and blue floral finishes from the late 1960s (and various Japanese-made re-issues since the 1980s) but Fender were not the only guitar manufacturer to produce a psychedelically-finished guitar for the flower power generation.

This is an Italian-made Julio Giulietti semi-hollowbody electric with a particularly striking floral finish. If anything, the finish is ahead of that of Fender's paisley/floral designs; note that the edges of the material under the lacquer are not hidden with a bursting effect of a solid colour, not to mention the fact that this is no slab bodied Tele, and that the material has to fit snugly around the contours of an archtop design. The flower power print is on fabric applied to the body (unlike Fender's which were basically wallpaper), sealed beneath a clear coat.

Whether or not you'd be comfortable playing a flowery guitar (I can imagine the "real men don't play guitars covered in flowers" comments), I think this is quite a stunning vintage piece. I'm not saying I'd play it myself; it's perhaps a little overly "festive" for my tastes, but you can't deny that it's eye-catching!

Currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $2,499.99.

G L Wilson

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

Goya Panther

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This Goya Panther is described as a "Fender style Jaguar" which it leans towards but, thankfully it isn't just a copy. It is a lovely looking guitar despite have lost a fair amount of paint off the front. A plus for lovers of relic guitars. A bit of a shame for the rest of us. Never mind. I shan't be blathering on about my dislike of relicism so don't worry.

A little bit of info from the seller's Goya information site on Tripod - "The Goya Rangemasters electric guitars were produced between 1965 - 1969. The 'Goya' brand name was used at various times by Hershman Musical Instrument Company of New York, an importing firm, and as was so often the case with distribution companies one brand name turns up on guitars from a number of different sources. The Rangemaster model, for example, is of Italian origin, reflecting a 1960s predilection for multiple control layouts and most likely comes from the EKO factory. The vibrato bar, however, was provided by another Goya supplier, the Hagstrom company of Sweden. NOTE: Someone informed me that they had talked with a production manager from EKO in the 60s who said they had no involvement with Goya. That same person suggested to me that the Polverini Brothers in Italy made the Rangemaster guitars. It has also been suggested that Italian guitar maker Galanti made the Goya Panther models. The Goya Panther and the Galanti guitars look nearly identical."

A cool looking guitar with some history.

David in Barcelona

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

Goya Rangemaster vintage Italian-made guitar with split pickups

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Alan writes to say:

It's not only eBay where you find wacky guitars. Check out this page from the Washington DC USA branch of Craigslist.

Of course he's absolutely right. I tend to check eBay because it's much more international and I do like to think that I could bid on these items myself once in a while.

But never mind all that, this guitar - a Goya Rangemaster from 1968 - is a real beauty. I expect it is so named because of the range of tones obtainable from the split pickups allowing you to mix the sound of the top three strings in the neck pickup position with the bottom three strings in the bridge pickup position and vice versa. (There seem to be lots of these split pickup guitars coming out of the woodwork lately).

The design is reminiscent of the Gibson Barney Kessel with its twin Florentine cutaways. However, probably due to the location of the banks of switches, the f-holes seem to have gone south!

As with other Goyas, it is re-badged guitar for import into the US market. The Rangemaster series was made in Italy, which you may already have guessed from the general design with all those switches, and the manufacturer is believed to have been the Polverini Brothers, although this remains unconfirmed.

For more information there is a great site about Goya guitars at goyaguitars.tripod.com.

A great find!

G L Wilson

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

Goya solidbody with a possible Martin connection

guitarz.blogspot.com:
We've had another email, as follows:

Hey - was wondering if you or your audience could give me any info on this guitar.

I picked this up a couple years ago, and don't know much about it. It's a Goya that looks very similar to a Martin E-18, which from what I can tell is their only foray into solid body electrics. I've seen these online with headstocks labeled EF Martin, Sigma Martin, but never Goya. It's my understanding that Goya was bought by Martin at some point in the late 70s, so I'm guessing the E-18 was just a rebranding of this Goya model? I don't know. It's a great sounding and playing guitar, never seen another one though.

Thanks in advance!
-Tim

My own understanding of the Goya brand, was that it was just that - a brandname used to sell guitars in the United States. For example, Sweden's Hagstrom guitars were re-badged "Goya" for the US market.

I think you may have (semi)-answered your own question, Tim. That it was a brandname bought out by Martin. Perhaps they badged their own electric solidbodies with the Goya brandname because the Martin name was so firmly established in everyone's mind as being an acoustic brand. That the guitars also appeared branded Martin and Sigma suggests different marketing strategies at different timess, perhaps?

If anyone else reading has any more info, please let us know!

G L Wilson

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