Cobbled-together looking but intriguing Russian electric acoustic guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

At first when I saw this photos of this Soviet-era Russian-made electric acoustic guitar, I thought that someone had customised an acoustic guitar in order to electrify it. But looking more closely, it would appear to have been designed this way; I'm pretty sure that this guitar was conceived this was in its Leningrad factory.

It looks for all the world like an old nylon-strung Russian-made acoustic we used to have in the house when I was a kid. I'd be surprised if it had anything as sophisticated as a truss rod; the action doesn't look too healthy in the photos. Remembering the old Russian acoustic we had, the neck angle could be adjusted via a large square bolt located inside the heel of the neck.

It's certainly a curiosity and one I feel myself drawn towards, partly because of the sense of absurdity I feel emanating from it. But what easier way for a Soviet-era guitar manufacturer to produce an electric model than to modify an existing acoustic model? I think you have to applaud their inventiveness (and bear in mind too that none other than C.F. Martin used the same approach when initially dipping their toes into the world of the electric guitar). Note also that it has TWO pickups for increased tonal options - they could have played it easy and just had the one pickup.

Currently listed on eBay with a starting bid of £39.50.

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.

Your guitars: a Russian-made Stella guitar - inside and out

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Hi, Gavin,
 
I'm following Guitarz blog for quite some time and I have the guitar you already posted but I find it just too interesting not to send you more info and pics on it, in case you want to post it.
It's Russian Stella electric guitar, made in 1979. A friend of mine had it for years in his closet, looks almost brand new, and decided to give it to me. I opened it up and took bunch of pictures - it's quite a crazy guitar.
Its made in Rostov Na Donu in the USSR in 1979 then put together in 1980 - at least judging from labels I found inside on piece of deteriorating paper. It cost 210 Rubelj, and it says so on plate on back of the guitar :)  Finish is the weirdest thing I've seen (but not weirdest part of the guitar) - you need a bloody axe to chip it, it's just impervious. Thus, the wood remains a mystery. Neck is stable but the frets...made of brass and pretty much rectangular. 

What's weirdest are the electronics - seems they took guts from old TVs or radios and accommodate them for guitar - looks like a jungle in there - mind you, they are done VERY neatly, check the photos - little knots that hold wires together etc. And of course, the goodies: stereo output, phase outs and all other mysterious switches and pots. 

Sound is actually very good if you manage to find right combination of switch positions and volume pots - which is, due to possible combinations, almost random - you flick first one up and third one down, open this and that volume and you get awesome tone, then you flick something else and it sounds like mosquito. And electronics are quiet, specially considering how much is going on. I got myself made a Y-cable with 5-din input on one end and two 1/4" input-jacks to which I plug the normal guitar cables - this way I get stereo output and can also hook up two amps.

 

Check this great video I found on youtube out, it explains much: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SyALQncxY4

Vibrato bar is sadly missing, but seems it's there for the looks only - it does nothing. The metal thing just above the bridge is string dampener (foam is missing) which is lifted by pulling it up and it is retained there by springs underneath it. 
Tuners are horrible, you can wiggle them left and right, bridge is quite the same. But overall, the shape is one of most pleasant shapes I've ever hold, neck is chunky just enough, the emerald green pickguard is great.

 

Once I will deal with frets, tuners and bridge, and maybe shield electronics, it will be one spiffy guitar.

Thanks for reading, 

Barth

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

12-string soviet plastic body Maria Rhythm

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've previously seen the 6-string and the bass versions of the made in USSR Lunacharki Maria, here is the 12-string, the Maria Rhythm. Thanks to its lighter sunburst finish, you can see on this picture how strangely shaped its plastic body is - and how beautiful in its oddness...

Bertram D

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Solo II - USSR Soviet-era guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Email from Will:

Here's an item worthy of a place of honor in the Schlock Hall of Fame. It is a Soviet era "Solo II" solid body with 3 pick-ups and a reasonable attempt at a "Daphne Blue" finish.

By my reckoning, the guitar comes equipped with three rather squared-off pickups, 5 white plastic toggles of indeterminate function, 5 revolving round control knobs, and no strings. The main treasure of this listing, however must surely be the tortured description of the guitar, found just under the photographs. There you will encounter some rather confusing prose advising the reader that, "the guitar is made of fine wood, in fact it is the same Soviet sandwich," (is the seller trying to say that it is laminated?), and that, "the guitars were painted black polyester painted matt color options dirt paint over black polyester," (multi-coat paint-job???) and also that, "convenient to most Soviet vultures," (you're on your own-I am unable to decipher this particular part of the hieroglyphic!).

Of course, it is "rare." Who would want to part with 199 of the best that America has to offer to own something like this?

Enjoy!

~will~

Thanks Will, for sharing this eBay find with us. This guitar is currently listed on eBay with a starting bid of $199 and is located in Belarus so there would be shipping charges to also take into account. We have actually featured one of these on Guitarz before, a black example complete with strings this time! Note how the rear strap button unscrews to reveal an integral screwdriver!

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Soviet-era Russian-made vintage Odessa electric guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Design-wise I really like this vintage Russian Odessa electric guitar. (Unfortunately the design is all I can comment on, because without actually buying it I have no way of telling how it sounds or what it plays like.) The outline owes more than a little to Fender's Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitars, whilst the angular pickguard allows for a touch of originality. As for the finish, that has to be one of the severest sunburst finishes I've ever seen having no gradual fade between the constituent colours. Note that the sunburst finish is also applied to the headstock.

The pickup switching looks to be quite comprehensive, although it's hard to tell here whether these switches are all original - I'm thinking that the innermost 5-way toggle may be a later add-on even though the seller claims that "All parts are original". If all parts are original including those exposed coil zebra humbuckers, then I'd say that the guitar has a very 1980s vibe to it.

I'm pretty sure the rather individual tuners are original though - note the cover for all six gears on the back of the headstock.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $299. Item located in Ukraine.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
Please read our photo and content policy.

Uncompromisingly evil aluminium guitar from hell (AKA The Ukraine)

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Firstly I'd just like to say I've done some serious detective work to bring this post to you. I saw this funky and rather spiffing Zhitomir guitar a couple weeks back but I wanted to find out a little more information than the seller gave.

In fact, my in-depth investigations revealed that seller got his information from cheesyguitars.com so I'm going to quote from both sources:

Check out this hot piece of Soviet history (cheesyguitars actually said Soviet junk). The date of its introduction in mass production is unknown, but I it must be somewhen around 1970s (1980s according to CG but I guess sometimes Ebay-speak can be a little like estate agent speak).  It was produced in very small quantity, so you won't find this guitar again (Ebay-speak). 

The body sports an extremely intriguing octagonal shape with a giant Russian letter "Ж" (Zh) embossed on it, which must remind the proud owner of this deadly weapon the name of its manufacturer - Zhitomir Factory of Musical Instruments. The label inside has a picture of some cool guy dressed in black suit - perhaps a Beatle - playing this guitar. 

 The best thing about "Zh" is the material of its body. It's aluminium (!!!) (Ebay exclamations), just a thick sheet of painted aluminium folded in shape of... well... guitar. What kind of evil mind could put forward an idea to produce guitar from aluminium in one of the most forested regions of Ukraine?

I think it's perfectly suit (CG spelling mistake copied by Ebayer) for true Norvegian black metal musicians (or as a present for vintage rare collector), because the sonic palette is really uncompromisingly evil, to say nothing of this instrument's looks.

The guitar is on Ebay with a $1,099 price tag and it's already garnered four offers, so if this is your bag, get on over there and tussle with the other hopefuls for it.

Well, that's one way to fix a strap on...

Not a great photo, I know, but it does go some way to illustrate the Über Kool label inside.

There is a little more on CG but it doesn't apply to this particular instrument although it does show that the guitar on sale is not the one played by Vopli Vidopliassova, the popular Ukrainian rock band, in their 1989 hit "Юра". For the eagle eyed, there is clue in the instrument itself (the one in the video) or you find out on CG but that would be cheating. (clue: the neck).

Not surprisingly, being from The Ukraine, they play some other interesting Ukrainian guitars in one of their other videos such as this enigmatic performance from 1989. CHECK OUT those guitars!

A Youtube search for them in their Ukranian name Вопли Видоплясова will lead to a veritable treasure chest of their other videos. Well worth the watching and not just for the guitars.

David in Barcelona PI
PS. Anyone interested in crazy vintage Eastern Bloc guitars (and who isn't?) could do worse than spend a little time perusing the archives over at CheesyGee.

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

plastic semi-hollow body Lunacharki Maria Leader

guitarz.blogspot.com

When I first saw this semi-hollow Lunacharki Maria Leader (Луначарки Мария Лидер), I was stricken by how much its body looks like plastic - and in a pretty good shape for a 40-year old instrument... Well, it is made of plastic, in a typical modernist attempt in Soviet guitar making to shatter any tradition and create all new instruments like the famous and excellent Tonika (and contrarily to East-German or Czechoslovakian electric guitars that relaid on centuries old luthiery craft). 

When it comes to East-Europen guitars, cheesyguitars.com is an inevitable starting point, but they make a terrible reputation for this guitar as being the ultimate crap - and I found other sources that are a little bit more positive about it - though my Russian is quite rusted (I gave up studying Russian at the fall of Soviet Union when I realised that there was no future in becoming a KGB spy).

There was a 12-string version of this model, and also a bass one, that have been showed on Guitarz a couple of years ago...

Bertram D

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

Soviet-era USSR Aelita-2 guitar by Rostov

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's another example of a gloriously cheesy soviet-era (probably 1980s) Russian guitar, the Aelita-2 by "Rostov on Don Musical Instruments Factory" (so it says in the eBay listing). I can't imagine what all the pots and switches do; there appears to be two banks of pickup selector switches for the three pickups, which is odd. The action doesn't look too great from what I can make out in the photos, but one interesting feature is the access to adjust the truss rod is at the rear of the guitar, which is a much more convenient position for it than on many guitars. Output is via the usual 5-pin DIN as found on other Russian guitars from this era.

Currently being auctioned on eBay with a starting price of $175.

G L Wilson

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

Soviet-era USSR B&G Formanta fuzz guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Just take one look at this B&G Formanta fuzz guitar and you know it's from Soviet-era Russia. Those switches and knobs all look as if they belong on some military hardware. However, the shape reminds me of the Vox Marauder.

This guitar is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $400. The seller tells us that it was made in the 1980s in the USSR by Belarusian Musical Instruments Factory at Borisov city, and that it has a built-in fuzz effect powered by a 9 volt battery. Apparently the headstock shape is rare for this model and has a reversed signature.

G L Wilson

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

"Stella" Soviet Russian stereo electric guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Here's another Soviet-era Russian-made guitar festooned with pickups and switches, and with the now familar 5-pin DIN output often seen on these instruments. This is another guitar that I freely admit I know nothing about, so I'm going to unashamedly borrow text from the eBay listing.

This thing was made in the USSR since '70. It was produced by the Rostov na Donu factory of keyboard instruments, and was probably the most hi-fi and experimental instrument ever produced in USSR. It has four pickups (two single coil and two split coil pickups), stereo output and was stuffed with electronics. It is a stereo guitar, but if you want you can switch from stereo mode to mono. It has 1 mono/stereo mode switch, 7 small switches for different pickup modes and 5 knobs for different sound modifications.

G L Wilson

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

Crazy Russian guy makes guitars out of shovels

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Micha brought this to my attention - never mind cigar box guitars, these are shovel guitars! (More photos here and see also here). Admittedly, the above video does go on a bit too long, and I guess is supposed to be funny. I suppose it helps if you speak the language.

G L Wilson

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

Not just RARE but EXTRA RARE. Soviet rare doubleneck guitar YEREVAN #089 double neck

This is one of my favourite eBay sellers. Not because I've ever bought anything from him (yet) but simply because of the wonderful instruments he digs up. AND THIS BEAUTY IS NO EXCEPTION.

Those Soviet manufacturers were no slackers when it came to souping up the humble six string. This one even has an extra neck. Not to mention enough wood in the body to make three normal guitars. I've not heard of Yeravan until now but this is certainly an eye opener and I will be researching this brand in the not too distant future.

To be perfectly honest, it's not really my cup of tea but it does have a decidedly WTF aspect to it that would be hard to ignore. The solid black colour is pretty restrained considering the shape of the body and the pick ups are nicely understated but the single horn and the strange shape of the rear edge, the mismatched headstocks, the apparently cheese cutter action all conspire to make this hard to justify it's $500 (plus shipping) price tag. To me, the word "rare" is bandied about a bit too much in the vicinity of odd guitars. And don't get me started on "extra rare". That should only be applied to steaks, according to my missus. It may well be extra rare but in this instance, I'd say there was a very good reason.

David in Barcelona

guitarz.blogspot.com:Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Soviet-era Armenian electric mandolin

guitarz.blogspot.com:
The almost circular body give this electric mandolin the resemblance of a table tennis bat. Its pickups are a dead giveaway, and betray it as being a product of the former Soviet Union. From the location of the controls you might think it was a left-handed instrument, but it is strung right-handed and other examples I have seen have the same layout. Indeed, the output jack is on the right-hand side in keeping with a right-handed instrument.

G L Wilson

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

Elgava Unika-2 Soviet vintage electric guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:
This rather eccentric-looking guitar was recently offered for sale on eBay, courtesy of a seller specialising in old East European and Russian guitars, whose guitars we have featured on this blog previously. (Possibly you could dedicate a whole blog exclusively to such guitars).

Unfortunately practically zero information is given about this instrument, other than a name - Elgava Unika-2 - which is contradicted by the "Untain" legend on the headstock. The name "SAMOPAL" is also given, but not explained.

The guitar itself is a typically crude example. The front of the body is faced with what looks like a metal plate, although I wouldn't be surprised if this was actually plastic, seeing as part of it has been snapped off. The body is very likely hollow within. Note how the guitar lead is wired straight into the guitar, which is probably slightly more convenient than having to mess about finding a guitar lead with a 5-pin DIN plug as with other of this guitar's contemporaries.

I wouldn't honestly expect this guitar to be a good player - the seller rather astutely declines to guarantee its playability. This is one for the collector of the weird and unusual.

G L Wilson

NB: Please make sure you are reading this Guitarz post at guitarz.blogspot.com and not on a Scraper blog that copies posts without permission (and steals bandwidth) so as to profit from advertising. Please support original bloggers!

Vintage Russian Thinline Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:
We've not looked at any basses recently on Guitarz, so I thought it was high time we tried redressing the balance a little. I find myself looking more and more at semi-hollowbody and thinline basses. There is something very elegant about the design that lends itself quite nicely to the bass, giving it a distinct retro look.

The Russian-built thinline bass we see pictured here has been listed and re-listed on eBay several times over the last month or so. It's certainly a very intriguing looking instrument; whether it's really worth the Buy It Now price of £450, I couldn't comment with any authority, other than to say that my gut instinct is that perhaps the seller is being a tad optimistic. Having said that, the seller claims that it plays well, has a low action, and sounds great either plugged-in or acoustically (which can't be said for all thinlines).

The bass is absolutely huge, and the body is - unusually for a thinline - constructed from fibreglass. One of the features that really stands out for me is the size of the f-holes. Have you ever seen such fat f-holes?

G L Wilson

NB: There are a lot of blogs STEALING content and bandwidth. If you read this anywhere else but on guitarz.blogspot.com then you are reading a blog that STEALS content. Please support original bloggers!

Soviet guitar with secret compartments

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Just by looking at it you can tell that this SOLO-2 is a Soviet-era Russian-made guitar.

I'm posting this picture really because I've not seen switches quite like these on a guitar before.

The pickups look very similar to those found on the "Flight Of The Conchords" Kavkaz bass.

Apparently it was made in the mid 80s by Belarusian Musical Instruments Factory in Borisov city and has fuzz and phaser built-in effects (currently not working on this example).
The battery for the built-in effects is located beneath the neck plate.

Additionally there is an integral screwdriver beneath the rear strap button which screws out.

I'm remimnded of one of Fender's Strat models (the Strat Plus? or was it the Elite?) which had a hex key on the end of its tremolo arm.

G L Wilson

NB: There are a lot of blogs STEALING content and bandwidth. If you read this anywhere else but on guitarz.blogspot.com then you are reading a blog that STEALS content. Please support original bloggers!

Flight of the Conchords bass guitar

Here's one for all fans of Flight of the Conchords - it's a Russian-built Kavkaz bass as used by Jemaine Clement in the TV series, and is currently for sale on eBay. It even has the green pickguard, just like Jemaine's, although it seems to have an extra pickup in the bridge position - or possibly those two coils are wired together as a humbucker. I'm not sure what happened to tbe volume and tone pots and why the output jack is positioned where you'd expect to find the volume control. Also, it looks like someone's had a go at earthing the tailpiece with a piece of wire.

It might look like a piece of junk, but as a big Conchords fan I was seriously considering buying this, although seeing as I'm out of work at the moment, now probably isn't the best time to be spending money.

Soviet Russia's finest! Tonika Guitar and Sovtek Amp

Back in January of this year I featured a Soviet-era Russian-made Tonika bass, so how could I pass up this opportunity to feature its 6-string counterpart, the Tonika guitar?

These are weird-shaped beasties, for sure. You have to wonder about the thought processes that gave birth to this bizarre design.

Lovers of vintage tube amps might like to know that the same seller is also selling the Sovtek MIG-50 amp featured in the photo.

Soviet Doubleneck

Regular readers will know by now that I can't resist posting a picture or two of some crazy Soviet-era Russian guitar, and as a doubleneck this one is rarer than most.

Another Funky Russian Guitar

Here's one for all you bargain hunters. There's just a few hours to go on the ebay auction for this rather eccentric-looking Soviet-era Russian Aelita 1 electric guitar. I just love stuff like this!

Specifications:
Body: heavy
Neck: thick
Controls: many
Pickups: 3 single-coils
Action: high
Vibrato: Jaguar/Jazzmaster - style unit
Output jack: 6-pin DIN type (as on all Soviet guitars)

Note that it says the action is high. Personally I'd tune it to an open tuning and use it for slide. Either that or just put it on the wall for display.

Edit: Sold for £102. I did consider bidding, but the seller quoted me a shipping fee of approx £60 which I felt was a bit too steep for shipping within Europe. I've sent a Vox AC30 head to Madrid for half of that.