More 1960s innovation: the WEM Fifth Man Project IV guitar

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Here's another all-but-forgotten guitar innovation from the 1960s. From Watkins Electric Music in London, it's the WEM Fifth Man Project IV guitar which could perhaps be thought of as a pre-cursor to the Fernandes Sustainer. Magnets either side of the top (i.e. body end) of the neck are used to create a magnetic field across the strings resulting in a sustaining drone effect. Check out the below video to get a better understanding of what it does.


The guitar pictured at the top of this blog post is currently listed on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £749, but please note that it is in need of restoration, of example one of the neck magnets is missing.

G L Wilson

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Watkins Rapier 33 - a classic 1960s vintage British guitar

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We've looked at a similar Watkins Rapier 33 before on Guitarz, not to mention an earlier incarnation of the Rapier. However, this fine example of a Watkins Rapier 33 in rare white finish has just turned up on eBay, and its a real beauty in fantastic condition and includes two tone controls, one volume control, individual pickup on/off switches and rhythm/solo switch, plus the original Watkins Hi-Lo tremolo with the original arm and original non-adjustable chrome Watkins bridge. Note also that this Rapier 33 has a bolt-on neck whereas the example we looked at previously appears to have a set neck.

For further info I once again would refer you to the excellent Watkins Guitar World website.

Currently listed on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £365.

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.

Wilson Rapier 44

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Dave Coulson writes:

Thought you might like this one - an old 4-pickup Wilson Rapier 44 which I was given around 28 years ago. The Watkins company made guitars and amps, and in 1968 they decided to badge their guitars as Wilson, so this is obviously a post-'68 model. The vibrato block is damaged as the arm has been drilled out at some point, there's some damage to the finish, the chrome on the pickups has bubbled a little and there's a control knob missing, but overall it's in decent nick - it's playable, and the electrics work fine. Not bad for a 40-year-old freebie anyway.

Thanks for that, Dave. The Wilson name was chosen, apparently because it was Reg and Charlie Watkins' mother's maiden name.

G L Wilson

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

WEM Sapphire 12-string - rare 1960s solidbody from this classic British maker

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Watkins Electric Music was formed in 1949 in London by the Watkins brothers, Charlie and Reg. Their first solid electric guitars appeared in 1957.

Guitars made by the Watkins brothers have appeared under the WEM (Watkins Electric Music) brand and, after 1968, the Wilson brand. The Watkins brothers had decided to market their guitars under a separate brand from their amps, and chose Wilson as it was their mother's maiden name.

This WEM-branded Sapphire 12-string is a rare model and should appeal to collectors specialising in this maker or of British guitars. This guitar, with bidding on eBay currently at a measley £25, ought to fetch some good money but I feel that the seller is shooting himself in the foot by demanding "Cash on collection, No post collection only".

Some eBay sellers are - how shall we say this politely? - very naïve. It's not as if it is difficult to arrange to send a guitar. You don't have to lug it down to the Post Office. It's easy enough to book a collection online, have the courier pick up the guitar from your house and deliver it in 24 or 48 hours to the destination given. And you can track the whole thing online. Some people don't seem to realise that we are living in the 21st Century yet.

However, you DO have to package the guitar carefully. Perhaps this seller is too lazy to do this. "I haven't got a box big enough," is a poor argument. I have sent guitars packaged in boxes I have made from an assortment of pieces of cardboard that I have found, and have been complimented afterwards by the buyer on how well packed the guitar was. I once sent a Vox AC30 piggyback head to Madrid in a box made out of bits and pieces of cardbaord and that survived the journey admirably and the buyer was extremely happy with it.

So, this is a tip to eBay sellers: Don't be lazy! If you insist on "collection only" then be prepared for your item to sell for peanuts, if it sells at all. Be prepared to do a little work, and package your item carefully. Oh, and good clear, preferably LARGE photos on the eBay listing are a must. The above photo, was the best I could lift from the Sapphire 12 auction. Quite frankly, it's bloody awful.

Enough of the rant. For more on Watkins/WEM/Wilson guitars, see Watkins Guitar World (where there are some better photos of a similar Sapphire 12-string).

G L Wilson

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

Watkins Rapier 33 from 1961

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Further to the previous post, here is one of the latter, more commonly-known, Strat-inspired design of Watkins Rapier, although this one from 1961 is still quite an early model. If you compare and contrast with the Rapier in the previous post you'll notice that they are not really the same guitar at all, they just share a common name. This one is a Watkins Rapier 33 - the 33 denoting three pickups.

G L Wilson

Edit: Sold for £210.

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

Watkins Rapier from 1958 - the original model

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Compare this early 1958 Watkins Rapier to the later models and it should become apparent how revolutionary the Stratocaster design must have been at the time, for manufacturers such as Watkins to borrow from its curves in their later designs. This early slab-bodied model Rapier was only made from 1958-1959. Some later examples borrowed the Strat-style headstock shape before the redesign to make the whole guitar's outline more Stratty.

For more about Watkins and associated brands WEM and Wilson, I must direct you to the fantastic Watkins Guitar World website, essential reading for anyone interested in the history of British guitars.

G L Wilson

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

Left-handed Wilson Rapier Bass

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I've been a little remiss lately in not featuring any left-handed instruments, so here - at the risk of making this blog slightly bass-centric - is a fine example of vintage British guitar-making in the shape of this Wilson Rapier bass.

Watkins Electric Music was formed in 1949 in London by the Watkins brothers, Charlie and Reg. Their first solid electric guitar appeared in 1957, and in 1966 they introduced the Rapier Series as designed by Reg. The Rapier bass, however, is stylistically more akin to the Sapphire series guitars - see this example (also a leftie).

Guitars made by the Watkins brothers have appeared under the WEM (Watkins Electric Music) brand and, after 1968, the Wilson brand. The Watkins brothers had decided to market their guitars under a separate brand from their amps, and chose Wilson as it was their mother's maiden name.

This is also a good opportunity to plug the excellent Watkins Guitar World website from which I found much of this information.

G L Wilson

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70s Wilson W-Type

Last week in the comments about the Wilson Sapphire, Andy gave the link to the Watkins Guitar World website - well it's really worth spending time on this website and if like me you didn't know much about this British vintage brand, you'll have the pleasure of a great discovery...

Amongst all the great guitars there, I chose to show the Wilson W-type, with its fluid design disturbed by a just a little bit too pointy florentine cutaway , and lot of metal on the front - that's always nice...

I do like the pickguards shapes on Wilson/Watkins guitars, I think that a good design is always a combination of the guitar shape itself and its subtle modification by the pickguard shape - that's probably why I don't like most "naked" guitars...

bertram

Wilson Sapphire

Recently, just out of curiosity really, I've been looking to see what unusual guitars there are for the lefties, hence the Vox Clubman II that we looked at last week, and today's guitar: a vintage Wilson Sapphire.

Like the Vox, this is a 1960s-era British guitar. Unlike the Vox, this one should be well-made and playable. The fact that it has a truss-rod cover up on the the headstock implies it has an adjustable truss-rod, something that the cheapie Voxes never had.

The guitar somehow looks typcially British. The design is reminiscent of Burns guitars. (If someone out there knows of a connection, please let me know). Wilson Guitars were later on bought out by Watkins Electric Music (WEM), better known for their amps as famously used by The Who and for their now legendary Copicat tapeloop echo machines.