The Terminator custom stainless steel electric guitar and illuminating case!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

It's probably easiest if I just quote liberally from the eBay listing for this particular custom guitar:

Nicknamed "The Terminator", this is a RAM-JAM Music one-of-a-kind. You'll be the envy of all other with this baby! This custom 100% 316 stainless steel guitar and all stainless steel body has 2 necks, one with stainless steel frets, and one fretless. It also had custom turned stainless steel knobs and a kick ass design and case. This guitar plays and sounds as awesome as it looks. Like the stainless steel lightening bolt handle on the case, this guitar has power! With its 1/4" solid stainless steel neck, this guitar feels like no other. The fretless is 3/8 of an inch thick and is slightly scaled down for a lighter weight. You can play all the way up to its double coil stack pick up, when you run out of frets, play the fretless area and if you like the feel of that, change the neck to the 100% stainless steel all fretless neck with adjustable height nut. For a rugged sound, use the same strings. For a smoother sound change to the flat wound strings. For slide guitar without the noise of the slide hitting the neck, simply adjust the screws behind the nut to raise strings up to 3/8 above the fretless neck. It has a Schaller bridge, new 1987 Seymour Duncan Hot Stack Pick-up, O.E.M. tuning pegs, .010-.046 strings, and a set of flat wound .013-.056 strings for the fretless neck.

The case body is made of aluminum mesh with a diamond plate aluminum bottom for light weight yet rugged look and can be hung on the wall as a display case. The top is made of aluminum mesh with an aluminum angle frame. The whole case is polished to a mirror finish and reflects like it's alive. The EL neon light runs on 2 AA batteries and has 2 settings of flashings and one setting of solid light. The Terminator is held captive in its display case with a single lighting bolt handled shackle strapped down tightly on its rubber lifters which hold it in the center of the case! The custom illuminating case has a white fuzzy bottom with a custom made box to store a slide and picks or a pack of smokes! The strap is made of an army green braided 1970s robot main frame computer wire, tough yet comfortable, and is the lifeline of The Terminator.

Now with 3 necks! One ultimate 32 slim frets, one 22 Jumbo fret, the super fretless!

If you like the pictures, you are going to love the real thing!

"The Terminator" was created by Ram-Jam Music

Quite astonishing, I think you'll agree. And it could be yours if you can afford the $8,000 Buy It Now fee on eBay.

Thanks to Joe from Stratoblogster for brining this guitar to my attention.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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British-made John Birch guitar with interchangeable pickups

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Although it bears the logo of string manufacturer RotoSound, this guitar is the product of legendary British luthiers John Birch. The pickups are interchangeable and can be changed from the rear of the guitar. The eBay listing tells how the whole interchangeable pickup concept came from Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi.

One of the things I like about this guitar is its symmetry. You could flip it over for a left-handed player and the layout would be exactly the same. It even has output jacks on both sides of the guitar.

This guitar is currently listed on eBay with bidding currently at $510 at the time of writing.

G L Wilson

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

Weird Telecaster with tuners in body and modular pickup system

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Let me quote from the eBay listing for this guitar:

This listing is for a funky Telecaster project that I have had sitting around for about a year now. It is a 80s era telecaster body from SF guitar works. It has the name stamped in the neck pocket. The body has been HEAVILY modified to have 3 removable pickups. The tuning keys were also set into the body where the bridge would go. The pickups snap into the guitar from the backside and could be put in any position. They could also be inserted in reverse so I guess that would change the polarity? The power is routed to the pickups via 4 banana plugs which also hold them into the body.
[...]
The tuners set into the body are Gotoh style (might be the real thing but am not sure) and the bridge is a 80's era Gibson tune-o-matic. The neck that is on it is a 97 Epiphone Korean made LP 100 neck that I had sitting around. I worked on it a little to fit into the body which it fits very nice but it seems to sit a little high in the pocket. It does not have the tuning keys on it as I had a different plan for the headstock and didn't need them. I also used the Epiphone mounting screws and neckplate to mount the neck. I am also going to include the funky neck that was on it. It is definately a tele or strat style neck but the headstock is cut off and it is modified to have the string ends up there instead of the body (remember the set in tuners in the body?). It has a rosewood fret board and very nice frets. It is older but I have no idea who made it though. I am going to include the pickups that came with the guitar and a set of brand new hot rails from GFS too. The pick ups are 3 strat style single coils (no idea who made them), a EMG single coil, a Seymour Duncan Humbucker (No idea of the model but it is USA made), a "mystery" humbucker (could be another SD but it is not marked although it is nice quality) and 3 Guitar Fetish hot rail strat pickups. All the pickups work and have enough wire to add them to the "cartridges" that hold them into the body. The pickup holders are made with the name "G Liberty" and "pat applied for" but I have not found any info on this person or design. Obviously they were CNC made (as were all the body mods for that matter) There are 6 of them and are made out of hardwood (Maple?) except for one which looks like pine. (Prototype maybe?) They also have a spring in the middle to adjust the pickup height. There is really so much unknown about this guitar really but whoever "G Liberty" is they were pretty crafty and innovative...

Indeed, it's an intriguing guitar. I do wonder about the validity of mounting an Epiphone neck (very likely intended for a 24 3/4" scale length) onto a Fender type body (designed for a 25 1/2" scale); the intonation implications could well be hideous. I've also seen these rear-mounted pickup systems before, usually used as "testbed" guitars by luthiers or pickup manufacturers.

Currently being auctioned on eBay.

G L Wilson

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

Vintage & Rare guitar of the week: 1962 Gretsch Bikini Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I guess that without the foldaway hinged "wings" making up the body this 1962 Gretsch Bikini Bass would resemble a LaBaye 2x4. Note how the volume and tone controls are mounted on the top edge of the central section. It makes me wonder if this was an early take on the travel guitar, one that folds down into a small package. I'm pretty sure that Gretsch also made a 6-string guitar neck too which would also fit into the same hinged body. The Who's John Entwistle had a doubleneck Gretsch Bikini in his collection; the foldaway nature of the instrument would be a definite advantage on a cumbersome doubleneck and you would also be able to choose which way around to arrange the necks (bass on top and guitar on bottom, or guitar on top and bass on bottom).

This bass is currently being offered for sale via Vintage & Rare priced at €1344.

G L Wilson

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

Staccato MG bass, circa 1986, made from magnesium alloy and fibreglass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This Staccato MG bass from 1986 is one of approx 200 guitars/basses built in the UK by Pat Townshend. I recall these guitars well from when they were first introduced, and remember seeing them at a music show in London, I'm guessing, in 1986. As I remember Chris Jagger (Mick's brother) was also involved in the company, and no doubt it was through his connections that these guitars were used by Mick Jagger and Bill Wyman in the Rolling Stones. Other endorsees included Gene Simmons of Kiss, and Motorhead's Lemmy (and if memory serves me correct, I saw Lemmy's bass exhibited at the above-mentioned music show).

The neck and centre body section is cast in one piece from magnesium alloy. Perhaps some more knowledgable readers can confirm this, but I seem to recall reading something to the effect that all the magnesium used in these guitars was filtered from sea water (magnesium being an element dissolved in sea water) and as such provides a material that made these guitars very environmentally friendly. Depending on the process employed to extract magnesium from water, that is.

The outer part of the body is made from fibreglass and seems to have been sculpted to provide for an ergonomic and body-fitting shape. Note that the strings are anchored at the headstock whilst the tuners are situated at the other end of the instrument behind the bridge. Pickups are double-bladed sealed units which are concealed within the magnesium centre body block with only the blades themselves protruding through to the front.

The fingerboard is made from an industrial plastic material and is fitted with 22 very low flat frets, which almost brings to mind the strange fretboard of the Lane Poor bass.

Unless my memory is playing more tricks on me, I believe Staccato offered basses and guitars with exchangable bodies / necks where the centre neck section could be swapped out for another guitar or bass (or converserly the body could be changed for say one in a different colour).

This eBay auction for this bass is finishing in 11 hours as I write; the starting price is $1,999 and Buy It Now price is $2,499.

G L Wilson

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

Mercurio S-type guitar with interchangeable pickups

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Mercurio Guitars were made from 2003-2006 in Chanhassen Minnesota USA, and have a particularly innvovative feature of interchangeable pickup modules. A set of DIP switches on the rear of the guitar allow the pickups to be selected in series, parallel, coil tap, in phase and out of phase modes. This particular example is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $1,250.

I remember seeing these a few years back and it's a great idea for the session guitarist who wants access to an endless number of pickup combinations without having to cart around a whole arsenal of different guitars.

For most of us though, or at least people like me, as with the Variax modelling guitars it's just too much happening on one guitar.

Incidentally, I've seen similar interchangeable pickups on Gibson "test bed" guitars.

G L Wilson

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

Two become one: Tiago's modular doubleneck

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Doublenecks always look impressive on stage and are a sure temptation to any guitarist afflicted with GAS (Guitar Aquisition Syndrome), but in use they can be quite cumbersome and unwieldy.

If you've got to have a doubleneck the best option would be to have a modular instrument that can be split into two individual single-necked guitars when desired. That way you have two guitars for the studio and a doubleneck for live performances.

The guitar(s) pictured here belong(s) to Guitarz reader Tiago Sarmento from Brazil. Here's what he has to say about it/them [note: a modular doubleneck plays merry havoc with semantics - is it a single object or two?]... Anyway:

Mahogany body with two (now you can help me in english terms) ipê-tobacco stringers. Is that the right term, with those stripes on the back with different woods? Anyway, ipê is a national tree from Brazil, and it adds sort of a higher vibrations to compensate the dense mahogany body. The neck is brazilian rosewood.

The 12 string part has a "12/6" F-hole. Is that after the Mad Hatter sign on his top hat, since I'm a big fan of Alice in Wonderland book. In the book, the hat says "10/6", but I added a "poetic license" there and put the 12 instead. Quite obviously why. The "In this style" adhesive - was supposed to be a pirograph - is complementary to the tag on Hatter's hat.

The inlay is slightly different from the 6 strings part, and has tha Fleur-de-Lis and a roman numeral "II" in mother-of-pearl and the branches in abalone. The pickups are a custom made from Brazil called Stelfner and they are built after the burstbuckers. It has a piezo pick up. The mini toggles are on for the piezzo (position 1= only piezzo; 2= piezzo plus electric and 3= only electric). The f-hole has a blue led light inside, and looks quite psychedelic in the dark. The second mini-toggle splits the pick ups into single.

The 6 string is quite the same, but when they're together, the lower part controls all the electronics. So it has 9 knobs. Each different so it facilitates the know which is which. The leds now are blue and likewise the 12, is on the top of each knob and on the scale, side-by-side with those white dots. The pick ups here are all gibson: 490t, p-94 and busrtbucker II. Mini toggles works the same way.

Each, of course, has its complementary parts. The luthier signs as KIAN GUITARS and these is my personal brand, Lizzie. In the back of the headstock there's a drawing. 12 = a mad hatter caricature and the 6 of mine, in a artistic design similar to my project's logo.

I've not edited the above because I'd prefer to leave it in Tiago's voice, as it were. However, I think it's all quite clear what he's talking about, and I'd like to thank him for sharing this with us.

Keep those interesting pictures and stories of your guitars coming in, guys!

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!

Zoybar Open Source Guitar

Find more videos like this on Zoybar

Inspired by the open source movement within the world of computing, Zoybar is a modular hardware platform for creating custom electric string instruments and effects (such as the Kaoss Pad).

In essence this would appear to be a modular guitar system. In the words of Zoybar founder and designer Ziv Bar Ilan, "The Zoybar components provide research and development tools as a sustainable, playable prototype platform. The same modular parts can be assembled as different instruments, can be changed during the performance and also be mounted with numerous special effects, just by adding and changing their position across the profile groves."

For more, see zoybar.net, check out the videos, and learn how you could win one of three limited edtion kits.

MEG Transformer Guitar

We've seen modular guitars before, but nothing quite like this MEG Custom Transformer Guitar.

To quote from the eBay listing:

"There's only one MEG Transformer. There’s never been anything like it before, and there will never be anything like it again. The product of over 20,000 total man hours, it's destined to be the last machine prototype of MEG research and development.

The MEG Transformer is the most mechanically advanced guitar on the planet. It assumes the character of single or double neck, with the choice of multiple string configurations using three universally adaptable necks: standard six, baritone and octave twelve. The standard six has an ABM hardtail with roller saddles on a Tune-a-matic style bridge. The sustain is enhanced by the MEG design; the baritone is tuned four steps lower than the six string and has the characteristic big voice that is great for a bedrock sound; the octave 12 is an amazing experience - it has a sound comparable to an autoharp, zither or dulcimer - and it's tuned like a guitar."

Now, here's an observation. Curiously, the interchangeable "neck tailpiece continuum" sections seem to resemble the now legendary LaBaye 2X4 guitar as used by Devo's Bob 1. Even the headstock shape is very similar. Coincidence?