Epiphone Mo'Baby. A travel sized version of the Gibson Moderne

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I've always regarded the Gibson Moderne as an important piece of guitar history and Gibson lore. From it's early days as a Gibson that basically didn't really exist, to the reissues with varying headstock designs, it certainly holds a place in the pantheon of electric guitar. 

But, I don't really like it. 

Here we have another reissue under the Epiphone flag that turns the Moderne into a smaller travel sized offering. This somehow makes more sense to me as a concept even if branding it "Mo'Baby" is a tad ridiculous.

I wonder if there is the option of keeping the built in speaker on while playing through an outboard amp as well. And if it would offer any string response or feedback to do so. Has anyone tried this wit speaker equipped electric guitars?

R.W. Haller

© 2015, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11

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A Japanese oxymoron of a guitar: Pignose 12+6 doubleneck travel guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Regular Guitarz readers will know of my fascination for doublenecked guitars. They will also know of my fondness for the absurd, and when it comes to travel guitars what could be more absurd than a doubleneck guitar? This rare Pignose 12+6 Doubleneck Travel Guitar, built solely for the Japanese market, features the now legendary Pignose amp built into the guitar body plus TWO speakers. I admit that I never saw the point of a doubleneck combining 12-string and 6-string necks (realistically, how often would you want to play both on the same song?); as I have commented elsewhere I don't understand why there aren't more bass + guitar doubleneck combinations, or for that matter, doublenecks featuring a pair of six-string necks which would allow for alternative tunings. Despite all that, if you did actually want that 12+6 combination, this Pignose does look like it has a nice compact body and shouldn't be the backbreaker that certain doublenecks are known to be.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $775.00.

G L Wilson

© 2014, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
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1960s Italian-made Meazzi Hollywood Supersonic with built-in amp

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I don't have much to say about this 1960s Italian Meazzi Hollywood Supersonic other than it is refreshing to see a guitar with built-in amp and speaker that doesn't look like a cheap and nasty effort thrown together to amuse the kids. This guitar looks to be nicely built and has that coolness factor. As to how well it performs in reality, I am unfortunately unable to comment.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of €749.

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.

Ultima Firebird - the only guitar in the world with a built-in Class A tube amplifier (allegedly)

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Leo Fender's design for the Fender Telecaster dates back to 1949 and over the years we have seen Fender and a myriad of other guitar makers take this very basic design and tweak it and modify it into something new.

Ultima Guitars take the basic Telecaster template and re-sculpt it, add exciting pickup combinations and clever switching options, on-board amplifiers and effects. You could consider their guitars evolved Telecasters although often only the basic outline and the famous Tele bridge provide the only clues as to the guitar's design heritage.

This particular Ultima Firebird (ignore the Gibson-esque name, it isn't relevant) has a highly resonant chambered body of alder and mahogany, a 70s Tele style C-section maple on maple neck with brass nut, Sperzel USA machine heads, Fender Telecaster vintage bridge with handwound pickup (made in UK), two high output boutique humbuckers (made in UK) in the neck and middle positions, Schaller strap locks...

plus...

...a Class A Hybrid Tube Amp/Preamp with six amp voices that provides direct USB stream, high output headphone (dual mono), line level analogue, and High Z Amp output!

Whether it is truly the only guitar in the world with a built-in Class A tube amp, I couldn't tell you, but that's what the marketing spiel says in the eBay listing. You may want to take that with a pinch of salt, because it wouldn't surprise me if someone else had had this idea before.

As intriguing as all that is, I wonder about the road-worthiness of this guitar because the eBay listing stresses: "Collection only, this is not a delivery item".

This guitar has been listed several times on eBay recently with quite a hefty Buy It Now price. This time bidding began at £0.99 and with five days left to run on this auction it'll be interesting to see what price this will fetch.

G L Wilson

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

ESP Gundam Axe guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here we see an ESP Gundam Axe guitar listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $799. The seller doesn't tell us very much about it, only that he bought it in Japan in 2007 literally whilst running for the return flight home.

The insubstantial body does look very much as it has been crafted from plastic; the fact that the blade section of the axe shape contains a built-in amp and speaker make this all the more likely. Of course, ESP are no strangers to the use of plastic in their guitar bodies, witness the Devil Girl.

As for the shape of the guitar it is most odd, and especially strange for guitar that looks designed for the metal market it has a lone humbucker pickup in the neck position and not in the bridge position. Also with the bridge having such a small footprint on an area of "body" comprising more thin air than actual body material I can't imagine that the guitar would sustain very well.

Although it looks very metal the ESP Gundam is more of a novelty guitar; it's another guitar inspired by a Japanese anime series, the Gundam being giant fighting robots or "Mobile Suits". The guitar we see here appears to be based on a weapon as used by one of these robots.

Personally I think I prefer the Doraemon guitar (now, don't get all technical with me and say that Doraemon was originally a manga series rather than anime - it's all related).

G L Wilson

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

Fender Jazzmaster CIJ mini guitar with on-board amp - hardly ever seen outside of Japan

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's another Fender guitar that is virtually unknown outside of Japan. It's a Crafted In Japan (CIJ) Fender Jazzmaster JM-CH mini with diminutive body, short scale, single pickup, and built-in amp and speaker. The amp has a three position switch for OFF, clean and distortion. The quality looks to be superb, as you would expect from Fender Japan; I hear that not for export models made solely for the Japanese market are among the best. This guitar would have been made 1995-1996.

This guitar is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $468.

See also this Fender ST-Champ, which would appear to be the Stratocaster sibling to this mini Jazzmaster, and which we looked at back in February of this year.

G L Wilson

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

Another acoustic guitar with a built-in speaker in its top

guitarz.blogspot.com:

A few days ago here on Guitarz we looked at a Kay acoustic guitar with built-in amp, speaker and effects. Well, here's something similar submitted by Jonny M. Garcia via our Facebook page but this time it's not a factory-fitted speaker, it's a Do It Yourself conversion by the owner who is now selling the guitar on Craig's List. This is what he says about it:

I modified an almost new AmericanLegacy acoustic guitar by mounting a speaker and amp (with overdrive) directly into the guitar! I quickened the action and now this bad ass mother sounds, plays and feels like a strat! A guitar body is really a speaker box and the speaker here picks up on resonant frequencies that feeds back on itself like Eddie Van Halen! It is truly a live wire! It uses 2- 9 volt batteries, and has a 3 band EQ onboard as well. The pickup is a transducer. The frets are in perfect shape. It comes with a hard case. Look closely at the pic to see the red "on" light next to the volume and overdrive controls. Take it to an acoustic jam anywhere and you can play rock leads on an acoustic that really sound like rock leads! I made one for myself nearly 30 years ago and it has been awesome and reliable, and people are amazed! I am a furniture artisan so my workmanship is good. Believe it or not, this is the second one I've made in all that time- this one's for sale!

I don't know where to start! "Plays and feels like a Strat"? "Eddie Van Halen"? "Overdrive control"? I do have to ask, WHY? If you want something that plays and feels like a Strat, why not use a Strat? As for using an acoustic to play rock leads, again I do not see the point. Just because something is possible, it doesn't necessarily follow that it should be done.

Also, I can't help thinking that cutting a hole in an acoutic's top and inserting a speaker is not going to do the natural acoustic sound of the guitar any favours at all. And what about the internal bracing? I can't believe he cut a hole without cutting through some of that.

G L Wilson

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

1970s Kay acoustic with built-in amp and FX

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I've not seen one of these guitars before. How cheesy did 70s (maybe 80s?) cheap catalogue guitars get? It's a Kay-branded dreadnaught-style acoustic very bizarrely fitted with a built-in amp and with a cheap speaker in the guitar's top. I can't imagine that doing much for its acoustic properties. The built-in amp section also features a tremolo effect.

It's so bizarre that it's almost desirable!

G L Wilson

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

ESP Doraemon (slight return)

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Firstly, before I comment on the lovely guitar pictured here, I'd like to apologize for our brief hiatus. Blogger were having technical issues and whilst they were sorting these out, somehow, Thursday's blog posts went missing.

According to Blogger all missing posts have now been restored across their network of blogs... but not on Guitarz, so it seemed.

However, I was able to cobble together something to replace the missing post about the Argentinian Morgan guitar from what little text I had already copied over to our Facebook page.

As to Bertram's post about the Hoyer solidbody, ironically I was able to reconstruct that from one of those dreaded scraper blogs! Which doesn't stop me from wanting to eradicate said scraper blog from the face of the blogosphere. Seriously, these scraper blogs are one big headache, and now I am up against the 4th one I've had to wage war with since the beginning of April. If anyone has any good workable ideas about how to contend with this menace, then please contact me, I'm all ears. But I am going through the official channels, reporting them to Google Ads, etc - trouble is that takes time to sort out.

Anyway, long-term readers of the blog may recognize the ESP Doraemon guitar which we originally looked at in December 2008. Still, it bears repeating because it is such an oddball guitar, and we now have many more readers who may have missed it first time around.

Japan is the source of some particularly wacky guitars, but I think for me, this is my favourite. Unlike many novelty guitars - particularly those of the cartoon character with built-in speaker variety - it actually sounds pretty damned good as this video (below) will testify.

Doraemon himself, eponymous star of a Japanese manga comic series which first appeared in 1969, is a robotic cat from the 22nd century sent to aid schoolboy Nobita Nobi.

As to the ESP guitar, it certainly wouldn't win any prizes for ergonomics! Nevertheless, I would love to have one, if only for kitsch value.

Thanks to Bill Cesavice who saw this auction on eBay. ($519.99 Buy It Now price, if you're interested).

G L Wilson

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

Fernandes Nomad "Hello Kitty"

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I can't really add this Fernandes Nomad "Hello Kitty" to the "Hideous guitars" tag here on this blog, because - let's face it - it's not aimed at the likes of me. However, it's seems like incredibly lazy marketing. You can imagine the conversation:

"We want to market this guitar to young girls."
"Let's make it pink."
"Yes, good idea. And maybe add a cute cartoon character too."

I mean, c'mon... Am I the only one that finds this "let's make it pink and cutesy" attitude cloyingly sickening? And isn't it a little bit insulting to women? I'm all for "guitars for girls" but much prefer the designs of Luna Guitars who make guitars suited to the female form that are feminine without being nauseating - some of which appeal to male players too.

Yeah, I get that the "Hello Kitty" Nomad is aimed at a younger age group, but in some ways that makes it all the worse... but hey, this is supposed to be a blog about guitars and not gender politics, so I'll leave it at that.

Maybe I'm wrong but I feel that the seller is being a tad optimistic asking a Buy It Now price of $599. This guitar may well be "discontinued" (I wonder why?), "rare" and "mint", but I can't really see anyone but the most rabid Fernandes collector going for this one. Or maybe a "Hello Kitty" collector.

G L Wilson

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

Fender ST-Champ travel Strat with built-in amp

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Although I can imagine one or two readers groaning when they see this blog post, I make no apologies for showing you all yet another Stratocaster. Yes, the Stratocaster does seem to have a certain omnipresence to it, but one of the things I enjoy about it is the sheer number of variations on a theme that we see. Rest assured, I'm not going to blog about a bog-standard Stratocaster - we've all seen those a thousand times and more; if I'm going to blog about a Strat, it's going to be different in some way.

This particular Strat is a Fender Japan ST-Champ and I guess it would be safe to say that it represents Fender's take on the travel guitar. It has a mini-sized body although the neck appears to be full-scale, a single humbucker and an on-board amp. The ST-CHAMP is definitely not to be confused with the 3/4-scale Squier Mini with on-board amp. The difference in quality should be apparent from the photos. Having not seen one of these before, my guess is that this guitar was produced for the Japanese market only. If you know differently, I'm happy to be told otherwise!

Thanks to Keith McCreary who found this guitar on the www.ishibashi.co.jp/eng site.

G L Wilson

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

Conrad and 20th century industrial design...

guitarz.blogspot.com

I'm afraid that this Conrad will never make music again, but maybe it can still toast bread, provide air conditioning,  vacuum clean... 

Bertram

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

The Höfner Bat prototype ... revisited

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Filippo writes:

Hello,

I noticed my Hofner Bat on http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2010/05/hofner-bat-prototype-from-1960.html

I'm restoring it.

Found the right tuners, the bridge, the truss rod cover and all knobs/controls. All Hofner parts (except for the selector and switch) from the 60s, of course.

A friend of mine, a genius, restored the neck & headstock. Completely restored except s/n and some finish wear. Impossible to realize it has been restored. Still not reglued.

Body and pickups still untouched.

The new scratchplate has been made after hours of work to obtain the right sizes. Conclusions drawn by an architect who has been based on some photographs + body signes valutation. A perfect job done with old 4 layers piece.

The amp: the original one is gone and it isn't possible to have it.

I'll buy a small amp (which?????) and in a way or in another way I'll install it with a 4" speaker or a bigger one mounted with an option.

This guitar will be equipped with a modern amp with digital effects without extra holes or other modifications. Of course!

It needs an amp, so why not a modern one? It's inside and will be great for (home and entertainment only) playing!

Best regards,
Filippo

Great to hear from you, Filippo, and I'm so pleased to hear that this fantastic old guitar is being restored. If you want to send us any further photos of the resoration process or the finished guitar, we'd love to see them here on Guitarz.

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

ARIA GR-2010 Goal Rush 2010 / FIFA World Cup Limited soccer guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Now, I'm not the biggest fan of football (no one calls it "soccer" here in the UK, or even Europe as far as I know), but even I must admit that this official licensed World Cup 2010 guitar from Aria is a clever piece of design, espeically when you consider that it could so easily have ended up looking like a banjo! The middle pentagonal-shape is in fact a speaker, for this little guitar has a built-in amp. I like the headstock that looks like a football boot - complete with tuners as studs!

Thanks to Scott for bringing this guitar to my attention.

G L Wilson

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

Höfner Bat - prototype from 1960

guitarz.blogspot.com:
According to the listing on eBay this highly unusual Höfner BAT from 1960 was a prototype guitar first shown at Frankfurt in 1960, although it never went into production. The guitar incorporated a built-in amp and speaker, taking advantage of the then-new technology offered by the transistor.

Unfortunately this (lone surviving?) example of this model does not have a functioning amp, whilst several parts are not original and the neck is not currently glued in.

This guitar we might call "museum quality". It's not going to be a player, but for the collector it must surely by a very interesting piece.

Thanks to Nathan for bringing this intriguing guitar to our attention.

G L Wilson

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

A rather inexpertly-realised Snoopy guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

It's a long time since we've looked at something genuinely crappy on here, but checking through the eBay listings this morning I was pleased to find this horror with which to share for your amusement.

We've seen kids guitars with built-in amps like this before. Very cheaply made, with incredibly incompetent artwork, and most certainly breaking the copyright ownership of whichever cartoon character it is supposed to resemble.

Imagine someone playing this. You'd look at them and think, "What is that supposed to be?"

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!

Wandre Meazzi Hollywood - vintage Italian guitar with built-in amp

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Most of us have seen the Wandre Davoli Bikini guitar which has an amp and speaker pod attached to the body of the guitar. The Wandre Meazzi Hollywood (as pictured above), however, is a more conservative looking affair (for a Wandre, that is) and much more practical for playing purposes too than its ungainly sibling.

Unusually for a Wandre it appears to have a wooden neck instead of aluminium with bolted-on headstock. The pickup and pickguard are classic 1960s Italiana, crafted from thick plastic. Actually, if I'm not very much mistaken, the whole of the guitar's top looks to be moulded plastic. I also really like the exaggerated hourglass shape of this guitar.

I expect this was a budget model when compared to the Bikini, but it looks a lot more compact and practical. You wouldn't feel quite so silly with the Meazzi Hollywood strapped on.

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!

Mike Oldfield's travel guitar up for grabs

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've seen one of Mike Oldfield's guitars up for auction previously on Guitarz. On that occasion it was his ex-Marc Bolan Telecaster which was the main lead guitar used on his now legendary Tubular Bells album.

This time, it's a one-off travel guitar with integral amp and speaker which was presented to Oldfield by the German arm of his record company, Virgin. The guitar appears to be modelled along the lines of a Hofner Shorty (possibly it is a customized Hofner Shorty) and bears Oldfield's name on the pickguard and has a Tubular Bells logo on the trussrod cover.

I remember seeing Mike Oldfield demonstrate this very guitar on a Breakfast TV show back in 1983 (or thereabouts) during an item in which he was showing off part of his guitar collection. I've tried and cannot find this clip on YouTube. I believe he mentioned taking it with him on aircraft flights. I couldn't say if it was ever used on any of his records; I suspect that it was purely a practice guitar.

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!

ESP Doreamon Guitar

From Japan (naturally) comes this ESP Doreamon guitar based on a cartoon character that I'm not really aware of but have seen on guitars before! I like the fact that it seems to have a built-in amp but the sheer size and shape of it means that it would be totally impractical as a travel guitar. It's extremely cheesy and I have to confess to secretly liking this one mainly because of its ridiculousness. It's a very odd shape, it's funny, and it's another example of what the imaginations of those wacky Japanese can come up with.

'ere, Mister, can we 'ave our ball back?

The seller of this football-shaped guitar with built-in amp thinks for some unfathomable reason that it might be a Pignose, but I very much doubt it. There are factories in China and Korea churning out novelty guitars like these, some of which I've featured in these pages.

Notice how it appears to be a deflated football, as if it had landed on top of some spiked railings.