Gretsch Superaxe from 1978 with on-board effects

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Gretsch had made a guitar with built in effects. They are a pretty unique company in that they often try new ideas and designs yet can still maintain a reputation built on their classic hollow body guitars.

This Gretsch Superaxe from 1978 comes in a very familiar orange and includes onboard phaseshifter, compressor, and sustain. It appears to be in stellar condition and should please any Gretsch fan.

Listed at $2995 Canadian

R.W. Haller






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Cort Effector Guitar likely from the 1980s with onboard effects

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I've never seen the Cort Effector guitar. This Effector looks like a nice Explorer in its own right. Given the look of the electronics I'd assume that this guitar is from circa early 1980s. That would likely mean that it was built in Japan, and probably a pretty good player.  I'm sure the quality of the on-board effects is pretty low, but they are push button on and off, and that is tres-cool.

Also the Speed knob would really improve my playing, unless of course that is only for the speed of the effects.

Currently listed at $180 Canadian.

The seller links to this Reverb sale as a comparison, so I grabbed a couple of pictures form there as well.

R.W. Haller

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Rare Condor Corperation Guitar with on board effects. Made in Japan

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I've never tried a guitar with built in effects. I have seen a few for sale over the years, and have seen them profiled on this blog. This is the first time I've seen or heard of Condor Corperation guitars.

All in all this specimen is a pretty typical 1970s era Japanese Strat copy, only it comes with on-board effects including a phaser, distortion, booster, and what appears to be a treble booster.

At $135 Canadian this would be a cost effective way to try this kind of setup.

R. W. Haller



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Gibson Firebird II Artist CMT 1981

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Here's an unusual take on the Firebird design from Gibson. To quote from the eBay listing:

Very rare and unique 1981 Gibson Firebird II Artist CMT. Reportedly only about 160 or so of this model were made. Maple body with bound flamed curly maple top in Antique Sunburst (tobacco burst) finish.

These guitars originally came with the same Moog-designed active electronics from Gibson's "RD Artist" series, with compression (neck pickup) and expansion (bridge pickup) options available. Many musicians found that circuitry too complex, especially on stage, and the RD series was a commercial failure...

Currently listed on eBay (with the original Moog circuit boards and original Series VI low-impedance pickups should you want them) with a starting bid of $2,100.

G L Wilson

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Yasuki 1980s Japanese-made Les Paul-style guitar with built-in effects

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We've previously looked at other Japanese guitars with built-in effects, drum machines, etc. The LP-style guitar with built in FX that we most commonly seen is the Univox-made example loosely modelled on the original Roland GS500 Guitar Synth Controller. However, the above pictured Yasuki LP-style guitar with built-in FX is modelled on a more traditional LP design, although the addition of the effects unit seems to be almost an after-thought. You would have thought that it would have been more elegant if the effects had been rear-mounted. The least they could have done would have been to put the battery compartment cover on the rear.

You'll notice that this picture showing the effects unit removed from the guitar betrays the ultra-cheap construction method of Les Paul copies from this era; the arched top of the guitar is achieved with bent plywood on top of a solid (plywood) body - and with a big pocket of air between the two! You just know that this guitar is never going to sound like a real Gibson.

Currently listed on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £399.

G L Wilson

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1960s Vox Phantom VI Special with built-in special effects

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Guitarz reader Andrew K writes:

Okay, what we have here is the Vox Phantom VI Special with the onboard effects. This was the full, top-of-the-line, Vox Effects guitar. While the Starstream and other hollowbodies contained the smaller 3 effect unit the special contains ALL the effects. And I do mean all. Reliability notwithstanding these were truly special instruments, they were just about the only special FX guitar ever built that was fully analogue and actually functioned properly, and to top it off they were dead awesome and dead sexy. They are not as specialised as the guitarorgan or as standard as the Starsteam and other hollowbodies, they stand alone and thanks to the fact the company was circling the drain, there are relatively few of them in good nick. The fact they kept breaking may have counted against them in the long run.

And, Ian Curtis played one in Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" video. Enough has been said, but still I will say more.

I am now enclosing an interview done with Bernard Sumner for the excellent book by Pat Graham called Instrument. The instrument being discussed was the self-same Vox Phantom VI Special.

Ian really liked this guitar. The Phantom had tons of effects built into it, as an added bonus. It had a pause unit, and a thing called the 'replat'. when we got the guitar, half the effects didn't work, and we were thinking "what the hell is the replat?" We got the guitar repaired, and it turned out that 'replat' was actually repeat - it was just a misprint. The guitar has a battery in it, and if you press the buttons in the wrong combination it will go into the self-oscillate mode and start to make this strange twittering sound that Ian liked very much. It is a pretty wacky guitar.

Ian didn't' really want to play guitar, but for some reason we wanted him to play it. I can't remember the reason now. It sounded like some of the thinner guitars on the Velvet Underground tracks, clean and jangly. I think Ian used to only play on 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'... no I'm wrong, there was another track too. Maybe, 'Heart and Soul'? I do remember Ian used to play only one chord, which was D. We showed him how to play D and we wrote a song. I wonder if that's why we wrote 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', you could drone a D through it. I think he played it live because I was playing keyboards. On the record, I played guitar, a twelve-string Eko (misspelt 'echo') an Italian guitar that sounded pretty good.

To pick it out, I think we just went to a record shop and said, that one looks cool, get that one and he said, yeah, I like that. I kept the guitar after he died, kept it under my bed in a case and then gave it back to his daughter when she came of age.

We did use it on a couple of New Order recordings. The one I remember is 'Everything's Gone Green'. On the rhythm guitar part on that song, you can hear this guitar. It just plays the D chord. That's a joke...

-Bernard Sumner.

If all of that is not reason enough for a feature, then I have absolutely no clue what is enough justification.

Do as you will.

Andrew K

P.S. if you read the description, It has a neck made by a furniture manufacturer. Quirky enough?

Currently being auctioned on eBay UK with bidding currently at £1,500 and three days left to run at the time of writing



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