ESP Exotic Forest Custom

Another borderline guitar, a classic and so-so ESP design but made of exotic wood with natural finish, wooden pickguard, knobs and pickup covers, this is the Exotic Forest Custom that I found in the custom gallery of the russian ESP website.

It's also called Oyaji Forest but I couldn't find more information about it (and also why it's called like this, if someone can say more...)

On the same gallery you will also see the Armor Custom - ugly but delirious - and the 7-String Custom that I think is almost great but is actually not - I cannot really say why...

Bertram

JBW stratocaster

Don't you think that any cheap stratocaster copy looks cool with a chrome pickguard ?

bertram

Japanese vintage round guitar

This is a truly conceptual guitar !

Too bad that its round shape makes this Japanese vintage guitar look like a banjo, because this one-off semi-hollow makes an amazing demonstration: you don't have to be overly complex to be bizarre, being just radically simple is enough.

It must be cool to play this guitar with a fuzz and a wah-wah, even better if you wear an indian tunic, ragged jeans and a silk scarf in your hair... Psychedelic music is still quite strong in Japan and they have the best band of the kind, Acid Mothers Temple...

bertram

Electric Pin

This is an electrified version of a traditional Thai 3-stringed folk instrument.

You can see from the positions of the frets that this is a diatonic instrument, and reminds me of the mountain dulcimer, Strumstick and similar instruments.

It's tuning can vary depending on what key you want to play in. For example, for Am the strings would be tuned E-A-E.

KTone Lucite headless bass

My name is Scott Gentzen and I'm another guest blogger here at the Guitar Blog. I was drawn to this blog by its pictures of fabulous vintage oddball European guitars with much knob and switch goodness. I also have a thing for horrible design, modern designs with interesting new ideas, and mangled beat up vintage guitars. I haven't been as productive as the other guys yet, but will do what I can.

Speaking of which, here's my first entry....

KTone lucite fretless bass

This thing apparently is new and unplayed, but definitely has that 80s vibe with the small body and no head. The clear lucite body is a bonus. No holes in it though. I'm not a bass player but if it was a guitar I don't know if I'd even be able to play this...with the small body and no headstock but it looks way cool.

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.

Roland G-77 Bass Synth Controller

Back in the day (the mid 1980s), my friend Paul had one of these - a Roland G-77 Bass Synth - complete (unlike the one for sale here) with the hefty synth unit that sat on the floor and which this thing plugged into. We nicknamed it, the Dalek's Handbag, and Paul found a hologram of a dalek which he stuck on the front between the two jazz bass pickups.

This of course was the bass companion model to the Roland G-707 guitar synth, although the bass was superior in a couple of ways. It had individual analogue to digital converters for each string unlike the guitar which had one for all the strings and so the tracking was much better, and it had a slightly more sensibly-designed shape so that you could actually balance it on your knee when playing it sitting down.

When Paul sold the bass, somehow I ended up with the hard case, which I used for many years for my bass that I had assembled myself from parts bought from Brandoni guitars.

Vox Clubman II

Recently I've seen quite a few of these 1960s-era Vox student-model guitars on eBay, and very often they are priced totally unrealistically. This Vox Clubman II, albeit in the more unusual left-handed layout, has a starting price of £200.

This is sheer madness. Take it from me as the ex-owner of one of these very guitars, these guitars are barely playable. The bodies are made from a piece of plywood barely an inch thick, the neck is very narrow and doesn't have a proper truss rod, the pickups are weak, the tuners don't work too well...

It's cheaply put together-tat, a 1960s exercise in jumping on the guitar bandwaggon.

The Vox guitars to look out for are the Mark series, the Phantom series, and from the 1980s, the Japanese-built Standard and Custom 24s and 25s and possibly the White Shadow.

There are some nice-looking 60s-era semis too, which might be worth checking out, but beware of the plywood-bodied student models such as the one pictured. It might be "vintage", it might be "rare", but that doesn't mean it's going to be playable.

A more realistic price for a guitar such as the example featured here would be nearer the £50 mark - possibly a little more for a left-handed model.

(I converted my one to fretless, BTW).

Burns Bison 1965

I've always loved the good old Burns Bison but this one is the most beautiful one I ever saw... Just the blond headstock doesn't fit. I still don't understand why a guitar according to its shape should be surf more than rock - also this British axe doesn't feel so Californian that it wouldn't sink if thrown in the pacific ocean...

It's not clear if it's a one-off or a real Burns prototype, it's said that it's made by Japanese luthier Hy-Lo (that is not a Japanese name) from guitar manufacturer Matsumoku - anyway it's a beauty...

bertram

Godin Radiator

The trouble with mirror front guitars such as this Godin Radiator is that you can't sell it discreetly on eBay since when you take its picture your face shows!

Still it has this ultra classic elegance of Godin's products, a mix of Telecaster and Les Paul that still has its personality ; I'm amazed by designers who can do that! And the mirror gives it the edge that its classicism lacks.

I have too much fun posting on Guitarz, I should work a little bit more on my own blog !

bertram