Teisco Del Ray ET-230 vs Eastwood K-65 reissue - but which is better?

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Currently listed on eBay are this Eastwood K-65 (left above), a now discontinued model based on a classic 1960s Japanese Teisco guitar and with a Buy It Now price of $499.95, and also this - the guitar the Eastwood was based on - an original two-pickup Teisco ET-230 (above centre and right) with a Buy It Now price of $325. Some would argue that the more modern Eastwood reissue would be a better player, but wouldn't the original Teisco be much cooler?

Which one would you choose?

G L Wilson

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

Vintage & Rare "Guitar" of the Week: Manndolins by Jonathan Mann

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I'm a couple of days late with this Vintage & Rare "Guitar" of the Week and once again, it's not actually a guitar I'm featuring. The instrument you see pictured here is actually a Manndolins 5-string Octave/Baritone semi-hollow body electric mandolin by Jonathan Mann (check out his website here), handbuilt in Tennessee, USA. Jonathan Mann explains his range as follows:

I am a "small shop" instrument builder and repairman. In the past I have built dulcimers, acoustic and electric guitars and acoustic and electric mandolins. Currently I am building only mandolins and concentrating on my "neck thru" design.

I recently got back into the electric mandolin, (building and playing). I came up with this body style by "morphing" a few popular styles into one. Available with 4, 5 or 8 strings. These Manndolins are available in three body types :

1. Hollow body - This version utilizes a traditional style floating bridge and has the most acoustic volume of the three. Its tone is warmer both acoustically and plugged in.
2. Semi Hollow body - This version has the lighter weight of the hollow body but has a mahogany block under the bridge which decreases the acoustic volume but increases the sustain and feedback resistance. This model uses the Aluminum "wrap around" Bridge/Tailpiece.
3. Solid Body - This version has the least amount of acoustic volume and the most sustain/feedback resistance. It also uses the aluminum "wrap around" Bridge/Tailpiece.

Instruments such as that pictured are listed for sale on Vintage & Rare priced at €775.

G L Wilson

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

Eyb sitar-guitar

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I've been interested in German luthier Eyb ever since I started to look for a sitar-guitar bridge - they propose one of the few available ones (I finally settled for Rockinger - another German brand - telecaster sitar saddles for my Doppelcaster).

Unfortunately Eyb doesn't only produce parts, but also guitars such as this one - and if they have some innovative gear and technology, their designs don't match! 

I'm afraid the pointy high-tech look is hardly ever interesting, too pretentious! It particularly doesn't fit the sitar-guitar, an instrument that is mostly pretending - so if you want a high end instrument, you must get yourself a real sitar and learn how to play! 

You have to admit that Rockinger made a much better choice by aiming their sitar bridges at telecasters...

Bertram D

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

Musima Herrnsdorf archtop

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Here is a good old DDR Musima-Herrnsdorf archtop. Herrnsdorf was another Markneukirchen-based instruments company started in the 19th century, turned electric in the 1950s - producing inevitably cool Schlaggitarren, mother-of-toilet-seat covered Hawaiian guitars and solid body upright basses - then merged with Musima in the early 1970s. The top of the guitar sports a Musima logo and the all-in-one scratchplate / control plate / pickup cover the Herrnsdorf brand.

It seems unlikely that in the 1970s anybody would still produce this kind of device to turn an acoustic archtop into an electric one so I guess this guitar is probably old stock put together - after all Herrsndorf pickups were also known as Rellog, a quite famous East-German brand, so they had to be used, even if the guitar itself - though elegant and well proportioned - has nothing of the flamboyant models of the 1950s...

Bertram D

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

21-string Maestro Harp Guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's something that might be of interest to anyone who's ever wanted to delve into the world of harp guitars, or instruments with sympathetic and/or plucked strings allowing potential for a whole bunch of unusual tunings. This Maestro Harp Guitar with six sub-bass strings and nine additional treble strings is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $550. (You're unlikely to find a harp guitar cheaper).

No doubt it's made in China, Indonesia or Vietnam, but hopefully it's not as disastrous an instrument as some of the incompetently built and largely unplayable oddities produced under the Tennessee brandname.

G L Wilson

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

For the left-handed player who has everything... leftie Gold Tone Banjitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I've just been trawling through all the left-handed guitars on eBay, trying to find something a little bit different for our southpaw friends - who, rather unfairly, do not get the same range of choices when it comes to guitars as right-handed players (northpaws?) - and the best that I can find is this Gold Tone Telecaster-styled left-handed banjitar - ideal for the left-handed guitarist who wants to let a little banjo into his or her life!

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $779.

G L Wilson

EDIT: Several of you have commented that the above photo is a stock photo of a right-handed guitar which has been flipped to make it look left-handed. It's good to know you guys out there are alert, which is more than I was when I wrote this blog post late on Friday night. But the point is that the left-handed version of this guitar/banjo does exist and is what the successful bidder on the auction will be getting.

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

Avalon Carl Verheyen Signature handmade double-cutaway acoustic guitar from Ireland

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I don't really like acoustic guitars with cutaways. Although cutaways have been seen throughout the history of the guitar, the fact that this type of design seems to predominate on acoustics is a trend that has been developing for the last 20 or so years.

When I see an acoustic guitar with a cutaway I worry, because that usually suggests that it is an "electro-acoustic" which can often mean that the instrument is a compromise and therefore lacking in tone and any significant acoustic volume. OK, so I'm not talking about the big boys of the acoustic guitar world: Martin, Taylor, Gibson, Breedlove, Takamine, Ovation, etc, who all produce quality instruments (and most of whom have the good taste to produce a fair quantity of non-cutaway acoustic models); rather I am referring to the deluge of low to medium-priced instruments that are imported from the Far East. Some are excellent. Many are not.

What is the cutaway for anyway? Oh, sure, people will say "So you can play up at the top of the neck", but - honestly - how many actually do this when playing acoustic guitar. I certainly never have the need to play that high up the neck.

No, the real reason for the cutaway is to make the guitar look more like an electric and therefore to appeal more to electric players and people who think it looks cool. Well, as far as I am concerned it does NOT look cool. In my opinion, it spoils that classic acoustic guitar outline and makes the instrument look cheap.

Which, in a roundabout way, brings us onto this Avalon Carl Verheyen Signature acoustic guitar which features not one, but a pair of cutaways. Avalon is NOT an el cheapo brand from the far east, I really must stress this. Rather, Avalon Guitars are high quality instruments handcrafted in Ireland using traditional methods, and have been produced by a team of skilled luthiers since the 1980s.

This double-cutaway acoustic has been built by Avalon for guitar virtuso Carl Verheyen (who probably DOES play right up at the top of the neck on acoustic), and the specs are as follows:

• Back & Sides: Indian Rosewood
• Soundboard: Sitka Spruce
• Neck: Mahogany
• Fingerboard: Ebony
• Bindings: Sycamore
• Purflings: Rosewood / Sycamore
• Rosette: Abalone / Rosewood / Sycamore
• Bridge: Rosewood
• Nut / Saddle: Bone (44mm)
• Bracing System: AXE™

Despite my rant about acoustic guitars with cutaways, I rather like this double-cutaway acoustic. Visually, it still manages to maintain a classic outline; perhaps it's the symmetry that helps.

The list price for the Avalon Carl Verheyen Signature acoustic guitar is £3,860. However, the guitar pictured here is currently listed on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £1,400. That could be one hell of a bargain for someone looking for a high quality handmade acoustic guitar.

G L Wilson

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

Firefox mini Les Paul

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I'm afraid there's not much I can tell about this Firefox mini Les Paul - but that it's probably Japanese and probably from the 1990s... I find short scale guitars interesting instruments if you don't try to just use them as regular guitars... I once bought a cheap small strat for my kid and it sounds surprisingly good: in open tuning it becomes a kind of electric mandolin with unsuspected possibilities... I'd be curious to hear how these humbuckers sound in higher pitch.

Bertram D

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

Presenting the latest creation from Eric Mecum...

guitarz.blogspot.com:  

We've looked at a couple of Eric's eccentric six-string creations before (here and here), and pictured above is his latest. In Eric's own words, it:

...still needs a little tweaking but sounds cool. Old 1986 Seymour Duncan pickup. Teisco neck. Pipe fittings box.

Thanks for sharing that with us, Eric. Nice to have a guitar which you can keep your liquor and jazz mags inside.

G L Wilson

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

Vintage & Rare Guitar of the Week: 1984 Charvel San Dimas Explorer Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

GrinningElk Music Co., USA, are selling this unashamedly 1980s "hair metal"-era Charvel San Dimas Explorer Bass with lightning bolt graphics via Vintage & Rare. In their own words:

If you're looking at this bass, you are either a big fan of San Dimas guitars and recognize its rarity, you had long hair back in the 80s and it was the greatest period of your life or both. We've had this beast stashed for a good while [...] Anyway, this bass was custom ordered from Charvel by Roy Jenkins in '84 and truly represents all that was cool back in those glory days, so far as Metal instruments are concerned. It, of course sports the gold logo and earlier, brass appointments. You gotta wear it low, if for no other reason than to look cool and the bass comes in its original blue- lined, Charvel case. Sometimes, you buy a bass or guitar just to take you back to the days when everything was right in the world, all the girls wore spandex and there was nothing like a mortgage to worry about. Sometimes, you buy something for yourself and there ain't nothing wrong with that in our book...

It's a great looking bass, but as the seller insinuates, it definitely evokes a certain era. Price available on application.

G L Wilson

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