The Mini-Me version of the Gretsch Electromatic Bo Diddley guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

When I saw the Buy It Now price on this Gretsch Electromatic Bo Diddley guitar currently listed on eBay I did a double take, for $224.99 seems very reasonable for a Gretsch guitar. My next reaction was that it must be a copy or counterfeit. But then I looked more closely at the photographs and read in the item description that it has a 21 1/2" scale length, and I realized that this is not the regular full-size Bo Diddley model. I guess this was designed to suit younger players and those of a smaller stature. It's quite a basic guitar, probably Korean or Chinese-made, with a bolt-on neck and just a single pickup, but as short-scale guitars go it makes a nice change from those mini Fenders or Daisy Rock's earlier (and girlier) guitars.

G L Wilson

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

Super rare Gibson Les Paul Jumbo turns up on eBay

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I've only ever seen photos of the almost mythical Gibson Les Paul Jumbo reproduced in black and white in guitar books. And I've always been rather puzzled by the model's existence in the first place. Surely, the whole point of the Gibson Les Paul was that it was a solidbody electric, but here we have an acoustic version! What's that all about?

It seems it was all a marketing ploy by Gibson; in 1969 they thought putting Les Paul's name on an acoustic, albeit an electric-acoustic, would draw in the punters. In reality the guitar was a failure and reportedly only 49 were sold.

The Jumbo has a single low-impedence pickup, similar to those used on the Les Paul Recording and Personal models. In place of the usual Rhythm/Treble legend around the toggle switch, you'll notice that here it is instead labelled "In / Out". Of course with just a single pickup, the toggle isn't a pickup selector switch but instead allows the player to bypass the tone controls - in much the same manner as the switching on the single pickup Fender Esquire.

The Jumbo pictured here is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of £5,000.

G L Wilson

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

Burns of London Custom Shop prototype Jet Harris Barracuda Bass VI

guitarz.blogspot.com:


The eBay UK seller claims that this is:

"...the prototype for Jet Harris Barracuda six string bass. It was handmade at Burns London custom shop and is a one off. I bought it from Barry Gibson's personal collection. It is absolutely immaculate condition with case strap and spare strings..." 

We previously looked at the production version here. Note how this prototype has the Burns Rez-O-Tube bridge and vibrato, unlike the example we previously looked at, and which surely must be much more useful on a guitar of this type.

This guitar is currently listed on eBay UK with a starting price of £1,500.

G L Wilson

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

Vintage & Rare Guitar of the Week: Bigsby-equipped Blastcult FIF T SIX

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Seeing as Blastcult, founded by Orange County bass maker Jason Burns, specializes in hand-built upright basses, perhaps it'll come as little surprise that this Blastcult FIF T SIX guitar has a distinct Rockabilly flavour. It has a chambered sugar pine body with nitro cell pearloid binding. The fretboard is of gaboon ebony and the guitar has a scalelength of 25.5". Hardware includes Hipshot locking tuners, TV Jones pickups and USA Bigsby tailpiece.

This guitar is listed on Vintage & Rare and is priced at $3,250.

G L Wilson

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

You Rock Guitar launch YRG-Pro MIDI guitar Kickstarter project

guitarz.blogspot.com: Now this is something that really interests me, because although I am a guitarist I do have an active interest in producing electronic music. To be able to play synth sounds via a guitar-like interface, or to "silently" record straight into my laptop via USB is mightily appealing to me. I had considered the You Rock Guitar previously, but the original model does have the disadvantage of looking quite toy-like and plasticky. You wouldn't be so wrong to compare it to a guitar-shaped games controller, for it can operate in that capacity too.

However, when I saw the first images of the YRG Pro model with all the electronics housed in a proper wooden guitar body, well that made the package look much more like what I had in mind. (Having used a Yamaha EZ-EG, I know how limiting a flimsy plastic MIDI guitar is - you wouldn't really want to take it out and gig with it).

Anyway, You Rock Guitar are trying to raise $80,000 to get this project up and running, and you can pledge money via Kickstarter in return for a reward depending on the amount you pledge - and Yes, that does include the MIDI guitars themselves.

G L Wilson

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

Another pointy guitar for 1980s hair-metal throwbacks: the Peavey Mystic

guitarz.blogspot.com:  

I'm going to be really lazy here and copy information that the eBay seller of this Peavey Mantis already copied from Peavey themselves:

PEAVEY manufactured the MYSTIC between 1983 and 1986. The neck is made from hard rock maple using Peavey's patented bilamination construction to prevent twisting and warping. Inside the neck, between the two maple laminates is a fully adjustable steel truss rod - with rolled threads. This truss rod is adjustable at the nut end, using Peavey's adjustment tool. the guitar has a slant peg head design, with all six machineheads in a straight line.

The body is made from unspecified hardwood, and finished in weather and mark resistant polyester-urethane. It has a double cutaway and rib-cage contour for ease of upper fret access and playing comfort. The body style has a conventional double cutaway couple with two large horns: like a combination of a Strat and Flying V.

The pickups are very high output full-range humbuckers with blade pole pieces using a unique patented dual/single coil circuit. This allows humbucking or single coil operation of either or both pickups through rotation of the tone controls. The pickups are fully shielded and potted to reduce microphones and electrical interference.

The circuit used in the guitar allows a wide tonal range, without the use of active electronics. The three position pickup selector toggle switch (military grade apparently) allows each pickup to be used independently, or both together when in the middle position. When in this position their tonalities can be blended with the tone control. There is a single volume control which operates both pickups, and two tone controls: one for each pickup.

The guitar uses medium-heavy fret wire: with 18% nickel silver construction. There are 23 frets in total, with a scale lenght of 24.75 inches.

 The chrome plated machine heads have a 14:1 gearing ratio. The nut is made from polycarbonate.

The guitar has a neck tilt adjustment feature, which is used in conjunction with the truss rod adjustment to set the perfect string angle.

The Peavey Mystic could, I suppose, be considered a sibling to the Peavey Mantis and the Peavey Razer, all three models coming from the same era; some would say they were virtually the same guitar offered in a three different crazy body shapes.

This particular guitar is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $289.99 - now how often can you pick up a genuine all-American-made guitar for that kind of money these days?

G L Wilson

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

Performance video featuring Marko Lipovšek playing one of his electric harp guitars

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Especially for Bertram, here is another of Marko Lipovšek's electric harp guitars being played by its maker during a fashion performance.

I post this here just so you can hear what these guitars sound like, although I suspect some readers (I'm not naming names) might ogle the young ladies...

G L Wilson

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

Incredible 35-string electric harp guitar by Slovenian luthier Marko Lipovšek

guitarz.blogspot.com:  

I don't think I'd care to be the one to hang this behemoth on a strap around my shoulders, but have to admit that it's an incredible piece of sculpture. Made by Slovenian luthier Marko Lipovšek, this one-of-a-kind 35-string harp guitar with three sets of strings has been sculpted from Slovenian White Maple, ebony, and Slovenian black walnut.

This guitar is currently being offered for sale by a Canadian seller on Etsy.com and is priced at $15,000.00 Canadian Dollars.

G L Wilson

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

Korean guitar Shine SIL-510

guitarz.blogspot.com

At first sight, the PRS-like shape with figured wood top and glossy finish (not to mention the fancy fretboard inlays) of this Shine SIL-510 is the kind of things in a guitar that makes it invisible to me...

But the cool pickup covers caught my attention, then the fact that Shine is a Korean brand, so I looked more into details. Shine is the house brand of Saein Musical Instrument Company, that makes guitars for Ibanez, Epiphone and Peavey in Korea and China. Of course after a few decades making guitars for these western brands, they for sure have all the skills needed to release their own models - unless you think Korean people are too stupid for that...

Actually this guitar only has positive reviews anywhere I've looked, as much for its sound than for its finishes, but it's now mostly sold at discount price (around £150 in UK) - so it seems that it will still take a while before musicians trust a brand that cannot claim it's American, European or Japanese. But this was the case with Japan until they could join the club, and I'm sure that things will slowly change. I just wish they'd come up with innovative designs!

Bertram D

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

Marma semi-hollow guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com

Marma is one of the less documented GDR-era guitar brand (I know, that's the 5th Marma I post on Guitarz and I say more or less the same thing) and one of my favorite brands. This model is not of the eccentric kind, but more one the elegant ones. 

Like usually you can recognize elements that Marma shared with other brands - pickups, bridge, tremolo (the arm is missing but it's meant to be very long), freeboard... The body line looks common but the cutaway is actually quite unique - I've never seen one like that before.

Bertram D

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