Guitar Info

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We looked at a Baldwin Double Six 12-string last month, and at a glance the guitar pictured here would appear to be another example of a Burns or Baldwin 12-string electric (the horns look Bison-esque), but is in fact a Japanese-made copy bearing the La Boz brandname. Looking at the picture below, you'll notice that they even - very cheekily - copied the "Wild Dog" and "Split Sound" tone settings... I'm not sure how well that would have gone down in the Burns camp!

Thanks to Tom for bringing this guitar to my attention. It's currently being offered for sale on eBay with a starting price of $499.

G L Wilson

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www.niceguitars.ch

Bertram

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

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Edit: Bertram has pointed out that it looks to be a Maton, and that we looked at the Maton Big Ben Bass over a year ago - you'll notice the similarities! - G L Wilson

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

Bertram

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

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(c) AE|2011, http://photography.fuzz-wire.net

Kevin Burkett of the Electrical Guitar Company creates boutique-quality aluminium guitars and basses. This particular example is a one-off, inspired by the now legendary Dan Armstrong plexiglass guitar, and which marries a lucite body to an aluminium Travis Bean-style neck. Unlike the Dan Armstrong which had such a deep-set neck that there was only room to accommodate a single pickup, the EGC has two P90s. Indeed, from what I can make out in the photographs, the neck/body interface looks to be one of its most interesting features. It appears that the neck and the plate at the rear of the body are formed from a single billet of aluminium, allowing the end of the neck to be flush with the top-end of the body with no need for neck pocket or deepset tenon.

(c) AE|2011, http://photography.fuzz-wire.net

More here: http://digital.premierguitar.com/premierguitar/201003_1/#pg193

Thanks to Dirk Lubbe for bringing this beauty to my attention.

G L Wilson

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

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Rosetti was, and still is, a distributor of musical instruments in the United Kingdom. This 1960s Rosetti Bass 7 bears their name, but was in fact made by Egmond in The Netherlands and is quite typical for that brand. Note how it features a pickguard with integrated pickups and controls screwed to the top of the body, like something you would find on some archtop hollowbodies - only the body here is just a slab with no routing - all the electrics are in the pickguard. It's a crudely constructed instrument, but then these weren't high-end instruments, despite being the guitars and basses that many players started out on.

Really, today's up and coming players have it so very easy with good quality, affordable and playable instruments!

G L Wilson

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

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Following a recent re-issue by Eastwood Guitars, the Eko Rock VI is Eko's own re-issue of the Eko Rokes guitar from the 1960s. These rocket-shaped guitars, also available in bass and 12-string models, were created for and named after 1960s pop band The Rokes who were Italy's answer to The Beatles.

This particular guitar offered for sale here on eBay was used by The Fuzztones recently on tour in Italy. It has a Bigsby-esque vibrato and - rather unusually - a Tele-style single coil pickup and a humbucker both positioned together in the centre position. This does seem an odd arrangement, but according to the listing these pickups deliver "a warm punchy mid sixties sound which is brilliant for rhythm but on the other hand can be selected to give a cool surf early 60s lead sound similar to a vintage strat!"

The retro styling coupled with modern playability offers something a little bit different in the modern guitar world where we see the same designs re-interpreted ad nauseum. I like it!

G L Wilson

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

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Here's a sweet little guitar from Germany: a Framus 5/51 archtop with - unusually for an acoustic guitar - just a single f-hole on the bass side. As is commone with old Framus guitars, the neck is made from multiple laminates, and is also a bolt-on - proof that it wasn't just the Italians (Eko, etc) who used this construction technique on their acoustics.

G L Wilson

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

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I started writing a piece about how I never "got" Kramer guitars, couldn't understand what all the fuss was about, etc, etc, but then noticed it was almost word for word the same as a blog post I'd written in 2009 about a certain Kramer Triax guitar. So, rather than make you all think you are experiencing déjà vu, let's take a look at the above-pictured crazy-looking axe.

It's a Kramer Invader and must surely be one that Kramer afficionados and collectors would dearly love to get their mitts on. Apparently it is a one-off prototype model "built in '82 or '83 for Floyd Rose himself". It's currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $7,500.

I believe that Roland's G-707 guitar synth controller (which may or may not have been made by Greco in Japan) was introduced in 1984, so would have just been pipped at the post by this prototype Kramer for a guitar with a bar connecting the body to headstock. (I'm sure there are earlier precedents; list examples in the comments if you like!) I think here, though, it is purely cosmetic, whereas on the Roland it was supposed to eliminate deadspots on the neck and thus improve synth tracking.

And I don't know about you, but I always get nervous when I see pictures of expensive guitars standing by the side of a swimming pool!

(Thanks to Greg Cadman for pointing this one out to us!)

G L Wilson

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

Bertram

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

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Here is a supposedly rare Marco Polo guitar, made in Japan by Guyatone in the 1960s. It features four pickups (described as the seller as “very hot”), each having their own on/off selector switch mounted onto a substantial chrome pickguard. Other controls are a single slider switch for rhythm or solo that affects tone, and a single volume and single tone for all four pickups. The tremolo, which is still all present and correct, is said to work smoothly, leaving the guitar in tune after use. The adjustable neck has 21 frets on a rosewood fingerboard plus a zero fret, and has 8 position inlays. The guitar is obviously styled after offset waist guitars such as Fender’s Jazzmaster and Jaguar models. It is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $595.

G L Wilson

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

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Regular readers will know already that I am a big fan of early Yamaha electric guitars. I think they are absolutely fantastic and some models were way ahead of their time in terms of design and ergonomics. This almost luminescent orange Yamaha SGC2 is from 1968 and has a body shape that complements its sibling guitars in the SGV series, although I doubt it is quite so ergonomic. The tremolo looks to be a cruder affair than the Jazzmaster-type found on other early Yamahas; it looks as if it might be styled after the now legendary Bigsby vibrato.

As I type this, the guitar is on eBay with about 45 minutes left to go and has been attracting a fair number of bids. I so wish that I could bid, but that might not be such a good idea right about now. The price is currently at $570. Let's see what it fetches (and I spent a LOT more than that for my SG-2).

Oh, and it's my birthday tomorrow if anyone is feeling particularly generous!

Thanks to Shubert, who brought this guitar to my attention.

G L Wilson

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

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Thanks to "Mini Van Halen" for sending on this picture. I confess I know nothing about this extremely pointy Edwards guitar, other that the Edwards brand is part of the ESP empire. I suspect it's a one-off creation. It certainly looks as if you could do yourself a mischief on those sharp points; the headstock looks particularly lethal.

G L Wilson

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

Bertram

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

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Guitarz reader Ryan Coons saw this on Craigslist and commented, "I've seen my share of Fender basses, but nothing quite like this one."

It's a Made in Japan Fender HMT Bass circa 1989/90, has an F-hole in a Thinline-inspired P-Bass body, an active TBX tone control and a piezo pickup in the fixed acoustic-style bridge. Very unusually for a Fender, it doesn't sport their trademark headstock shape or familiar logo. The name "HMT" and the headstock shape would imply "Heavy Metal", but the f-fole and acoustic pickup/bridge do not quite fit in with this image.

I remember around this period at a music show in London seeing a similar Fender bass, but fretless and with the more usual P-Bass headstock and in natural finish. I guess that was a Japanese-built sibling of the bass we see here. That one I could understand. This one seems to have identity issues.

G L Wilson

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

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

There is definitlely a Godin on my must-have guitar list...

Bertram

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

Bertram

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

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Gary writes:

I just discovered your blog site about this Gibson bass tonight. My first bass I ever bought, Jan 1967, 44 years ago yesterday as I write this, was a 1959 EBO. I had no idea of the history of the EBO, I just bought it because it was $75 and the bass player of the Nomads, the hot band at my high school in Kansas City, Mo. had traded it in on an EB-2, I was just starting to play bass, and it was available. Had I had any idea of the history of the EBO I would still own it. Naturally, not knowing I traded it in for an EB-2 in 1972.

I loved that old EBO in spite of the fact that playing it was like driving a big truck without power steering. It was the only bass I'd ever really played at that time so I didn't know any better. I did fine with it but other players had a hell of a time with it. At a battle of the bands one night in 1971 the band that was up after us broke a string on his bass. True to the times he didn't carry spare strings so he asked to borrow my bass. In the end, our band won...his didn't. He was really angry with me because he said my bass was so hard to play he couldn't play well & that cost them the battle. Like I said I was used to it so it played fine for me.

I don't really know how it sounded. There weren't the bass amps availavble then that are around now. I had a 23 watt Silvertone head with a home made cabinet with 2-15" cheap speakers...who knew about good speakers. I would love to hear it thru my SWR SM-400 & Goliath cabinet I have today. Oh well.

I wish I hadn't gotten rid of it, it would have been a real collectors item. I have only ever seen one other one & that was back in the early 70's. Seeing the pictures on your blog brought on the pang in the heart that seeing an old girlfriend years later would bring.

Thanks for the blog page on it. It brought back a lot of memories I'm surprised I can still muster up.

Gary Snow

Hey Gary, thanks for writing to us with your reminiscences. As much as we love our guitars and basses here at Guitarz, a lot of what we write is gleaned via the internet rather than from personal experience. Unfortunately, it's not possible to try everything out! It's good to hear how some of these vintage instruments handled back in the day from someone who actually played them.

G L Wilson

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Tyler writes:

I recently acquired another pointy 80s Japanese Monster. (Sounds a bit like something from Godzilla, eh?)

This is a model you've not yet covered: A 1983 B.C. Rich Ironbird, made in Japan in '83-'84. This isn't apparently the most popular shape (though used by the likes of Tony Iommi and Paul Stanley), but sure beats that ugly Widow! Mine's not really in the best shape (not by my hands), but plays great and sounds fantastic as well. I know B.C. Rich isn't known for necessarily ergonomic designs, and although this doesn't look it, it is very comfortable. Played in the classical seated position (which is the only way I do), it rests comfortably on your leg, being cut-out in a manner that it balances in the perfect position. Standing, it's a bit neck heavy but the long lower horn acts as a rather decent balance/armrest.

I was drawn to this by its Kahler trem (far superior to the Floyd Rose, in my opinion), which has proved a great asset to both my playing and alternate tuning purposes. The pickups are probably the stock B.C. Rich units, they are unmarked. I'll admit the pickups also attracted me on looks alone. I can't resist rails or hex-screw pole pieces. It joins my Electra Futura in the "outragoeus pointy guitar with a metallic finish" group of instruments.

I've got not much else to say, it's a great guitar and it comes in a simple yet attractive package.

~Tyler

Keep those stories and photos of your guitars coming in, folks! And as Bertram has already commented, lets see some more photos of you guys playing your guitars.

G L Wilson

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One of world's first guitar synthesizers was the Innovex "Condor GMS", released around 1970. Innovex was a joint venture company of Hammond and Ovation. Examples are rarely seen, but one such complete guitar and synth unit (pictured above) is now being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $2,000. Ovation fans will recognise the semi-hollowbody guitar as being the Ovation Tornado model, albeit with a box of tricks attached to the bridge containing, I guess, individual pickups for each of the strings and with an output cable to the synth unit.

The seller comments that:

It is very lofi, and in my opinion, completely awesome. It tracks terribly and warbles, and does everything I love. If you are accustomed to Line 6 stuff you will probably hate this. It functions properly, everything works.

One for the collector, perhaps, or the Lo-Fi recording enthusiast!

G L Wilson

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

The late 1970s Czechoslovakia made Jolana Superstar is supposed to have been inspired by the Peavey T60 but to me it looks more like a Yamaha SG - that would mean that after all, while Japanese companies were busy copying American guitars, their own models were copied too!

One can't help noticing the ultra-wide humbuckers, the massive bridge and the oddly placed switches; it's a pity that this one is such in bad condition because I saw some in a better state that are quite appealing guitars...

Bertram


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I thought I'd keep the Fender theme going a bit if that's OK. I've been promising myself for years that I was going to buy a Fender. My shopping list is "pre CBS Strat" (which I came within a hairs breadth of attaining once - 59 body 60 neck, metallic green respray out of a can £100), Telecaster Esquire, Thinline with bound body, Jazzmaster with anodised gold scratchplate (which I came within an eBay's breadth of attaining last year £3000 and some change (1958, excellent-mint condition - almost unbelievable).

My sights have lowered significantly of late apart from the '94 aluminium body that I'd bid and paid for before the seller decided he couldn't send it to my unconfirmed address and backed down.

I've only ever sold one item through eBay so don't have much experience as a seller so maybe someone can help with me something. What is with this "unconfirmed address" thing? Sellers won't post to an unconfirmed address even though eBay says they are still protected. I'm not sure why eBay doesn't just drop the option as, in their FAQs, even they discourage sellers from stating it in their ads as it reduces the chances of selling. Also, surely it's us buyers who more at risk from "sellers" who don't deliver. After all, you receive our money before you ship so we are taking a much bigger chance.

Anyway, back to the guitar. I was checking out my local online classifieds (loquo.com) and found someone who was selling a 2005 Squier Standard Strat for €125 (£104). I went along, looked it over and bought it.

Maybe it was just my expectations but this seems to be anything but standard. I guess it's a copy of another, high-end, Fender. It's obvious this wasn't going to be a luthier's wet dream but it's not bad, by any means. The body is matt varnished, tinted mahogany (looking not too dissimilar to my Mum's coffee table), maple neck and rosewood fretboard (as I understand). Big old 70s headstock - nice. The fittings are Squier, enough said. The middle and neck pickups are very bassy and boomy and the tone controls don't seem make one iota of difference whatsoever to the tone. Anyone had the same experience? And, is there anything I can do to brighten them up without changing the pickups? The bridge humbucker is hard edged aggressive and has a bright, dry, shrieky tone. I love it.

I'm not a great trem user and this two point trem seems very delicate. It moves when I bend the strings! I'm going to add an extra spring or two and see if that helps. If not, I'll lock it in place with some blocks of wood. Any tips or comments on that appreciated.

I shall be using this experiment with so it may well begin to transform, Frankenstein-like over time. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Pass the soldering iron Igor!

Stop Press: Just seen a Squier Obey Telecaster for €150, hmmm Franken-Tele-Strat-stein-thing! Where is that saw? Seriously. Anyone have experience of these Teles?

David in Transylvania

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

There are those who consider Epiphone no more than a budget company selling cheap Gibson copies, and those who are thankful for the affordable quality instruments they provide, but you can also focus on their original models, of course the ones released before they where bought by Gibson in 1957, but also some that were released later (up to nowadays) like the 1966 Epiphone Olympic SB 722 you can see here.

It's part of the Kalamazoo (Gibson's original factory in Michigan) built solid bodies line produced between 1958 and 1969 - this one sharing its asymmetrical body shape with the Crestwood and the Wilshire, also the batwing 6-in-line headstock. This Olympic SB 722 has a single single-coil pick-up in bridge position and the optional trem. I personally don't like its design but it seems to be well sought after - this has been Epiphone's most successful model ever...

Bertram

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I bet you thought was going to be about one of those Rick Nielson multi-neck Cheap Shot guitars eh? I should coco! This is something I haven't come across too often before. Fender is a company I don't readily associate with doubleneck guitars. In fact I don't think I've knowingly seen any before - not that I've been looking, I have to add. The only Fenderish doubleneck I've happened across recently is the handsome, though not actually from Fender per se, creation from the skilful hands of young Bertram (with a little help from one of his woodworking associates). We have a fondness for the Fender Bass VI here in Guitarzland so it's an even bigger delight to find one Siametically co-joined to another of our favourites - the Fender Jazzmaster.

It's on the Austrian eBay site and I don't speak German. Maybe Bertram can help out with some of the details. As far as I can make out, it's a newish - 2010 - model, one-off, masterbuilt by Dennis Galuska (who's probably famous - sorry Den, not terrible au fait with the world of Lutherie) for the Frankfurt Musicmesse 2010 (that's a bit unfortunate isn't it, Musicmesse? Not really encouraging, eh? Probably means fair, exhibition or show or something similar. Maybe we should let them know. Might improve attendance a bit).

By the way, the body is lightweight ash with maple necks and rosewood fingerboards with Nitrocellulose lacquer - NOS (I thought that meant New Old Stock. Probably something else in German).

Amazingly enough (to me at least) it seems Yngwie Malmsteen also played a Fender double-neck 12/6 (probably very fast and very proficiently). That sounded a bit sarcastic didn't it? At least he's not Steve Vai. No, I didn't mean it. OK, YM isn't really my cup of tea, I'll admit, but until this week I'd have said the same about Steve Vai. Until... I Youtubed some of his performances and was a little surprised. Maybe it's a big act, I don't know, but he seems a nice guy, a great showman, a big ham, doesn't take himself too seriously (for a rock star) and plays with a ferocious passion. I'm not gonna rush out and buy his back catalogue but I don't mind anyone knowing I now have one of his tracks on my iPod - the Crazy Horses/Edgar Winter tinged-one-riff-all-the-way-through "Bad Horsie". It's only Rock N Roll etc... Stupid faces and all.

Anyway, Happy New Year to all. Taken my own sweet time to get back into second gear this year, sorry all.

David in Barcelona where the weather isn't too bad although it's a bit soon for the beach.

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Here's another 1980s guitar with a loud two-tone finish. It's a Fender Telecaster Elite model in supposedly rare "Stratoburst" from the end of Fender's CBS-owned period. The USA-made Elites were only made during 1983-84, and there was also a Japanese-made 22-fret neck edition offered in late 1984.

Other than its iconic silhouette, the Tele Elite has no other traditional Tele features. Pickups are active humbuckers with a TBX guitar expander and a MDX midrange booster allowing 12dB of gain. The controls are laid out in an almost Les Paul fashion (indeed, some Tele Elites also sported a very Les Paul-esque pickguard), and other features include Fender's BiFlex trussrod system and a Freeflyte hardtail bridge.

G L Wilson

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

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This Ibanez X-series XV500 in "Violet halfburst" is from the "be careful not to impale yourself" school of guitar design. It has Ibanez V5 pickups and an incomplete Ibanez "Pro Rock R" tremolo system. Some of the close-up shots on the eBay listing show a few battle scars - not unusual with an unwieldy shape like this. I don't suppose anyone reading will be surprised to learn that this guitar hails from the 1980s: May 1985, apparently. The seller describes the finish as being "flip-flop", but I think this might just be a reference to the two tone diagonal pink/violet colour scheme, rather than a colour-changing finish depending on from what angle you view the instrument.

G L Wilson

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

Bertram

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

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An eBay seller (curiously, in the UK) has put this self-built Route 66 guitar up for grabs. The body is of sapele laminates, and has a Fender-style neck bolted on. Pickups are single coil-sized humbuckers, "Iron Gear Jailhouse Rails" by Axetec.

Yes, and I imagine you could play that song on it too!

G L Wilson

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At first glance, this auction looks mightily suspect. Two 1972 Jansen Invader guitars - which would appear to be not very accurate Stratocaster knock-offs and rather knocked about at that - for HOW MUCH? $12,200.00? That's over $6,000 each! Is this another case of a highly optimistic eBay seller?

What do we know about these guitars? Well, they were obviously deemed of enough importance for an example to be included in the Museum of New Zealand. The museum website tells us that:

In the 1960s, many kiwi pop guitarists owned one of these – a Jansen electric guitar. Jansens were the first solid-body electric guitars to be mass-produced in this country, and they became firm favourites with our musicians.
[...]
Their Invader model, made in 1964 and based on the famous Fender Stratocaster, was a huge success. It was named after local hit band Ray Columbus and the Invaders. For several years in New Zealand, this was the guitar to have. It outsold not only the Stratocaster but all other imported brands.

Although Jansen guitars were often modelled on overseas examples, the company introduced many of their own innovations, especially in the design of the pick-up.
[...]
Already noted for their innovative pick-up design, Jansen staff put a lot of effort into studying ‘waveforms’. Perhaps the best Jansen pick-ups were designed by Paul Crowther, their organ designer, who later became drummer in the famous kiwi band Split Enz.

In the late 1970s competition from overseas, especially Japan, was heating up, and Jansen went out of production.
[...]
Today Jansens continue to be highly sought after both locally and internationally – as collectors’ items.

So, they might be collectors' items, but do they warrant the price tag we see here? Personally, I rather like the concept behind the design. It's obviously modelled after a Fender Stratocaster but has a couple of features seemingly lifted from the Jazzmaster including the bridge and tremolo, and the individual pickup selector switches (surely more logical than Fender's 5-way switch). As someone who likes Strats but has never liked nor gotten on with the traditional Fender Strat tremolo, the Invader does appeal. But at these prices, I'm not going to be trying out one any time soon.

A quick Google search does reveal that the vintage guitar prices seen here are not without precedent. It also reveals that there was a 12-string version too!

G L Wilson

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There are a couple of nice examples of Wurlitzer guitars on eBay right now. The above pictured guitar is a Wurlitzer Cougar. As the seller explains, Wurlitzer guitars were "...made in the U.S.A., Kansas in 1965/66 at the Holman-Woodell factory. The pickups are in stereo, but work as normal with a mono cord. Both pickups have a jazz/rock button (rolls off highs), and a separate volume/tone control. There is an A, B, and A+B switch to mix the pickups and a center detented volume control on the treble horn that allows the mixing of the two."

This guitar is currently on eBay with a starting price of $50, although there is a reserve.

Below we see a Wurlitzer Wildcat. In this instance the seller, aware that it's a rarity, has slapped a Buy It Now price of $2,499 on it. Possibly a little over-optimistically.
The Wildcat is essentially the same guitar as the Cougar, only with a different body shape. There was a third design in the "Wild One" series - the Wurlitzer Gemini - which is possibly better known and has been reissued in recent years by Eastwood Guitars.

G L Wilson

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Rob J writes:

Dear Guitarz Blog,

On Tuesday you posted about a hollowbody guitar with 3 p90 pickups and asked 'did you ever see a hollow body guitar with 3 p90s?', well there is one sitting in my front room!

I bought this guitar a year ago from a local guitar shop for £300. Google has revealed to me that it is an Epiphone Riviera P93, a thinline semi-hollowbody guitar with 3 p90 pickups, a threeway selector, 3 volume pots, a master tone pot and a bigsby tailpiece with a tune-o-matic bridge. The selector switch selects the neck and middle pickup in the top position, all three pickups in the middle position and the middle and bridge pickup in the bottom position. It was released sometime around 2007-8 so it is definitely a modern guitar!

just thought you might be interested in this guitar after Tuesday's post.

Keep up the good work,

your loyal reader,

Rob J

Oh dear, it looks like I'm going to have to watch Bertram coming out with wild things such as "did you ever see a hollow body guitar with 3 P90s?"

I just KNEW someone was going to challenge that - it was an open invitation! And as was already pointed out in the comments, there's also the Gibson ES-5, as played by T Bone Walker.

Thanks for showing us your guitar, Rob. It's a beauty!

G L Wilson

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Greg writes:

Hi there,

I've been following your blog for a little under a year now and I really love it. Thank you for sharing so many treasures and for providing such great commentary.

I thought you might be interested in a guitar that I came across in my dad's possession over my holiday vacation back home (somehow I didn't realize my dad owned this gem). While it's by no means completely wild, it sure is unusual. It's an electric guitar that Martin made back in the '60s. Kind of unusual considering Martin is known exclusively for their high quality acoustics.

As I understand it, there were only something like 1,800 of them ever made. The model is a F-65. Sadly, I don't know the exact date it was built, but they were only created from 1962 to 1965. Talking with some fellow guitar enthusiasts at a local vintage guitar meetup, they explained that it was a case of Martin just not being able to sell the model due to their strong association with acoustics and not electrics. It's an incredible guitar workmanship-wise. This particular guitar was professional sanded down to a nice, natural wood, which I absolutely love. The pickguard was removed too, giving it something of a John Lennon Casino look. All models I've seen online and read about have a sunburst finish otherwise. The place where the tremolo bar would lock in has been blocked with a wooden dowel though. My dad picked this up back in 1980 from a vintage guitar shop in Kansas City and all of the cosmetics were as they are now. He's had some work done to it and I hope you'll forgive the overused expression, but it's an absolute dream to play. Sounds great too! I hope in his older age, he finds it in his heart to fork it over to me, hah!

Anyway, I thought you might be interested in this oddity. I'm sadly back in Seattle now so I can't really provide too many more details on the guitar without probing my dad for information. Hope you're having a great New Year! Take care.

Greg

Hey, thanks for sharing, Greg. We have looked at a couple of Martin's electric models previously, but it's good to hear from someone who has personal experience of one.

Keep 'em coming, folks!

G L Wilson

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Here's an email about the above guitar:

Well, I bought this guitar in late 85, early 86 called the Mitre "Python". I remember a bass next to it called the "Mongoose". Both had active electronics. Mine were extremely funtional, coil splits, taps, etc. but it also had a built in overdrive that sounded pretty good. The only thing I didn't about the guitar was the paintjob. Low quality polish job, you could even slightly see a glue seam if you held it at the right angle to the light. I painted the guitar not long after owning it, and since I had it stripped, I did come relief carving on the upper back and front to make it more comfortable for my forearm. It was basically a slab. And I took out the electronics board, unsoldering everything without writing myself a schematic, so it went back together a passive guitar. I'd love to get a schematic, or someone who knows what he's doing to rewire it original. Other than that, it has Schaller pickups, and machine heads, Kahler tremelo, brass nut. I just finished repainting it for the third time, and here are the pics. notice 008 on neck, and body blank? I'm not sure if that means 8th guitar, or 8th python... I can't find out anything about them. I'd appreciate you keeping in touch and keeping me informed about anything you find out.

Thank you,
Vedo

Over to you, guys. Any more info would be greatly appreciated.

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Here's a follow-up to last September's blog post about the Tantra Suryah guitar. The following email should explain all:

I saw this guitar on "guitarz" and since I'm trying to send you some words about it.

My name is Hervé Le Garsmeur, Iive in Britanny and was one of the founders of "Tantra guitars". At the very beginning Tantra was a rock band that decided to build its own guitars and P.A equipment. We ended by building a little factory in Bréhant-Loudéac (Morbihan). We worked very hard during 3 years (1 for settling down and designing the guitars an 2 to product them) and had to quit in 1984 (thanks George Orwell!) because being very young at that time (the youngest was 19 , the oldest 23) we had some difficulties to find a bank that would follow us. We sold a little les than a hundred insruments so they are very rare and I'm glad to see that some of them survived.

The model "Suryah" presented on "guitarz" is one of the first we ever made. Suryah means "the sun" and the first idea is an egg shape (very symbolic). Those "beasts" were made to last forever. I've got one of those at home and I play it daily since all these years and it's still a very reliable and sounding instrument. Body and neck are carved in the same piece of very old oak (yes!) reinforced by a central piece of amarante (very hard wood from Brazil). The fretboard is also in amarante that turned from purple to brown with time. The pickguard is in stainless steel (cut with a laser) and NOT ALUMINIUM.

Pickups are home made (Huge alnico 12 wrapped with 10 000 turns of thread) we wanted very large single coils. It explains the steel pickguard that shields perfectly the electronic devices. It's indeed a very quiet instrument when plugged.No truss rod in the neck, just a hollow square stainless steel bar all through very much like old Martins.

There's a true connection with singer Johnny Halliday as we made him a special model (axe shape) for his show "Le survivant" at "Le palais des sports" in Paris 1982. This guitar in by now on sale for about 10 000€. You can see it on internet if you type "Johnny Halliday guitare tantra". We also made electric harps for Alan Stivell and many other strange instruments.

Thanks for the information, Hervé. It's very much appreciated.

G L Wilson

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

Bertram

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Wahey! Here's another hideous guitar, in fact it's not just hideous, it's a total cliché. It's a nameless guitar of dubious provenance from a eBay seller of other such nameless guitars. Skulls? Could this be any more unoriginal? (What is it about skulls on guitars? Can someone please explain?)

I'm not sure what the "thing" on the upper horn is supposed to be? A lizard? A dog skull? I think the other "thing" on the lower horn is supposed to be a ghoul of sorts and there's a ghost on the headstock. How spooky!

The wooden-topped pickups are wonkily screwed on, and - call me cynical if you will - to me this would be a hint that the workmanship might be a bit suspect.

I'm actually surprised that this has a starting price of $385 - that seems a bit steep for such a nameless guitar. Note also that the listing title is "Electric Guitar, Unique sculpture: Skull" - that also triggers warning alarms in my head. By calling it a "sculpture" could that suggest that this creation isn't actually playable? Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm just saying "Beware".

Personally I'd give it a wide berth.

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I was quite surprised to learn that this angular pointy-looking thing was a genuine Gibson guitar, namely a Gibson Explorer XPL, rather than an Explorer-esque knock-off from some other manufacturer. It's from 1985 - what other decade could it have been from? - and features Dirty Fingers pickups described by Gibson as "the critical union between power and dirt".

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Stephen writes:

Hi, I've been following your blog for a year and bit now, it's brilliant. It led me to wonder about one of my own guitars - I've had it about two years now, and never really wondered about it, but the more I try and find out about it, the less I seem to know. It started off as (according to The Gutar Dater Project website) a Korean made 1996 Epiphone Les Paul Limited Edition, nice sort of bluey green marine burst that is semi transparent so you can see the wood texture (nice gentle quilted look).

The guy who had it before me upgraded a lot of stuff, ie Speigel locking tuners, chrome telecaster style knobs, chrome pick up switch, a couple of punchy new coil tapped humbuckers (JBs I think) and generally upgraded stuff to make it better sounding, rugged, and all with a chrome theme. I was looking for a beefy guitar that hopefully wouldn't develop problems, so I figured if it had been throughly up graded it would do the trick.

Nothing too unusal there, but here's the thing, and I don't know why I've never really wondered about it before - sitting between the humbuckers is a single coil pick up, and it's sunk about half an inch into the body so as to be in keeping with the levels of the humbuckers. It looks like the sort of chrome lipstick pick up you'd get on the neck position of a telecaster. I wondered if someone might have routed out a slot for it and installed it as a guitar project, but when you look on the inside of the hole that the single coil sits in, it's perfectly machine cut and the same bluey green colour is on the inside walls of the hole. If it was a project, surely routing a slot for a pick up would expose the wood of the body of the guitar and there would be none of the blue stain?

The guitar was due a restringing, so while I had the old strings off this evening, I popped the single coil out, and the blue colour of the wood stain definitely goes all the way to the bottom of the slot. I popped out the bridge humbucker too just to compare the slots and any colouration in that one, and they're both bluey green all the way down, including the bottom.

The colouring in the hole suggests to me that the slot for the single coil may have been cut before the guitar was stained the greeny blue colour, which suggests it may have been done at the factory where it was made. The guy I bought the guitar off said it was like that when he got it, and he'd had it while.

Do you know of Epiphone ever releasing a Les Paul with a tele style single coil sitting between the humbuckers? Have you come across anything similar in your blogging? By the way, the single coil sounds very nice, it has a dynamic, articulate chime that the humbuckers can't achieve.

Thanks for showing us your guitar, Stephen. No, it's not a pickup arrangement I've seen on a Les Paul before. Perhaps some of our readers might know some more about it. I have to agree with the conclusion that you yourself have to come to, that the middle-pickup routing was done at the factory.

Now, I've read comments on guitar forums and in emails and a lot of people out there seem to think that we here at Guitarz have set ourself up as self-proclaimed experts. We're not, and have never claimed to be. We - like many of you - are simply guitar enthusiasts and are learning things about our favourite instrument all the time. We're happy to do our best to answer any questions and if we don't know the answers we can try to find out or else ask our readership to assist.

One thing that I've often wondered about is, on a 3-pickup Les Paul, which of the controls control which pickups and is the pickup selector switch a 5-way or is it a regular 3-way with the middle pickup being dialed in separately elsewhere? I took this opportunity to ask Stephen about the controls on his LP, to which he replied:

I'm not 100 percent sure that it all does work, but here's what it does what at the moment - the switch is a standard three way - of the two volume knobs, the volume knob nearest the bridge currently acts as master volume, and the tone control near the bridge currently acts as a master tone - the two tone knobs are push / pull coil tap type jobs for the humbuckers and both work - the volume knob furthest from the bridge doesn't do anything (although it looks like it's wired up) - all the pickups work, I had a look and they're all wired in, but I don't know enough about that side of things to be able to follow what they do.

The bridge humbucker sounds like a bridge humbucker, the neck humbucker sounds like a neck humbucker, and they can both be tapped for a single coilish sound. the centre position engages all three pickups, but the single coil seems to push to the front, with a nice sort of snappiness and articulation that the humbuckers can't manage, tapped or full.

If I was better with electronics I might be able to deduce more, but one thing I do know is that it sounds great, and I can get a ton of sounds out of it.

Thanks again, Stephen!

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This 3-stringed biscuit tin guitar is yet another variation on the cigar box guitar theme, and illustrates nicely the spirit of inventiveness.

This seller has been listing such homemade instruments on eBay for several months now and has assembled a number of rustic-looking resonator guitars. It's a pity his eBay listings are let down by a lack of attention to detail in the areas of spelling, grammar, punctuation, use of capital letters (i.e. total disregard for), and even basic sentence construction.

G L Wilson

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

Any comment would be superfluous, isn't it? There's more where it comes from...

Bertram

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's a rare Rickenbacker 366/12 Convertible from 1967 in "Mapleglo" finish. Perhaps I should have included this last month in our look at electric 12-string guitars, although this one is a particular oddity and also it's only just come up on eBay - with a Buy It Now price of $5999 (for those that are interested).

Yes, it may be a rarity, but I'm afraid for me it's a beautiful guitar with a very ugly contraption bolted to the front. And if you haven't guessed from the name, the contraption isolates the second strings in each course so that you can switch from 12-string to 6-string. It's got to be a lot less cumbersome than having a doubleneck guitar slung around your shoulders at a gig. I just wish they could have somehow concealed the contraption inside the body so that it didn't look quite so awful.

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Steve Klein's guitar creations are almost legendary. He set the benchmark for those wishing to create the perfect ergonomic guitar. The original Klein guitar, as pictured here, has been out of production for a number of years now, and is quite a sought-after instrument. Existing examples can exchange hands for thousands of dollars. For example, this rare left-handed Klein BF-96 is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $8000. Meanwhile, other luthiers interested in ergonomics - both amateur hobbyist and professional - have taken the Klein design as a starting point for their own guitars.

Of course, the Klein isn't completely innovative. It has been pointed out that the design owes more than just a little to the Ovation Breadwinner. The other inspiration was, obviously, the headless Steinberger. Early Kleins used Steinberger necks, and all use the bridge/tuners.

In more recent years Steve Klein has turned his attentions to producing boutique acoustic guitars.

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's a little piece of what this blog has been lacking recently. Some really dreadful guitars! I can't remember the last time I employed the "Hideous guitars" keyword label.

What can I say about this guitar? I mean, it's seriously crappy, isn't it? The shape looks cumbersome (it's hardly ergonomic!), the construction looks cheap and nasty, the design is crude, the location of the controls and output jack is bizarre.

Oh, surprise surprise, the seller is houstonbrass, purveyor of cheap and nasty musical crap. The eBay listing calls this guitar "Beauty and devil". Errrrmmm... well I can see it's supposed to vaguely resemble a reclining one-legged woman holding a skull against her hip. Whether or not she's a beauty is hard to say. The guitar certainly isn't!

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This is sad news. The world has lost one of the most innovative musicians ever, a guy who couldn't read music, claimed to know nothing of musical theory, and yet his playing was fluid and innovative.

Mick Karn, most famously was bassist with 1980s glam/art rock band Japan, lost his battle against cancer yesterday (4 January 2011). His fretless bass playing was so unique in style, so very distinctive that you couldn't mistake it for anyone else.

My favourite of his recordings was "The Waking Hour" by Dalis Car (Mick Karn with vocalist Peter Murphy from Bauhaus and drummer Paul Vincent Lawford) which contains some stunning compositions from Karn plus some phenomenal fretless bass. However, the clip I am showing below is taken from BBC 2's "Old Grey Whistle Test" from when there was a Musician's Union strike (which is a disasterous situation for a music show) and no live music was allowed. Bending the rules slightly, the programme had Angie Bowie reading one of her poems accompanied by Karn improvising on fretless bass (a section of his bassline here would later be used in one of his Dalis Car compositions).

G L Wilson

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