Guitar Info

I came across this wee beastie on eBay this evening and of course, it caught my eye.

This is what the seller had to say

RARE UNUSUAL TENNESSEE SEE THRU ACOUSTIC ELECTRIC GUITAR
I've Exhausted Myself Trying To Find Information Online About This Guitar, And Can't Seem To Find Any! It's A Very Imaginative Style & Plays & Sounds Like It Should. The Neck Has A Very Slight Bow To It, But Doesn't Affect The Playing. I Tuned It To An Open D Tuning & Played Some Bottleneck With It & Was Surprised At Well It Did. It Has A Built In Pickup That Sounds Very Good, & It Takes A 9 Volt Battery. It's A Little Tricky To Close The Battery Access Cover. You Can Be The Only Kid On The Block, Or IN TheCity, Or Maybe The State, To Have One Of These Very Cool Tennessee Guitars.

Buy It Now For $149

For $150, it seemed worth checking out. There are some interesting features, quite apart from the skeletal form. The long - to my eyes country looking - headstock, the add-on comfy chair armrest/horns bearing more than a passing resemblance to the OpenSource inspired ZoyBar and the decidedly painted on finish adding a craftsman-like retro feel to it.

The bow in the neck and problems closing the battery compartment are a little off-putting though and, I thought I'd better check and see if we've posted about these before and found that Gavin had in fact posted a few rather damning articles on the Tennessee brand. Like this one in April 2008.

It's hard to see where the marketing strategy for these instruments is heading and that makes things all the more confusing. It seems they are, generally, pretty cheap (in both senses of the word) and pretty weird designs. To me, beginners are most like to go for a recognisable guitar (LP, Tele, Strat?), more experienced players for a better quality and experimentalists will be concocting their own. That only really leaves more experimentalists who would buy it on a whim just see if it could make sounds that other guitars can't or performers looking for something different on stage. This seems quite a narrow niche.

I applaud the fact that these instruments are pretty off the wall but considering the standards set by run of the mill brands (like Squier) these days, they must be a difficult sell, especially when they appear to be so shoddy.