/
OK, it's the 11th November 2011, that is 11/11/11, and as such today has been designated Nigel Tufnel Day. To celebrate this day of Maximum Elevenness, we here at Guitarz - for this day only - will be posting an unprecedented ELEVEN blog posts! So, keep tuned throughout the day for eleven weird and wonderful guitars!
Here's a 1980s Hair Metal-style ultra-pointy Explorer-derived guitar design in the shape of this
Mako Exotec XP-4. This is a guitar about which there is very little information out there, and what there is can be contradictory. It looks to be Japanese and indeed some have speculated that this is a Matsumoku product, although others have reported that some examples were Korean-made. There are also references to these having been distributed by Kaman (the company behind Ovation guitars) which seems a little at odds with the supposed Matsumoku connection, although not impossible.
It certainly looks to be a guitar that was jumping on the Hair Metal bandwaggon. Despite the ultra-pointy body shape, the headstock design is quite conservative, the pickups are a pair of Strat-like singlecoils rather than the humbuckers you might expect on such a guitar, and the trem is also a vintage Strat-like affair rather than some fancy Floyd Rose or Kahler-esque locking jobby.
The guitar is currently located in Los Angeles and is listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $685.
G L Wilson© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
1:11 AM |
Labels:
80s guitars,
Explorer,
Japanese guitar,
Mako,
pointy guitar
/
guitarz.blogspot.com:
This week our Guitar of the Week - chosen from the thousands of incredible instruments being sold via
Vintage & Rare - is this quite stunning
acoustic Explorer by Boris Dommenget as designed for Matthias Jabs of The Scorpions.
The guitar features a solid spruce top with back and sides of solid rosewood. Body binding on front and back is abalone and mother of pearl, and the intricate soundhole binding features stars and planets. The neck is Spanish cedar with ebony fretboard inlayed with star position markers. The headstock is the traditional Explorer shape and is fitted with Kluson tulip tuners. The scale length is a Fender-like 25.5" rather than the Gibson scale length of 24.75" that you might expect considering the design.
This guitar is being sold via
Vintage & Rare priced at €7990.
Dommenget Guitars are based in Balje, Germany, and are best known for their various guitars built for German rock act The Scorpions. These have included acoustic Flying V guitars for Rudolf Schenker in 6-string, 12-string and doubleneck 12+6 models.
See also:
Dommenget GuitarsG L Wilson© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
5:01 PM |
Labels:
acoustic,
cool guitars,
Dommenget,
Explorer,
German guitars,
Vintage and Rare
/
guitarz.blogspot.com:
Bill Cesavice kindly flagged
this guitar up for me on our
Facebook page. Oh dear... where to start with this one?
OK... It's been given a paintjob that I guess might have been inspired by Clapton's CRASH Stratocasters. However, it strikes me as odd to go to all that trouble and then have such a crudely cut-out pickguard which looks as if it's been shaped using a kitchen knife. As for the Gibson stickers on the headstock (I guess because the original logo was painted over), well, the less said the better.
And WHY the three pickups laid out in a Strat formation? That is something that seriously bugs me, the way people think that if you have three pickups you MUST angle the bridge one. Why follow the Strat template? Just what is the logic? Yeah, I know these are singlecoil-sized humbuckers, but still...
So... Gibson or not? Well, it's a set-neck and the shape appears to be accurate so it's perfectly
possible that there is a real Gibson beneath the paint, stickers and "customization". But we only have the seller's word on that.
With a Buy It Now price of $900 on eBay, I'd approach this one with caution.
G L Wilson© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
3:46 AM |
Labels:
80s guitars,
Explorer,
Gibson,
Hideous guitars,
Stupid customisations,
wacky finishes
/
guitarz.blogspot.com:
The
Gibson Shark Fin, a limited edition of 1000 guitars from 2009, is essentially a modified Explorer. This example has just turned up on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $979.99.
Gibson claim that the
Shark Fin is ergonomically designed when they say, "
The swooping relief cuts that form the guitar's asymmetrical shape may appear to be placed at random but they've been carefully engineered for maximum balance in your hands." Personally, I think this is marketing department BS. I can't believe this was designed with ergonomics more uppermost in mind rather than aesthetics. That it balances well is most likely serendipity at work.
G L Wilson© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
11:57 AM |
Labels:
Explorer,
Gibson,
pointy guitar
/
guitarz.blogspot.com:
Further to our
previous post here on
Guitarz, here's another guitar emblazoned with the United Kingdom's Union Flag. It's a
1984 vintage Gibson Explorer with the original factory graphic - apparently it's quite a rarity with only 50 examples having been made with this finish.
But, oh dear! I don't think much of Gibson's quality control or attention to detail.
THE FLAG IS BACK TO FRONT!!!G L Wilson© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
12:29 PM |
Labels:
80s guitars,
Explorer,
Gibson,
pointy guitar,
wacky finishes
/
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 WilsonGuitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
3:28 AM |
Labels:
80s guitars,
Explorer,
Gibson,
pointy guitar
/
guitarz.blogspot.com:
I have a great fondness for the Mel-O-Bar, as regular readers may know. The listing has some great information and hints at some of the flexibility of this multi-string format. Here's what the seller has to say...
This 1980s Melobar X-10 Explorer, a true Vintage Classic. Melobar guitars were made for lap steel and Dobro players to be able to play standing up. Melobars were made by Walt Smith who collaborated with many outstanding innovators in the guitar world from the Dopyera Brothers to Ned Steinberger and Semi Mosley. The design is basically the same on all models -- the neck is tilted as to be slightly less than perpendicular to the player. It hangs from a strap. There were very few of these instruments made and a number of them are used by "A-List" players in contemporary country bands (Tim McGraw and Toby Keith), David Lindley has several, also Rusty Young of Poco and Cindy Cashdollar to name a few. You can use your favorite tuning on these. It is totally up to you. For pedal steelers the 10 string models enable you to tune the first six strings to standard "E" tuning (E,B,E,G#,B,E). The remaining four are tuned to "A" (A,E,A,C#, A) which allows for suspensions and secondary chords to be produced without pedals.
The last few lines of the ad are quite telling.
This Bad Boy is in Excellent Condition - Minor wear and tear. - Guaranteed to Shred in the Right Hands!
"Shred in the Right Hands!" Hmmmm, I would love to hear what could be done with this by a young, free thinking (that bit is very important) metallurgist, Jazzologist or shredderista. I think it needs someone like that just because of the high degree of skill and dedication required to really master it, the potential for the execution of the most esoteric and/or microtonal scales and the potential for the wildest solos combined with jaw dropping visuals. Not to mention instant and total admiration from the rest of the musical community. The Hendrix of steel guitar!
Probably the instrument's biggest drawback is its history as the backbone of country music. You barely have to look at a lap steel for it to start wailing out those whiny Nasville yeehah! tones and "Crystal Chandelier" melodies. Musicians like David Lindley have done a lot to popularise it to a non-country audience but for the world at large the association with "that sound" is so strong, it will take a complete change of way-of-thinking about it to shake off that baggage.
I bought my own Mel-O-Bar on eBay a few weeks ago (still awaiting delivery but I'm patient). I have a Peavey Powerslide and am awaiting the imminent delivery of an old (40s/50s) National New Yorker lap steel - also care of eBay. The slide guitar bug has bitten hard.
I've just invested in a pile of lap steel books and an instructional dvd from the wonderfully named Cindy Cashdollar, which I'd recommend to anyone thinking of taking up any kind of steel guitar. I'm not a country music fan (the only albums I have are Merle Haggard, The Dixie Chicks and The Indigo Girls) but one thing I found out very early on is, the lap steel requires a lot of practice and a fair bit of discipline. And, understanding a few basic techniques, exercises, tunings and scale structures makes such a difference.
This is not a dig at country music, by the way, before all you rednecks start giving me grief, y'all. Just out loud thinking that maybe there is a another tonal voice to be heard from these instruments. Gavin pointed me in the direction of Captain Beefheart circa "Ice cream for crow" (one of my favourite Beefheart tracks) and although the (Mel-O-Bar) has a prominent contribution, it doesn't sound like a regular steel guitar.
Anyone know of players in other genres doing innovative stuff, metal, jazz?
David in Barcelona
Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!
3:55 AM |
Labels:
Explorer,
Melobar,
Steel guitar
/
They don't do guitars like this anymore...
There is very little information on the Interweb about
Takamine (the renowned and pioneering acoustic guitars Japanese brand - and you have to pronounce this name Japanese style) solid body guitars built in the first half of the 1980s - and none about the hysterical version of the
Explorer that you can see here, the
Takamine GE-400 KT.
But its design is eloquent enough, words are superfluous there, aren't they?
6:00 AM |
Labels:
80s guitars,
Explorer,
Japanese guitar,
pointy guitar,
takamine
/
guitarz.blogspot.com:
Instruments like this Kenneth Lawrence doubleneck Explorer - with two six-string necks, 24.75" and 27.75" (baritone) respectively - are certainly very impressive looking creations. This particular guitar is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $18,250.00. The body is made from mahogany topped with premium Hawaiian Koa, and accented here and there with the same plus snakewood for the knobs and pickup rings. It certainly makes for a very eye-catching instrument.
And yet...
Apart from the almost certain likelihood that it's quite an impractical guitar (how often would you need both necks on the same song?) and is almost certainly monolithically heavy, there's something about the guitar that positively screams "Do not touch!" And at that price I think I'd be scared to touch it. I get the feeling that it's not so much a guitar but more a very expensive work of art or else a showpiece demonstrating the luthier's craft. One can imagine that here is one guitar destined to spend its life inside a glass display cabinet - and that's a shame.
G L Wilson
Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!
7:48 AM |
Labels:
baritone guitar,
doubleneck,
Explorer,
Kenneth Lawrence,
Luthiers
/
guitarz.blogspot.com:
I've been meaning to feature The Creamery on this blog just about all year, but was waiting for the website to go live, which I believe it did last month... but then, I got side-tracked as I so easily do these days!
The Creamery are based in Manchester in the UK, and is the operation of Jaime Campbell who builds one-off custom guitars of the bolt-on neck, slab-bodied variety. Naturally this means Telecasters and Esquires as you might expect, but also some other body shapes too including Explorer (The Alleyway) and, my own favourite, a slab-bodied Jazzmaster (This Year's Model) inspired by Elvis Costello's guitar.
Jaime likes to use recycled woods and has posted on Facebook and Twitter about raiding skips to claim a piece of timber that someone else has just thrown away. The Fenchpost (pictured top left) for example, is an Esquire-type guitar with a body built out of an old pine fence post and which still has the nail holes proudly on display as a feature. I think it looks fantastic.
Another Tele-type has a body built from a butcher's block (The Butcher's Block) which not only gives it a unique appearance but is common sense, making use of a quality timber product which is quite frankly wasted on a mere chopping board.
I should also mention that Jaime also handwinds his own The Creamery brand scatterwound pickups, which are available to buy on their own without a guitar attached.
I can't wait to see what's next for The Creamery. I believe a Prince-style Telecaster is in the works.
G L Wilson
Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!
9:59 AM |
Labels:
British guitars,
cool guitars,
Explorer,
Luthiers,
one-offs,
Telecaster,
The Creamery
/
guitarz.blogspot.com:
Uh-oh! The pointy guitars are back - and this isn't even Bertram posting this time!
In fact, this is an appeal for information on the brand Grand Suzuki. I'll let the owner of the guitar pictured here, Thomas Silver, explain:
"Hi, I follow your blog and I just want to show you this Explorer I got some time ago. It was refinished in EVH when I got it so I dont know the original look. I just had to remove a little on the headstock and there: Grand Suzuki?
I've been playing and collecting for a long long time and I like to think that I've seen it all! No, not really. But this blew me away!
If you have any info, please let me know. I have searched the net like crazy. It sound awesome and have the fattest neck ever! Correct weight. Strange knob positioning - too close to each other.
Many thanks
Thomas Silver"
Well, I'm aware of the Japanese Suzuki brand, although to the best of my knowledge they made violins and acoustic guitars. I suppose it's possible that Grand Suzuki was a related brand, perhaps created for electric guitars. Just curious, Thomas, is is a set-neck or a bolt-on?
G L WilsonGuitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!
2:35 AM |
Labels:
cool guitars,
Explorer,
Grand Suzuki,
pointy guitar,
wacky finishes,
Your Guitars
/
In my previous post about the
Epiphone Prophecy Futura, I failed to identify its original model - the
Futura designed in 1957 by
Gibson - and credited it to the
Epiphone current creativity (well I actually think that
Epiphone anyway refined and updated the line of the
Futura).
I'm even more baffled at this guitar thinking that it's been created in the 50s, but that should not be a surprise when you know the other guitar designs
Gibson experimented at that time, including the supreme
Flying V. The
Futura was anyway too radical and not issued then, but lead to the creation of the
Explorer. If you're interested in the whole story, you'll find it
here.
Thanks to Greg for pointing my mistake.
Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!
5:16 PM |
Labels:
Explorer,
Gibson,
prototypes
/
Unlike the previous
Explorer variations I showed here before, the
Epiphone Prophecy Futura doesn't try to hysterise its model but on the contrary, by reducing its body results in a very strange and radical guitar indeed... The narrow wasp center is disturbingly unusual (much more than a
BC Rich guitar with plenty of pointy bits in every direction) even if the relation to the familiar
Explorer is obvious.
Thought it's as angular as a regular
Explorer, it is more ergonomic - even the longer lower horn is relevant, allowing to hold the guitar on the lap with a high neck. It looks like every superfluous wood was eliminated, making it much lighter than an
Explorer. This guitar is more than a show-off and was meant to be useful in any situation. I still need to see it in someone's hands to see how this strange shape feels in relation to a human body (the best would be of course to play it but I've never seen it in any guitar shop I ever visited).
A few days ago I was writing here that
Epiphone issues mush more new models (real new models) than
Gibson, that's what I meant, and there're many like this, plus the regular
Gibson budget models.
5:00 AM |
Labels:
Epiphone,
Explorer
/
The custom paint of this
Peavey Rotor is based on the
Proximity effect comics that features the
Peavey Rotor as the guitar of a sexy super-powered heroin, this being a subtle
mise en abyme that is not common in the guitar design field, nor in comics.
The
Peavey Rotor is obviously another variation on the
Explorer, closer to the original design than the
Jackson Kelly, with just slight design modifications that give it a very 90s cyber feel, like a mechanical piece from a space ship in
Matrix (I know, there are no space ships in
Matrix but you know what I mean...) - at least the one with the black finish.
12:00 AM |
Labels:
custom,
Explorer,
Peavey
/
Another variation on the
Explorer is the
Jackson Kelly. I always think it's hilarious when the main argument to define a guitar is to mention its easy access to the high notes, like the ultimate purpose for a guitarist would be to play over 10000 Hz (while others favor drop tuned 7-strings guitars for the opposite purpose, but I don't know why, it feels more convincing). So as you can see, this one has a deep cutaway (though it could have no cutaway at all to make it even easier), and adapts the
Explorer design with curves when it's possible and points where it's possible.
This Kelly has a noticeable pop flashy paint work, but I'm not sure that I want to hear the music of someone who like this design with this finish! any suggestion about what music it would be?
bertramGuitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!
9:16 AM |
Labels:
80s guitars,
custom,
Explorer,
Jackson,
pointy guitar
/
After my last post, I was wondering what kind of variations of Explorers exist.
The first guitar that comes to my mind is the
Ibanez Destroyer II - and I've been lucky to find this 1984 model, with a very 80s Japanese war flag paintwork that gives exactly the feeling of what this guitar meant to be...
Ibanez started to make Explorer models in the mid-70s - already called Destroyers, they were exact copies of Gibsons. In 1980 they issued the Destroyer II with slight variations from the original model, but enough to give it a real personality, with a minimal recall of the famous Iceman in the lower horn...
I think its design is very outdated, but it might soon become a vintage guitar (though it's been regularly reissued since) with a sought after cool retro feel of the time when guitarists wore tennis head- and wristbands (I hated that at the time, we postpunks hugely despised glam-metal trend).
Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!
11:55 PM |
Labels:
80s guitars,
Explorer,
Ibanez,
Japanese guitar
/
Strangely, we haven't showed many Explorer models on this blog, though it's as a classical and avant-garde design as the acclaimed Flying V. Is it because it's associated to metal music (even if it's a design from the 50s) and therefore to often ridiculous guitars? Or just because you have either original Gibson or 80s copies and that narrows anecdotes?
Anyway, here we have a beautiful circa 1975
Hoyer Explorer that looks indeed to be a faithful copy of the
Gibson original, maybe a little bit less angular, that is a improvement to me. It has the beautiful white binding contrasting with its black finish, always a guaranty of elegance, and something that particularly underlines the pure complexity of the
Explorer design.
But I wish Explorers had Flying V triangle headstocks, that would fit much better than the banana ones.
I had thought about making a post about the
Gibson 7-string Explorer when it was released but I don't like the idea of doing advertisement for a dominant brand novelty, though to be honest I'm quite interested in this guitar (that I'll never play, too luxurious for me poor guitar lover). I'd love to see a baritone version one day, though
Gibson seems to have given up any kind of creativity now, and capitalizes endlessly on a glorious past (even
Epiphone has more new models!)
Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!
12:30 AM |
Labels:
cool guitars,
Explorer,
German guitars,
Gibson,
Hoyer,
vintage guitars
RSS
