Guitar Info

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We've not had a quiz for quite a while, so I thought it was about time.

It's quite simple - just identify the thing here in the photo.

And yes, it is relevant to the topic of this blog.

Answers in the comments please. There's no prize except for the warm feeling you'll get inside for knowing the right answer. (Actually, I'd love to give away prizes if any corporate PR types are looking in and would like to donate some. Hint hint!)

G L Wilson

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What lives in a case like this?

I think that most of you who commented were on the right lines when you answered "harp guitar", although I'm not sure if this Espana classical is technically a harp guitar as it doesn't have any extra strings.

I can only assume that the elongated body "wing" is there to give increased bass response.

However, it's not as wild as this example which we looked at on this blog last June. Can you imagine what the case would have looked like for that guitar?

What kind of guitar lives in a case like this?

Oh yes indeed! That Fender-esque 6-in-a-line headstock belongs to a six-string banjo. Who would have thought it?

To be precise, it's a Conard six-string banjo otherwise known as a guitar banjo as it's a banjo in guitar format - six strings, guitar tuning. It's an ususual headstock for a banjo, and looks like it would be more at home on the end of a solid bodied electric guitar. I'd bet that not many of you would even have guessed this headstock was on an acoustic instrument let alone a banjo!

This looks like rather a nice neck actually. I have a six-string banjo and the neck is awful - the strings are parallel along its entire length which doesn't help playing higher up the neck.

I know how you guys love these quizzes, so here's another.

Please identify this instrument from the headstock pictured here.

Answers in the comments please.

As some of you rightly said, this strange item, namely Kustom Electronics "The Bag", is an early predecessor to the Talk Box as used by Jeff Beck and Peter Frampton.

I think the idea was that you'd sling it over your shoulder as you played guitar, and with the tube in your mouth it must have felt like you were playing a bizarre cross between the guitar and bagpipes.

I wonder why they chose to make it look so hideous?

This peculiar THING was listed on eBay recently (I'm not letting you have the link just yet), but what on earth is it?

Is it a psychedelic vacuum cleaner, perhaps?

Or a 1960s-era Doctor Who monster?

I'll give you a clue: it IS guitar related.

Answers in the comments please.

Thank you for all your submissions to this quiz that I posed back on Monday.

Your suggestions as to the identity of the person immortalized in the carving on this cheap and nasty guitar included Marc Bolan, Mike Bloomfield, Chris Hillman, Bob Dylan, Mozart, Beethoven, Phil Lynott, Jack Bruce, and - of course - Jimi Hendrix.

It's a barely recognizable Hendrix. It looks like he's got mumps or else is chewing several toffees.

If I'd shown you the carving on the upper horn, where a left-handed guitarist can be seen (although it still looks NOTHING like Hendrix), that may have been too much of a giveaway.

Remember the ghastly Elvis tribute guitar? Well, in the same spirit comes this other carved guitar. But who on earth is that supposed to be?

This is just a bit of fun. There's no prize for getting the correct answer, just kudos for being able to recognize someone from a particularly bad artist's rendition.

Answers in the comments, please.

The answer to Friday's Quick Quiz is that the guitar pictured is Neil Diamond's signature series Epiphone SQ-180.

Thursday night I took my parents to see Neil Diamond at the Millenium Stadium, Cardiff, as a 70th birthday present for my father. I grew up listening to Neil Diamond. My father was always playing his records. He espeically liked the start of the "Hot August Night" album and would play it over and over. He confessed to me after the show that he had been worried that Diamond wouldn't be able to cut it any more in a live situation seeing as he is no spring chicken at 67 years old, but he (my father, that is) was very pleasantly proved wrong. Diamond and his band performed for a solid two and a quarter hours and played all the hits and crowd pleasers with gusto (I Am I Said, Play Me, Crunchy Granola, Cherry Cherry, Solitary Man, Sweet Caroline, Song Sung Blue, I'm A Believer, Cracklin' Rosie, etc...). The man can still belt out a tune and what amazed us was that right up until the encore he kept his jacket on; he didn't even break out into a sweat. He's one cool customer, that's for sure.

In the middle of the set he announced he wanted to play a few songs from his current album, and played "Don't Go There", a spellbinding rendition of the title track "Home Before Dark", followed by a Latin-flavoured version of "Pretty Amazing Grace" and then it was back to the hits again. I don't think anyone could have gone away disappointed.

The answer will explain, partly, where I was yesterday, and why I was not able to blog.

Guitar Solos Quiz: match the soundbites to the list of songs. (We scored 100% here in the office, but it was a joint effort. Personally, I'm not too well up on the likes of The Grateful Dead and Yes).