Guitar Info

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Via the Guitarz Facebook page our friend Jarma asks what are the guitars being played by The Association in this 1960s TV performance.

Well, the bass is easy: it's a Gibson EB-2 semi-hollowbody bass. Initially I wasn't too sure what the rhythm guitar was, so I moved onto the solidbody lead guitar as I was sure we had featured one very much like it here on Guitarz. Sure enough, it's a Hagström Impala, and that made me think that perhaps the rhythm guitar is a Hagström too - a twin-cutaway semi-hollowbody design with a Strat-like head?... it's a Hagström Viking, surely? (As used by Elvis in the '68 Comeback Special).

It's a great video clip, by the way. Thanks for that, Jarmo!

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

If one particular budget guitar brand from the 1970s and 1980s has earned more scorn and derision than any other maker, then surely it must be Hondo. Hondo guitars were for the most part produced in Korea (you could even say that they were the original Made in Korea guitars), although a few of the high-end models were made in Japan. (See The Story of Hondo Guitars).

I personally couldn't comment on why they have such a bad reputation today, but have heard stories from many former owners and others about what dreadful instruments they were. Of course, there are those who still have their old Hondos and love them dearly, but such people seem to be in the minority. I have to wonder if much of the scorn comes from people who didn't actually ever own a Hondo, but are just repeating negative comments from someone else. They were cheap guitars - everyone knew that - and I guess they were one of the few options available to the budding guitarist on a tight budget, and possibly the butt of not entirely fairly-earned resentment.

Playability aside, Hondo certainly produced some interesting looking instruments. For example, this very pointy Hondo guitar - currently listed on eBay with a starting price of $0.99 - is very reminiscent of the Matsumoku-made Mako Exotec XP-4 we looked at back in November, and surely must come from the same designer. Here's what the eBay seller has to say about it:

Kind of a wacky Gumby looking body w/ 24 fret 6 bolt neck. This is a very interesting and nice playing & sounding old Hondo (not Hondo II). Hard to find much good info on this but it my understanding that the Hondo II Logo starts around 1973 so I am calling this a c. '72. Any inaccuracies are not intentional and if you have info,I'd love to know more about this strangely appealing old thing. !! Anyhow,very good condition,well preserved and ready to go. (Well it could use some fresh strings) Has a straight neck, good frets and everything works. Nice overall cosmetic condition. [...] just a great looking guitar that doesn't even have a lot of pick wear or other scratches. Features mahogany body, maple neck,and rosewood fingerboard with 24 frets. Both pick ups work great & sound clear and there is a 3 way select.

OK, first off I'd say forgot all that Hondo vs Hondo II rubbish. That is a total red herring. There is no way that this guitar is from the 1970s, let alone as early as 1972. I've already drawn the comparison with the Mako Exotec XP-4 which was available from 1984 to 1989. I'd expect this Hondo to be contemporary to the Mako. Furthermore the styling is NOT 1970s, and is very much consistent with the 1980s, the era of hair metal and very very pointy guitars. Note also in the link I've just given, the photos of the Hondo H-1 produced around the same time and almost certainly a sibling instrument to our Hondo Gumby here. Alas, I can find no database of Hondo guitars so as to make an identity. The closest I came to was this, which alas, has too many blanks to be filled in.

I also clearly remember that logo (pictured above) being used on Hondo guitars in the 1980s. I suspect that the Hondo II brand actually reverted back to being simply "Hondo" in the 1980s.

If anyone can fill in the blanks anywhere in the story here, then please comment below. They may not have been the most salubrious instruments in the history of the guitar, but Hondo guitars are a very relevant part of the bigger picture.

G L Wilson

EDIT: MartinF tells us that it's a Hondo H-2 "Metal Master" (see comments below). I note now that the auction has been taken down. Did someone tell the seller what the guitar was? Maybe he'll re-list it.

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This guitar, currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $299, presents us with something of a conundrum. The seller lists it as follows:

Vintage Rare Hofner Electric Guitar

I bought this guitar around 2002. I suspected it was a Hofner though it did not have anything on the headstock to indicate that. At the Dallas guitar show that year there was a Hofner guy that confirmed for me that indeed it was a Hofner and offered a substantial amount of money for it. I declined because my intentions had been to get the guitar working for my own use but it's been sitting around, I've had some financial problems, and now I want to sell it.

I think that the "Hofner guy" at the Dallas guitar show doesn't know what he's talking about. I'd swear that it was a Vox Marauder. Unless Hofner had a near identical model, or Vox/Hofner had guitars built at the same factory and branded them afterwards (which is something I'm not aware of, but I'm not ruling it out).

Can anyone confirm or deny my suspicions?

G L Wilson

EDIT: The listing has ended already. I guess someone used the Buy It Now option. I did, by the way, email the seller saying I believed it to be a Vox Marauder.

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Howdy from the Deep South (in America, in case there's any confusion)! Anyway I was watching the Colbert Report (a late night political news show they have here in the US, I think you guys in the UK get it on Comedy Central too) and TV on the Radio was there with a Malian band, Tinariwen, that they're presumably buddies with (I'm not sure what a Malian band is doing on American late night television but whatever). One of the members of TV on the Radio (the guitar player I guess, I'm not a fan of the band so I wouldn't know) was playing something that caught my eye: an electric resonator that looked totally boss. It'd be nice if someone over at Guitarz could identify it.

-J

Hi J, thanks for your email. The clue to the guitar's identity is actually in the photo you supplied. See the little shield on the pickguard, that's the National logo. It's a National electric resonator, although I'm unsure of a specific model name or designation.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I have absolutely no idea as to the identity of this small-bodied fretless bass guitar currently listed on eBay UK. It's a weird one for sure with quite a space-age design incorporating a monkey grip in the body, three pickups, and unusual looking hardware. I'd guess that it might be Eastern European, but that really is a shot in the dark. If anyone can give us a more definite idenification, then please let us know via the comments!

Thanks to Alex for bringing this oddity of a bass to my attention.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Hello,

My name is Daevid, I live in France and I really like your guitar blog. I have pictures of a friend's baritone left-handed guitar from Budapest that you will be insterested in, I think. It's a small guitar with a strange XLR output.

Daevid

Hi Daevid, thanks for sending those pictures. It's certainly an oddity. I wonder if any of our readers might recognize this guitar and perhaps be able to tell us some more about it.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Check out the guitar in this video.

Zaniboni is a French singer. I love her guitar - so small and well-designed. A cute little acoustic. Plus she's a great singer and guitarist. I have no idea what she's singing! Thanks for the help!

Tone Deaf Radio!

Hey Tone! I reckon that's a Yamaha APX-T1, the travel-friendly model in Yamaha's acclaimed APX electro-acoustic series. Thanks for recommending the video; I enjoyed that! Maybe Bertram will be able to enlighten us as to what she's singing about.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Eric with the Bat guitar. Do  you think there might be a theme going on here?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

ERiC AiXeLsyD writes:

SIX FLAGS, INC.

GRAND PRAIRIE, TX 75050

MADE IN CHINA

BATMAN and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC Comics.

(s11)

11-04

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Via the Guitarz Facebook page, reader Grégory Gutierez asks if we can identify the guitar being played by Mike Oldfield in this 1980 performance.

It looks rather like a Gibson L6-S that has been customised with new metal pickguard, pickups, and a metal plate on the headstock. Oldfield was known to play this model Gibson, and there are photos of him playing such a guitar, albeit without the modifications.

Shaped like a rather wide-bodied Les Paul, the L6-S was the first Gibson to have a 24-fret neck. It was designed by Bill Lawrence and was in production from 1973 through to 1979.

The L6-S Custom model (which is, I believe, what Oldfield played) features a chicken head 6-position rotary switch for pickup selection allowing for various series, parallel and out-of-phase tonal options.

Pictured here we see a Gibson L6-S "Midnight Special" which is currently listed on eBay with a very low starting price. It might be one to watch if you want a "budget priced" Gibson, assuming that the bidding does not go too crazy.

The Midnight Special mainly differed from the other models in the series by having a bolt-on neck.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Guitarz reader Bobby writes:

I bought a strange guitar a couple of years ago off of ebay, but am struggling to find any information on it...

The pickup is a Höfner, but I can't find a similar/same one online in Google searches. It's a very thin body, all one piece with the neck.... Do you or your readers have any ideas?

Well, seeing as it has a Höfner pickup my first question has to be is there any possibility it could be a Höfner? It's certainly not a model that I'm aware of, but I guess another possibilty is that it's been heavily modified. The pickguard does look to be homemade, and the blue finish is almost certainly a piece of self customisation.

It's possible that the whole guitar was built from parts, although the fact that this isn't a bolt-on neck job, but instead it is glued into the body (or else is a neck-through which I kind of doubt) would make this quite a mean feat for the casual DIY luthier.

This guitar has a very 1960s look to it, so I'm guessing that is when it dates from. The headstock shape is reminiscent of those on certain Vox guitars of the period, but is this original to the neck or has it been re-shaped? And then there's those tuners ... I've seen those somewhere else, surely?

So, do any of you guys out there recognize this axe or have any clues as to its provenance? Pleae let us know in the usual way via the comments. Thanks.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's another vintage guitar to identify. It's a thinline hollowbody, looking similar to early Yamaha semis, but has the split stereo pickups similar to those on the 1960s Goya 12-string semi-hollowbody that we looked at on Friday.

The name on the headstock is Emperador, yet another name that is new to me and is quite likely a brandname for a particularly retailer. My feeling is that it is Japanese in origin, although it is conceivable that it may be European.

If anyone has any more info on this instrument please let us know in the usual way!

Thanks to DeeCee who found this guitar for sale here, priced at €800.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

The seller wonders if the neck and body on the above-pictured 1960s Japanese guitar are mismatched because the colours don't quite match, but note that the finish has faded - and there's no rule to say that it has to fade consistently. Yes, it's certainly an Inter-Mark headstock, but the body looks like no Teisco I've seen. My guess would be the whole guitar is an Inter-Mark.

Has anyone out there seen another like this, or maybe know what the model is?

Whatever it is, it's currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $399.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Via the Amazon.com page for "500 Guitars", Thomas Kelly has asked the following question:

What is the guitar on page 15? According to the book it should be the 57 Chevy but I can't find this model anywhere on the internet.

My answer (which a friend has posted on Amazon.com for me because having a UK Amazon account I am unable to post on the American site) is as follows:

Hi Thomas,

I wish the publishers had let me check through the proofs before going to print because they got a lot of the pictures wrong. I did offer to do this for them and was never taken up on the offer. Right at the start I was told I could choose ANY guitars I wanted to write about and that their art department would find the pictures, and that it wouldn't be a problem.

The guitar in the picture on page 15 is a guitar made by Auerswald Instruments, a German company specialising in innovative designs. On page 22 there is a write up of the Auerswald Model C guitar, but the picture on page 15 isn't a Model C. It's not a model currently on their website but you'll see from the other guitars in the range that stylistically it shares many traits including the "Sustain Bow" arm connecting the head to the body.

If you want to see a picture of a 57 Chevy, just Google "American Showster 57 Chevy" and check the images!

G L Wilson

STOP PRESS...  Antoine L tells us that:

"It is not a Auerswald. It's a model inspired by Auerswald made ​​by Ed Roman:
http://www.edroman.com/guitars/abstract/kingpin.htm

Grrrrr... This is what happens when you let your publishers collect together the photos to go in your guitar book.

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:


© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Bertram

Edit: It's a Greco-built Roland G-303 synth controller (thanx JD) - I always associated Roland's early controllers with the LP shaped G-500 but I should have known this one that has been used by renowned players such as Pat Metheny and Andy Summers. Since it is not only a synth controller but a good guitar, it has been often used without the GR-300 synth - the way Aerts does. 

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Gary writes:

This is the best photo I could get and didn't get to ask the bass player - is it just a Thunderbird?

The band are The Idle Hands Band, a great blues rock band that I saw at Newark Blues Festival on Sunday.

cheers
Gary

Ah, here is the bass version of a guitar I am often asked to identify. It's a Gibson RD Artist Bass, which was introduced in late 1977 and was Gibson's first bass to feature active electronics. Working in conjunction with Moog electronics and The Who's John Entwistle, the design team at Gibson consisted of Chuck Burge (woodwork), Tim Shaw (electronics) and was overseen by Bruce Bolen.

It was never a big seller, but did manage to outsell the Gibson Ripper as Gibson's bestselling bass in 1978 and 1979, which does say something about how little Gibson were shifting bass guitars in those days.

We looked at the guitar version of the Gibson RD Artist here, and you can read more about the bass here.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Monstruobot - Presidente Electro from boxerinlove on Vimeo.

Miguel Cámara of Monstruobot writes:

Nobody has ever found out which guitar model I'm playing so I just thought it could be interesting for your blog. Guitarz is the only guitar blog I follow and I don't think this is useful for anybody else. I enjoy reading every single post, even when I dislike the picture, and I wonder what'd you say about this one.

I think it's quite easy to find out which was the original model (which was bought new and used in the band for many years before its modification).

Several guitars have been played in Monstruobot: from Fender with single coils to Gibson Firebird with mini humbuckers, but the sound of the guitar in this band is 100% effect pedals and the best result came out after accidentally a luthier in Tenerife helped me finding those pick ups, modifying the body and painting it white.

So don't miss the pedalboard which is cheaper and easier to carry than those heavy rockcases... I just put it into my skateboard bag and that's it :)

We will take these "things" to USA and Mexico after summer as Monstruobot has this 3-week tour from New York to Tijuana!

Best regards from the Canary Islands and congratulations for such a great blog!

Miguel.-
www.decaucho.com

Thanks for that, Miguel. Despite being a guitar enthuiast I am unashamedly a fan of electronic music, so Monstuobot certainly appeal to me musically.

Now the guitar. Obviously it's Gibson SG-inspired. I was trying to work out what brand it might be from the shape of the headstock and truss rod cover. I think Epiphone, although the obvious guess, is out of the question. I did wonder if it could be a VS6 from John Hornby Skewes' excellent Vintage brand, but the headsock shape is wrong. I think the same goes for Tanglewood's SG copies.

Would our other readers like to hazard a guess?

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!