Here at Guitarz we've looked - and laughed - at Vietnamese maker Antoniotsai's guitars before (see here, here and here), and whilst this Dinosaur 5-string bass is quite tame compared to some of their other creations, it's still pretty dreadful. Not only is the dinosaur oil painting rather inexpertly realised (and let's face it, if you've absolutely got to have a Tyrannosaurus Rex on your guitar, then you'd want it as BIG and BOLD as possible, and not merely a head creeping into the bottom left-hand corner of the picture) but also look closely at the woodwork which appears irregular and wonky, as if very crudely cut out by hand.
One very strange feature is the position of the control knobs and output jack, slap bang in the middle of the body behind the bridge. One might argue that this would make the bass more readily adaptable for left-handed players, which I would understand if it didn't have Precision-esque offset body horns.
Currently listed on eBay with a starting bid of $0.99.
From the maker of the Union Flag guitar we looked at previously (and which is listed on eBay again) comes this guitar for lovers of retro video games, the Pacman guitar. Again, the maker/seller is claiming this is a "prototype" but I can't really imagine that these novelty designs could ever go on to become fully-fledged production guitars; I think he'd be better off continuing to build individual novelty guitars, perhaps offering a bespoke service for bands wanting crazy designs.
And - before someone comments - yes, I am aware of the other Pacman guitar that has appeared on just about every internet guitar forum devoted to "weird" guitars.
The above guitar is currently listed on eBay UK with an optimistic Buy It Now price of £330.
Guitarz reader Richard saw this guitar in the UsedOttawa.com classified ads:
Vintage, small scale Harmony acoustic guitar, stripped down and fancied up with Elvis images. One of a kind strummer for the Elvis completist. Comes with new bone nut and saddle for added twang, Andy Warhol print on front, and the infamous burnt toast image on back.
It's definitely one to file under "Wacky finishes". With a price tag of $330 I think it's also one to file under "Optimistic sellers"!
In a weird piece of synchronicity, after posting about the Mickey Mouse guitar yesterday and linking to a previous Guitarz post about the Mickey Mouse club Mousegetar, I found the above-pictured Selco Skiffle Junior plastic toy guitar (or maybe its a ukulele) on eBay UK - the design of which has been borrowed from the Mousegetar. I'm thinking that the Skiffle Junior was originally intended as a plastic Mousegetar - look closely at the design - you can still see the outline of Mickey Mouse's face. Note also that the tuning pegs resemeble Mickey Mouse ears.
The Skiffle Junior dates from 1956. Perhaps they were just going along with the current trends. To begin with Disney was popular, then the Skiffle craze came in and so they altered the design. A few years later they would issue the more famous Selco Beatles plastic guitar.
Currently listed on eBay UK with a starting price of £45.
The fact that this Mickey Mouse guitar is a novelty instrument and that it features hardware identical to some other novelty guitars we've looked at recently (namely the M&Ms and iPod guitars) makes me think they may have been produced by the same manufacturer. It's a pity that the hardware couldn't have been disguised or somehow painted to match the design of Mickey's face. As it is, he looks like he's got some very bizarre facial piercings. As to whether this is officially licensed Disney product or effectively a bootleg guitar, I could not tell you.
Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $399.99.
This Winton Hawaiian Moon parlour guitar was a model made by the Kay Musical Instrument Company of Chicago between 1935 and 1940. The Winton brandname would most likely be for a particular retailer, although I can find little information about it on the internet. Note the deep V shape to the back of the neck in the above photo; this was actually quite a common neck shape back in the day. Of course, what really makes the guitar is the Hawaiian graphic on the guitar's top; I'm sure they won't be to everyone's taste but I think it is particularly attractive.
Currently listed on eBay with a realistic Buy It Now price of $349.99.
The seller of this one-off, supposedly "prototype" rectangular-shaped guitar tells us that the angled neck makes for quite an ergonomic instrument. I must confess that I remain unconvinced, although without trying it out for myself there's no way of knowing for sure.
It's a pity that the Union Flag has been inaccurately rendered - the red diagonal stripes should be set to one side within the diagonal white stripes with a counter-clockwise bias so as to give a pinwheel effect. Oh well, at least it's better than Gibson's sorry effort.
Currently listed on eBay UK (where else?) with a Buy It Now price of £270.
Here's another left-handed Fender in Antigua finish, this one being their almost forgotten first attempt at a semi-hollowbody guitar, the Fender Coronado II. The Coronado series was designed by Roger Rossmeisl, who had previously designed guitars for Rickenbacker, and were produced between 1966 and 1972. The Coronado models I and II differed in number of pickups (which, incidentally, were made by DeArmond), the Coronado I having a single neck pickup and the Coronado II having an additional pickup in the bridge position. There was also a 12-string model, the Coronado XII, plus a bass model. Antigua was not the only rare finish, as a number of Coronado II and XIIs were made in Wildwood editions with bodies constructed of highly grained beech wood from trees which had been injected with colourful chemical dyes before being harvested.
But back to the Antigua finish. Note how the 1960s Antigua differs from that produced in the late 1970s. The 60s version is almost a cream to black burst, whereas in the 1970s the whole burst effect is more "mushroom"-like. A few years ago I had one of the Crafted In Japan Fender Strat reissues in Antigua, and the colour was different yet again having more of a green tinge to it.
What's more, the eBay listing tells us that the above-pictured Fender Coronado II originally had a cherry finish before being refinished in the factory in Antigua. I had heard the the Antigua finish was originally developed to hide a mistake and wonder if this might be the reason for this guitar being refinished. (Anyone know the full story?)
Anyway, this guitar is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $2,590.
G L Wilson
Additional: Via the comments Sam writes:
I have a book on Fender called The Fender Electric Guitar Book: A Complete History Of Fender Instruments.
Here's what it says: "Virgilio 'Babe' Simoni remembered a particular problem with the Coronados... 'We couldn't get the binding material to stick to the Coronados,' he said later. 'We'd bind them at night and come back in the morning and the thing would be popped loose. [So we had to] re-bind them several times, and the veneer is very thin on them.' In order to cover up the burn marks caused by this re-binding, the team had no choice but to devise a special white-to-brown shaded finish, which they called Antigua, to salvage the scorched Coronados."
So yeah, perfectly conceivable - and very likely - that this was one such Coronado originally finished in cherry and then refinshed in Antigua by Fender after the binding failure damaged the previous finish. - GLW
Interesting guitars, custom-made by Waterstone Guitars they are styled after a Fender Jazzmaster/Jaguar design with reverse headstocks and with a Rickenbacker-style lightshow.
What's rarer than a late 1970s Fender Precision Bass in Antigua finish? Well, how about a left-handed late 1970s Fender Precision Bass in Antigua finish? The seller actually claims that this example is from 1980 despite the headstock displaying a 1970s serial number (S followed by 6 digits), but it is perfectly possible that this was assembled in 1980 by Fender from parts already in stock from a year or two previously.
This bass is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $2,790.
If any of our regular readers are indeed southpaws and would like to join the Guitarz team with a view to writing pieces on the most interesting lefty guitars and basses on eBay and elsewhere, then please do get in touch!
Usually I loathe this kind of paint jobs, the easy and intruding horror comics/graffiti style that reduces everything it touches into pathetic boyish machismo. But I must say that in the case of this Washburn MR-400 it's surprisingly good, with this close-up framing that turns the image into a quasi -abstract pattern - it's unusually intelligent for this kind of things, and gives it an enjoyable second degree.
On top of this, the guitar is quite cool I must say. As far as I understood, the Washburn MR series models are Sammy Hagar signatures - the 400 being the P90s version - and look like thinline wider LPs with strangely shaped and placed soundholes - a very nice touch, mostly combined with the florentine cutaway. The paint job comes from Washburn's custom shop.
I have problems understanding Washburn's policy: it's an old company that has been there for ever and that could claim to belong to the holy ancients, but they seem to keep low profile, for example they don't keep archives of their discontinued models - and they've had prestigious users like Brian May or RogerWaters who even had a signature model (not to mention Paul Stanley, but who can still think that KISS is attractive?) - and don't try to claim a 'cult' status like many of their competitors on the guitar market... They have original though classic designs, also innovative technology, but their catalogue is full of LPs clones and superstrats... I have a good feeling though about their products, but it's a blur impression really not based on how they communicate about themselves!
They are probably too flowery for many guitarists' tastes, but I think these new floral print Telecasters from Fender Japan (official designation TL69-SPL) are quite stunning. Perhaps you'd need to wear a Hawaiian shirt (or more appropriately a silk kimono) whilst playing one, or maybe that would be overkill.
Other than the particularly loud finish on, each of the three designs available are based on a pretty standard Tele with basswood body, one-piece maple neck, the usual two Tele pickups, and 3-saddle Telecaster ashtray-style bridge.
Thanks again to Keith McCreary who has obviously been closely scrutinizing the Fender Japan website.
We've looked at guitars based on comic book superheroes before (e.g. Superman and Batman) but this Spider Man guitar is official Fender product. Issued by Fender Japan, the Fender MG Spider-Man is a Mustang with basswood body, 2 singlecoil pickups with on/off/phase switch settings for each and the now legendary Dynamic Vibrato for which the Mustang is famous. But most obviously it has an in-your-face Spider Man finish which may be a little too pink for the tastes of some sensitive souls. It even has a competition stripe of sorts, a "Spidey" competition stripe, I guess.
If you want one, you'll have to be quick because this is a limited edition of only 50 examples; also it's my understanding that these are being produced for the Japanese market only, so good luck in trying to track one down. (Why is it that Fender Japan always seems to have the most exciting range of Fender guitars?)
Thanks to Keith McCreary for bringing this guitar to our attention.
Very much in the style of a cigar box guitar, this three-stringer is a Marks & Spencers Biscuit Tin guitar based on a novelty biscuit tin shaped like a Marks & Spencers delivery van.
This guitar is currently listed on eBay UK with a starting price of £0.99. The seller very honestly comments that: "As you would expect, it ain't a great sound, but it is great fun!"
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! And now, here it is, our ELEVENTH post on 11/11/11:
Do I need to say much about this Mexican-made Fender Stratocaster as refinished by Beyond Custom Guitars? The "newspaper" finish is quite striking, but if you read the headlines and the stories themselves most of them are about the deaths of famous rock stars: John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Bon Scott, Sid Vicious, Dimebag Darrell, Kurt Cobain, etc.
Cool or tasteless? You decide.
We hope you have all enjoyed our mammoth 11 guitar blog postings today on Nigel Tufnel Day. I just want to end on a more serious note and point out that in the United Kingdom the 11th day of the 11th month is Remembrance Day when we remember those who died in the two World Wars and that absolutely no disrespect is meant in our blog posts today.
This makes a change from all those promotional guitars for various brands of weak beer. It's an M&Ms guitar featuring a graphic of the chocolate and sugar-coated peanut characters from the M&M advertisements. It's quite a basic guitar with just one pickup and volume and tone controls, but the shape is actually quite pleasing to the eye, and I could well imagine this being used in some young punk band.
I'm not sure if these guitars were promotional give-aways or competition prizes, or if you actually had to buy them along with X amount of chocolate peanut wrappers, but for a very basic Chinese-made guitar I can't help thinking that the requested Buy It Now price of $499 is a little steep. But then again, maybe M&Ms merchandise is collectable,
Just found this on Ebay Australia and I thik it warrants a visit by you (Possible feature? Hint hint.)
It's obstensibly a 1966 Jaguar with a green finish, but with a subtle white stripe on the headstock and body. The paintjob looks (at least on the headstock), I think you will agree, like a possible aftermarket job which has aged a little over the years; may not have looked half bad all those years ago. Only problem I see is that it lacks the headstock decal (real Fender would still have it, they know how to paint round it) and has a replacement neck pickup. Truth be told, in the world of awful repaints coming from AWFUL ideas, this is actually quite nice to look at. The stripe even works in a weird 60s way.
Enjoy, I guess.
Andrew
Currently listed on ebay Australia with a starting price of AU $2,500.00 (i.e. Australian dollars).
Who can think of former East-Germany as a place and time of stern and dull design? Look at this Migma doubleneck bass/guitar (it sports no brand but its look and finish cry Migma - there were some models shared with twin brand Musima but Migma was into wild post-accordion finishes) and praise whoever could have conceived and built this delightful monster.
Its fierce horns exceed their Burns model to reach an almost Wandre extravagance that allows the mother-of-toilet-seat-from-hell finish to escape Mitteleuropean kitsch to rocket to the crepuscular twirls of psychedelic heaven! I would love to listen to the music for which it was conceived... And I wish this guitar was mine!
This guitar is too crazy to be a series one - its seller on eBay.de (the excellent e-shop Vintage*Guitar*Collection) says that it's unique, so it must be a custom job... I don't know about Migma, but it seems that in Markneukirchen where most of the GDR music instrument companies were established, more or less everybody was a luthier, and people would easily have an atelier at home and make some extra instruments upgrading company models - their version of nowadays custom shops.
There's no denying that the artwork on this old acoustic guitar (a so-called "Customised Resonator Guitar" even) has been beautifully executed. It is supposedly Art Deco inspired, although I think it is rather too busy to fit in faithfully with that genre. The playing cards around the sides of the guitar are really one step too far and lend it a tacky Las Vegas look rather than one of sophistication which I believe was the desired effect.
What really spoils it is the base from a catering-size tin of baked beans that has been inset where the soundhole once inoffensively appeared. I usually try not to sink to lowest common denominators when describing guitars like this, but in this instance all I can think to say is that it looks crap. Pairing this with a second soundhole insert, quite obviously a strainer intended to sit over the plughole in the kitchen sink, does nothing to help matters. Yes, by all means use these elements on cigar box guitars; they seem to make some sense there and indeed are part of the charm of such instruments. But on an instrument that is trying to look sophisticated, such elements could not be more out of place.
Furthermore, shoving the bottom of a baked bean tin into the top of your guitar will not magically transform it into a resonator. The spun aluminium cone of a resonator guitar is a fine piece of precision engineering. Its function cannot be replicated with the bottom of a bean tin with a few holes punched in it. All that is going to do is to create a few more spurious vibrations and cause the guitar to rattle.
You might consider this a nice example of a piece of folk art and that the Buy It Now price of £270 would be money well spent, but personally I'd give it a miss. If it does actually sound any good, it'll be by accident rather than design. Note that in the YouTube video showing the guitar, the video finishes just before the guitar is about to get played. That alone speaks volumes!
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