Guitar Info

This is genius! Regular Guitarz reader, Andy Stone - he who built the "Les Pew" guitar, the Pew Bass, and this rather tasty 12-string electric amongst other guitars - has built this home-made rotary speaker as demonstrated in the above YouTube clip. Andy's a very resourceful chap, often building his various projects from whatever bits and pieces he has to hand. The rotary speaker includes parts made from Roses chocolate tins and an old school chair! That's some very inspired recycling going on there.

Just when I was beginning to think that there were no more truly weird guitars being put up for sale on eBay, along comes this one-off weird-shapped acrylic guitar from the 1970s.

Hey, it's see-thru, it's full of holes (regular readers will get the reference), what's not to like?

It's rather a weird shape though. Slightly reminiscent of the 1960s-era budget Vox Apache model.

To my mind, it resembles a jellyfish.

Remember the "rare four string electric guitar"? Well, I've just found the perfect partner for it, namely this New 6 String Bass black electric guitar excellent (allegedly).
Funny that. It looks like a cheap Chinese counterfeit Epiphone to me. (Why did they think it was a bass?)

I haven't really got an "angle" for this post, only to say that I've always had a soft spot for short-scale basses, think that hollow-bodied basses are cool, and that this Burns Baldwin Vibraslim looks to be just the type of bass I'd like to own, although I don't like it that much that I'm going to shell out the asked for £900 Buy It Now price.

Here's an early British-made rarity, the Dallas Tuxedo. The seller explains:

From the late 1950s the Dallas Tuxedo was the first British made solidbody guitar to hit the market. Sophisticated design with through neck construction. Solid mahogany. This is the two pickup model with Rangemaster tremolo. Original case and leather strap. This guitar was found in an attic in Wallasey, just over the Mersey River from Liverpool, and not far from the Tower Ballroom. A guitar just like this was found in the attic of John Lennon's home in Woolton, Liverpool. He is purported to have owned and played it. Probably purchased from the same music store as this one!

The Burns Flyte has long since been one of my favourite designs, but I know that as players they weren't to everyone's taste. There were a guitar and a bass model and were specially designed by Jim Burns to minimise feedback, something which some people perhaps wouldn't have wanted minimised!

This Burns Flyte Bass is on eBay right now - they don't turn up for sale very often - and has a Buy It Now price of £899. Oh, how things change! I remember not so many years ago you couldn't GIVE these guitars away, and recall a conversation with a London music shop owner about such guitars ending up being thrown into a skip.

I have to add that I prefer the silver finish to the natural finish on the bass featured here. Silver looks much more Sci-Fi and given the shape seems more appropriate. The old silver Flytes often end up fading to a dull gold colour over the years.

I know that Burns have re-issued these guitars in more recent times, but they just don't have the same vibe. They are no longer made in the UK (a sign of the times), and the shape has been modified with a lower cutaway on the body which completely spoils the lines of the design in my opinion.

See also: The Burns Mirage

This rather odd guitar was on eBay recently. It has the appearance of an instrument that someone has taken a saw to, but the seller implies that it was built this way by a luthier.

The pickups are quite unusual in design, both being housed in a U-shaped piece of metalwork. I wonder if this assembly was taken off another guitar. Any ideas, anyone?