Guitar Info

I would like to apologise to the author Sean Egan (yes, he is a real person), whose name was attached to the "500 Guitars" book on Amazon's listings through no fault of his own.

It seems that the incorrect details were supplied to Amazon.

He was never part of any "conspiracy", and again I apologise if my comments may have suggested otherwise.

I am now going to delete my previous recent posts about the book and the whole debacle of who the credited author is, because I do not see any point in keeping such negative-toned material in the blog archive.

G L Wilson

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I've been looking at some of the contemporary budget-priced instruments (other than the usual suspects) currently available and was quite impressed with some of the designs offered by Spear Guitars (which are available in the UK via http://www.spear-guitars.co.uk/).

I was quite struck by some of the models in the TC series which feature bodies made of embossed luthite, a composite material. The silver and bronze models are particularly eye-catching.

However, the guitar pictured here, the Spear RT-ST, is a real head-turner. If you've been hankering after a Trussart Steelcaster but could never hope of raising the kind of money required to buy one, then the Spear RT-ST is the guitar for you. It doesn't have a steel body like the Trussart, but has a chambered American Alder body topped off with a steel plate so providing the necessary asthetics. Similarly the headstock has a similar inlaid steel plate. It's the kind of guitar that would look amazing under lights on stage, and should appeal to fans of Telecaster Deluxe and Custom models. More importantly, it is a mere fraction of the cost of a Trussart.

It is, however, very very shiny. If you require the "rusty" Trussart look, you may have to arrange this yourself!

G L Wilson

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In the mid-1980s Wilkes Guitars came up with a guitar known as "The Answer" which featured what seemed like a novel idea, namely sliding pickups allowing for a whole spectrum of tones*. A couple of years later, Westone issued the Rail bass which also featured a sliding pickup. It was my belief that the precedent for this idea was the 1970s-era Gibson Grabber bass which featured a sliding pickup and which was so named because you literally grabbed hold of the pickup and moved it to the desired position (although admittedly it didn't travel very far).

Imagine my surprise to find for sale on eBay this Guyatone guitar from the 1960s (pictured above) which not only has two pickups biased towards the bridge position but also has a swivelling neck pickup and accompanying "Cool/Hot" switch. Guyatone were of course a Japanese brand and many examples of their guitars were built at the now legendary Matsumoko factory.

But is this the earliest example of a sliding/swivelling pickup? I expect that Guitarz readers will know of others, so please respond in the comments below.

I'm reminded, of course, of Rick Turner Guitars (which surely must be at the other end of the quality scale from Guyatone) and the Model 1 which has a pickup mounted on a rotating plate.

G L Wilson

* Wilkes "The Answer" actually featured two coils that could be moved independently of one another and which could function separately as single coils or together as a humbucker. It really was a clever idea, the only downside was the appearance of the guitar itself that had a great big swimming pool cavity in the middle of the body.

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To prevent abuse of the system, i.e. people making snide comments under the cowardly veil of anonymity, "guest" comments will no longer be allowed in the comments.

Please do not let this discourage you from posting your thoughts about a particular blog posting. The new Echo commenting system allows several ways of logging in using login details from several different platforms, so really it couldn't be much easier.

It'd be a shame if the number of comments started dropping off. In the past they've given us some really excellent discussions which all go to contribute to a sense of community.

If anyone has any criticisms to make, then you are free to make them (and I won't as a moderator delete them unless they are downright offensive), but you will be required to put your name to them. If you have a problem with the blog - or with Bertram or me personally - then please have the courage of your convictions and put your name to it.

G L Wilson

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Hear the name "Bigsby" and you automtically think of the now legendary Bigsby vibrato. It seems almost ironic that this "Bigsby" guitar doesn't have a vibrato (or tremolo) at all!

In fact this is a Bigsby-designed Magnatone MkIII. Magnatone were best known for their Hawaiian guitars and amps, but contracted Paul Bigsby to design a "spanish"-style electric. (That always sounds funny to me, because I think of Spanish guitar as being acoustic nylon-string. However, "Spanish" in this instance refers to the playing style familiar to all of us today as opposed to the lap style of playing.)

You can read more about the Bigsby Magnatone MkIII here.

Of course, Paul Bigsby together with Merle Travis developed what is arguably the first solid-bodied electric guitar back in 1947, which in turn influenced a certain Mr Leo Fender. You can see where the influence for the Fender headstock design may have come from (read more about that here).

See also: www.bigsbyguitars.com

G L Wilson

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It's a bit early in the year, but... anyone for tennis?

From the same spirit of mind that creates cigar box guitars, comes the Sonny Daze 2-string Tennis Racquet Guitar.

Note that its creator spells it "racket". Some people unkinder than me would suggest that this is deliberate given the sound it makes, but not I. Obviously you're going to be limited as to what you can play on this, but the following video will give an idea on some of the kind of cigar-boxian slide riffs that are possible.

For an instrument (or "trash art", as its maker calls it) with practically no body mass, it's actually quite impressive. In a diddley bo kinda way.