Guitar Info

guitarz.blogspot.com:

My goodness, take a look at this... Flycaster... Telling V? Call it what you will, just because something is possible, doesn't mean that it should happen. As Guitarz reader Al in Crosby TX USA points out, even the eBay seller describes it as an abomination.

This Telecaster/Flying V hybrid comes from Indy Custom (The Indiana Guitar Company - not to be confused with Indie Guitars) and is one of a limited edition of 100 - even that sounds like pure optimism to me!

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

It looks like some poor old 1960s Japanese semi was a donor for this bedpan guitar project. I'm going to resist the all too obvious lavatorial comments (if you really feel the need, please use the comments!) and will only add that with a starting price of $319.99 you have to wonder who it is going to appeal to.

See here for another simpler bedpan guitar.

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

The Evets Corporation, current day owners of the Danelectro brand, have hit on an interesting marketing strategy in recent years. They re-issue guitars from the 1950s and 60s in limited edition and make them available for a year. This means there are frequently new models for fans and collectors of the brand. Of course it won't be too long before they exhaust the back catalogue of instruments and have to start repeating themselves. The latest crop of guitars sees the single-cutaway '56 style yet again, in a new interpretation has a lipstick humbucker at the bridge and a single coil lipstick at the neck and is also availble with a choice of headstock styles including the clasic "dolphin-nose" style.

More interesting, I think, are the above pictured guitars that Danelectro have dubbed the "Mid 60s Guitars" but which most suppliers are referring to as the "Wild Thing" series. Apparently these are based on a 1960s Danelectro prototype guitar. It is unmistakeably a Danelectro design, although the twin pointy horns both pointing southwards are reminiscent of the B.C. Rich Mockingbird. (A Danelectro/B.C. Rich hybrid - now there's an off-the-wall concept I'd like to see if it was done properly!)

Available in guitar, bass, and baritone models, these latest offerings from Danelectro are priced at $399 each, although many retailers are selling them for $299. Colours available are black, candy apple red, and candy apple blue (eh? Whoever saw blue apples?).

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

In August 2010, Bertram posted a Guitarz blog entry featuring a 1960s Merlin/Greco 921 guitar, which prompted reader Jim Garcia to submit the above photos. Jim writes:

I just picked up that same guitar, except it has a different pickguard (I'm thinking the white one [on the guitar we featured before] may be a replacement, maybe from the Greco), the pg on mine has semicircle cutouts that wrap around the curved bottoms of the single coil pickups - the material is black with cream binding, and it says "Arthur Smith" (in gold script) "Country Squire" (in Abalone script). Arthur Smith had a hit in the late forties with "Guitar Boogie", as early an example of rock n roll guitar that you will find. The model was distributed through Lowe's from '62 to '64 from what I've read and been told. I had thought the Merlins were made by Teisco but it's likely all the Greco/Teisco parts got interchanged.

Hey Jim, thanks for filling in another piece of the big jigsaw puzzle that is the history of the electric guitar!

As always, we want to see your guitars, and the more unusual they are, the better! (I think we've all got the measure of what Strats, Teles, Les Pauls, SGs, etc, are like by now, but if yours is an intriguing variation on a theme then it's still good!)

Keep 'em coming, folks!

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I don't know what to say about this rather bizarre guitar currently being offered for sale on eBay with a starting bid of $3,500. To me that seems quite a lot for a guitar that, despite the "custom" design and one-off status, still appears to use a generic bolt-on neck. I have to wonder about the weight, balance, and possible (probable?) neck heavyness. I love that people build such weird and wacky guitars; I'm just pleased that it's not me that's going to be playing it.

Thanks to Bill Cesavice for pointing this one out on our Facebook page.

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Yesterday here on Guitarz we took a second look at David's idea of the "Coolest Guitar Ever Built", and today we're taking another look at my own choice of guitar for that title. Dating from 1966-67, this is an original Japanese-built Yamaha SG-3, one of that company's very first solidbody electrics. It's obviously Yamaha's answer to the Fender Jazzmaster, but is not a straight copy and is all the more desirable for being different.

One interesting feature about this guitar that you may not know is that the truss rod is accessed from the back of the body with an access hole beneath what appears to be the neck plate but is actually a cover.

I've spoken about these guitars before - as regular readers will know, I am lucky enough to own a sunburst SG-3 - but they rarely become available for sale and seeing that this beautiful red example is being offered for sale on eBay Australia with a Buy It Now price of AU $2,200 (Australian dollars), I felt I just had to tell you. Believe me, if I had the money, I'd hit that Buy It Now myself and tell you all about it afterwards. And I already own one! I really think these guitars are that good. If you can find one.

Check out also this post on the OffsetGuitars.com forum which details a replica SG-3 project build and demonstrates nicely the extraordinairy lengths some people will go to get one of these guitars.

G L Wilson

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

guitarz.blogspot.com:

...and there was a Westone Raider bass too, seen here in the afore-mentioned two-tone silver flake finish! This is currently being offered for sale on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £275, which is well over twice what it would have cost back in 1983 when it was new.

G L Wilson

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