Guitar Info

They don't do guitars like this anymore...


Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

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Julian Cope is one of my all-time favourite artists and is also quite the guitar collector. One time at a gig I attended in Oxford, between songs he swapped a white Gibson SG Junior for another almost identical just because he fancied changing guitars.

Anyway, I've always wondered about his doublenecked non-reverse Firebird/Thunderbird nicknamed "The Beast" (not that I've personally seen it in action) and whether or not it was an actual Gibson or a custom build.

Earlier I stumbled upon this interview in which Cope reveals that "The guitar was made by Valdez in Los Angeles in 1971, from a 1967 non reverse Thunderbird IV and a 1968 non reverse Firebird."

Just thought I'd share that with you.

Photo: Promo shot of Julian Cope wielding the doubleneck Firebird / Thunderbird for his CORNUCOPEA festival at the South Bank Centre, April 2000.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

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The Fender Corporation do have this really irritating habit of taking the names of pieces of gear from their past (or else that of acquired companies) and then re-applying those names to some much less deserving budget-priced piece of kit.

A prime example was when Fender paired the name of the now legendary Sunn amps as acquired by Fender together with that of the Fender Mustang guitar which originally appeared in 1964. However, the resultant Sunn Mustang was just a budget Strat copy (early examples were made in India and seem to have their fans - but that's a discussion for another time).

Fender did the same thing with the Starcaster. It used to be a 1970s-era offset-body semi-hollowbody guitar (see above pic) - Fender's answer to Gibson's 335 but with a bolt-on maple neck, but AGAIN years later they have applied the name to yet another budget conscious Strat copy. Ask any teenager into guitars what a Starcaster is, and it is the latter-mentioned guitar they will be most likely be thinking of (unless they are really cool).

Anyway, here is an example currently for sale on eBay of a Fender Starcaster from 1976 in a rare ebony finish (most I've seen previously tend to have the natural finish or sometimes sunburst). Despite not being Fender's first attempt at a semi-hollowbody - that would be the Coronado from 1966-1972 - it is one of Fender's more intriguing lesser-known guitars. Such a shame they have to sully its name with a cheap Strat knock-off.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Just think, this could have been called a "Flying V" if someone else hadn't already come up with the name. Not so much a "reverse body" but a "rotated through 90 degrees" body.

From Houston, TX's very own legendary boutique guitar brand, it's a Robin Wedge. This example is "Made in Japan", which would date it somewhere between 1982 and 1986 when Robin guitars were built by Tokai and FujiGen. Manufacture of Robin guitars moved to the United States from 1986. It's an interesting observation that where so many other brands once had guitars manufactured in the USA they are now being built out East, while Robin guitars must be one of the few exceptions where this has happened the other way around.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

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I think we have a rather optimistic eBayer here. With a starting price of $3,500 and a Buy It Now of $4,500, even if it wasn't covered in all that crap this old Danelectro U1 wouldn't be worth anything near that kind of money. Furthermore, whilst the body is said to be from the 1950s, the neck isn't original and supposedly dates from 1967.

In the hyperbole of the listing the seller claims that "this guitar is for rock stars only" and that "If you really are a rock star and money is no object Buy-It-Now, for a guitar you'll never want to smash."

Yeah, as if that is the primary function of a guitar.


Someone has desperately been trying to create the illusion of a guitar with that certain "mojo" here, but it falls flat as being remarkably contrived. The sea-shell for a tone knob is one particularly banal touch. It's such a pity that someone had to spoil a vintage piece like this. If you want to be "arty" there are plenty of cheapo Chinese guitars to go wild on.

Thanks to Shubert Silva for bringing this guitar to my attention.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!