Vintage & Rare guitar of the week: James Trussart Steelmaster
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This guitar is currently for sale via Vintage & Rare, priced at €3185.
G L Wilson
© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
11:01 AM | Labels: cool guitars, Jaguar/Jazzmaster, James Trussart, metal front guitars
1968 vintage Tokai Humming Bird - cool Japanese-made rarity
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The Humming Bird is a guitar of its age. It has the same generic pickups that we see on other Japanese guitars of the same era, plus a very basic sub-Bigsby vibrato arm. The body horns are quite pointed which again brings to mind various of its Japanese-made contemporaries (e.g. Yamaha's early solidbodies, the SG-2 and SG-3) and the body has some German carve contouring around the top edge. The front pickup is angled a la Mosrite guitars. (Mosrites were famously used by The Ventures, a band who were seriously BIG in Japan).
I admire the seller's honesty when he/she says that it is "not the best playing guitar ever made by far, but more of a desirable collectors item". There's no BS and no hyperbole, it's just telling it like it is, and I wish more eBayers would take a leaf out of this seller's book.
Likewise, the pricing is not out of this world. The starting price is £250 and the Buy It Now price is £375 (currently listed on eBay UK).
G L Wilson
© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
2:44 PM | Labels: cool guitars, Japanese guitar, Tokai, vintage
Tommy Emmanuel - 12 bar blues in the key of E
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guitarz.blogspot.com:
It's the start of a brand new week, so here's a video to put a smile on your face and help cure those Monday morning blues:
Frank from the Lampeter Fire Station Guitar Club, which I've been attending recently, sent me this link. His comment was that it was "something to work on". Whoah, you mean that's this week's homework?
G L Wilson
© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
3:13 AM | Labels: acoustic, Tommy Emmanuel, video, YouTube
Walking cane tenor guitar/mandola - for those who like music on the move, now here's an instrument you can take hiking
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A truly unique instrument, functions as a cane and a Tenor Guitar or 4 string Mandola at the same time. Tuned C-G-D-A, 19 inch scale, so it is a little long for a mandola, and on the short end of a tenor guitar scale, but in the cane design it is very ergonomic. The cane crook acts like a armrest, and it is very comfortable to play. Very light yet strong enough for support, the sound is not as full as a full-bodied instrument yet very sweet and clear. This is a fully acoustic Tenor Guitar, not a solid stick. It has a Spruce soundboard, Mahogany headstock lamination, Rosewood back and crook laminations. The body is hollow. The crook-cane handle is cross laminated for directional grain strength.The seller also makes walking cane mandolins, ukuleles and dulcimers.
G L Wilson
© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
10:13 AM | Labels: acoustic, hybrid instrument, Luthiers, mandola, one-offs, Tenor guitar
Carvin doubleneck - I wouldn't fancy tuning this up on a darkened stage
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This is a early 90s Carvin doubleneck. It is, as far as I know, the only 6/12 that has the tuners on the 12 string neck inline. It makes for a very weird looking headstock... it looks more like a shovel.Thanks for showing us that beast, Derek. I can imagine I'd get into all sorts of tuning difficulties with a 12-string headstock like that. I often seem to go for the wrong tuner even on a regular 6-string 3+3 headstock. Still, in an on-stage situation, I guess that's what guitar techs are for.
It appears to be the same as the guitar on this catalog page from 1990.
The 12 inline was a option, the 6+6 was standard. The microswitch is the neck selector.
It's very heavy. The neck feels like a cross between an Ibanez RG and a Jackson; it's very thin, flat and wide. It is very much in keeping with the Superstrat/shred guitar design (other than the lack of a Kahler or Floyd). It's well made just like any other Carvin I've run across, but offers little in the way of new ideas. It looks and feels very late 80s if that makes sense.
G L Wilson
© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
3:16 AM | Labels: 12-string, Carvin, doubleneck, superstrat, Your Guitars
Gibson Moderne - "reissue" of a classic guitar that probably never existed in the first place
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guitarz.blogspot.com - Guest blog by Steven Williams of www.dawsons.co.uk:
© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
12:00 AM | Labels: Gibson, guest blogger, News item, Product news
Gus G1 baritone guitar - carbon fibre, aluminium tube, flip flop paint, and 001 serial number
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This particular example is a Gus G1 Baritone guitar with the serial number G1/B 001. Built by Simon Farmer in the UK, each Gus guitar or bass is essentially a custom order, although some instruments will have more specific custom features than others. The construction is of cedar with a skin of carbon fibre. All hardware is fabricated in-house a the Gus workshop so these guitars are not going to carry all the same generic hardware that we see everywhere else. The body is basically a teardrop shape and - most notably - is mounted inside a chrome-plated aluminium tube (actually welded in 5 sections). This tube helps give the instrument a more recognisable guitar-like shape and provides the familiar body horns.
The G1 Baritone has a 30" scale length and is designed to be tuned down to B (a fourth below 'normal' guitar pitch). This example has been finished in "Plum Crazy" purple to green flip flop paint from House of Colors.
For more information please check out the Gus Guitars website.
Currently listed on eBay UK with a starting price of £2999.
Thanks to Dirk for suggesting we feature this guitar.
G L Wilson
© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
4:17 AM | Labels: baritone guitar, British guitars, carbon fibre, Gus Guitars, Luthiers, unusual materials








