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Vintage & Rare guitar of the week: James Trussart Steelmaster

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guitarz.blogspot.com:

Unlike other James Trussart guitars this 2011 Trussart Steelmaster does not feature the hollow steel body for which his guitars are known. Instead, the body is of chambered pine with a steel cap recessed into the top. Seen front-on it has the appearance of a Trussart steel body guitar, while the distressed pine of the body is of a colour that compliments the metal. It makes for a very industrial-looking version of the Jazzmaster.

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!

1968 vintage Tokai Humming Bird - cool Japanese-made rarity

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guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's quite a glorious Tokai Humming Bird from the late 1960s way before Tokai had gotten into the swing of producing such accurate and well-made replicas of Fender and Gibson guitars that those companies became seriously worried by the Japanese competition.

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!

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!

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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guitarz.blogspot.com:

Now this is clever. I'll let the seller/maker describe it:
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!

Carvin doubleneck - I wouldn't fancy tuning this up on a darkened stage

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guitarz.blogspot.com:

This Carvin doubleneck 12+6 guitar was, until very recently, the property of Guitarz reader Derek; he sold it on eBay just this last week. He comments:
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.

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.
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.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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:


The Gibson Moderne is the closest guitar equivalent of the Bigfoot, in the sense that there is little evidence to prove its existence and there is yet to be solid proof of a real one anywhere on Earth. Guitar collectors consider the original Moderne the holy grail of Gibson collectable guitars. This is because the prototype designed in the late 50s as part of the ‘Futura’ range, along with the Flying V and the Explorer, failed to make it into production and simply vanished with no other prototypes appearing in pawnshops or even any trace of its existence until 1982 where it was released as part of the ‘Heritage Series’, and again later by Epiphone in Korea. Now decades later Gibson have released a new rendition of the fabled Moderne to start the hype, the mystery and the rumours all over again.

From what we know of this mystical creature, it appears to be almost identical to the original guitar. The very distinctive body, which looks like the cross-breed result of the Flying V and the Explorer, is made from mahogany along with its neck, which features a rosewood fingerboard and dot inlays. The Moderne is then finished off with a very cool forked headstock and to make sure it can replicate that vintage Gibson tone it has two ’57 Classic humbuckers.

The Gibson Moderne is going to pretty popular with collectors, as it’s the next best thing to the original, and people who simply like unique guitars. The guitar will be available in amber with a black scratchplate, or ebony with a tortoiseshell scratchplate. For more information on this guitar and its release date check out this site or sign up to the newsletter to be kept posted.

Steven Williams

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Gus G1 baritone guitar - carbon fibre, aluminium tube, flip flop paint, and 001 serial number

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guitarz.blogspot.com:

Those Guitarz readers who were savvy enough to buy a copy of our limited edition Guitarz 2012 Calendar may already have flipped through the pages to October 2012 and seen a particularly stunning photo of a Gus fretless bass. However, I don't think that we have ever looked at Gus guitars on the blog itself before.

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!