Guitar Blog

Renaissance plexiglass guitar from 1979

gl.wilson@ntlworld.com (G L Wilson) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:47:00 +0000

Apparently only a very limited number of these USA-made Renaissance guitars were built. Which might explain why I've never heard of them before (not that I'm a walking encyclopaedia of guitar builders and luthiers).

The body is made of a smoked effect transparent acrylic and has a neck of flamed maple with an ebody fingerboard. The pickups are a pair of DiMarzio humbuckers with a volume and tone control for each plus pickup selector. It would appear to have a pair of coil-tap switches also, allowing for a versatile range of sound options.

Note how the control cavity has a metal plate at the front and back of the guitar. It should be nicely screened, at least.

It's a classy-looking guitar, and with those DiMarzios in a perspex body, it should be able to scream and sustain along with the best of them.

Riverhead Unicorn Bass

gl.wilson@ntlworld.com (G L Wilson) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:07:00 +0000

First produced in 1980, the Riverhead Unicorn Bass was one of the first designs to jump on the small-bodied headless bass bandwagon following the introduction of the seminal Steinberger L-series bass.

Note also the body design, clearly borrowed from the Burns Flyte.

Notable players include Dave Pegg of Jethro Tull.

Some more scary "harp guitars" on eBay

gl.wilson@ntlworld.com (G L Wilson) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:52:00 +0000

Harp guitar banjo - wouldn't the 5th string tuner on the banbjo neck get in the way when playing the guitar neck?

The 18-string Thing - with 10-string nylon-strung neck, and inexplicably 8 additional steel treble strings on the body. The cutaway hardly looks very useful either.

The 15-string Electric Upright Harp Bass - I reckon they are making these things up as they go along. I don't think those treble strings would be very reachable when playing the bass in an upright position. I'm a little suspicious also of inlays in fretless fingerboards, which need to be as smooth as possible with no potential ridges or edges that the strings might catch on.

26-string Harp Guitar

gl.wilson@ntlworld.com (G L Wilson) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:30:00 +0000

There are some particularly wacko guitars on eBay right now, which is good news for this blog. This 26-string harp guitar is an acoustic with two six-string necks - one steel-strung, the other nylon, a set of six sub-bass strings and a set of eight treble strings. I understand the concept of sub-bass strings, but I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with the eight treble strings on the lower part of the body. Tune them to a chord perhaps?

The guitar is being sold by the ebay seller tropicalmoonmusic who have in the past sold some crazily-designed guitars from the Tennessee brand which have turned out to be very shoddily built and virtually unplayable. This harp guitar is very likely from the same source, even if it doesn't carry the Tennessee brand name. If you click through on the link and look at some of the other photos, it does look rather cheaply built. Look at the back of the two six string necks. They are virtually square.

It looks like fun, but I'd approach this guitar with caution.

60s National Studio 66

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:24:00 +0000

This is a National Studio 66 from the early 60s - with a fiberglass ("res-o-glas") body. What this guitar is seems so clear just from looking at it that I don't feel like telling much more...

Enjoy!

Fender Custom Shop "La Florita" Strat with matching amp

gl.wilson@ntlworld.com (G L Wilson) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:50:00 +0000

This one off "La Florita" Stratocaster was masterbuilt by Chris Fleming in the Fender Custom Shop and purchased by its original owner at the NAMM Show in January 2005. It is part of a combo with a Fender amp, both of which feature artwork by Kid Ramos.

Standel Custom Deluxe Model 101 (1966)

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Don't you think that this 1966 Standel Custom Deluxe Model 101 is absolutely stunning? It has everything I love on a guitar - the psychedelic long pointy horns, the metal front plate (on which if I understood well the bridge and the trem are fixated) and the plastic one which design visually modify completely the strat shape, the switches, the simple though extremely original headstock... Does anybody have an idea of who ever played this guitar?

I didn't know Standel until now, it's worth having a look here to know more about this aborted rival of Mosrite. I just noticed already before some other crazy headstock design on semi-hollow vintage guitars, somewhere on the Web...

A little help...

gl.wilson@ntlworld.com (G L Wilson) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:43:00 +0000

Hey everyone, it GLW back here again. I'd like to thank Bertram for keeping this blog going for the past month whilst I've been otherwise engaged on a writing project. He's done a sterling job (even if he does have a worrying penchant for 8-string guitars) and I see that the number of Blog Watchers keeps going up and up.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to string a few words together for an introduction to this book I've been writing and need to springboard a few ideas off you guys.

What makes a guitar a guitar?

What makes it so universally appealing?

Describe the guitar in one brief sentence. (Not one particular guitar, just "guitar" in general).

Agile Intrepid 8-string

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:56:00 +0000

Well I have to say that I have this thing with 8-string guitars - maybe that will stop when I actually played one - and I have it now for the Agile Intrepid here... I like it better in 'bloodburst' (that's macho talk for good old 'transparent cherry') but I didn't want to use a catalogue picture...

Tried to find a demo of it on YouTube but each time it was someone playing Meshuggah (I have nothing against Meshuggah, they're quite good but I find them girlie - probably because that's the kind of music that my girlfriend likes...). But I say it again: you don't have to play metal when you have more than 6 strings!

Tyler Studio Elite 'Burning Water'

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:39:00 +0000

I usually don't like stratoscasters and even less fancy custom paint but I have to admit that I find this Tyler Studio Elite with its 'Burning Water' finish pretty cool. So everything is possible, eh?

Nylon string acoustic double-neck

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:54:00 +0000

Another noticeable double-neck guitar is this nylon string acoustic one by luthier Fred Carlson. Here the body is hardly bigger than a single neck one - and this is good. Though it has six nylon strings, the longer neck could be considered as a bass one since its scale is 34' - but the baritone label doesn't require a strict scale and baritone guitars can have various scales, starting from 27'... The strings make the difference, for example the famous Fender Bass VI (30' scale) can be a quite different instrument with bass strings or baritone strings.

The other instrument on the picture from the same luthier is a sympathetic guitar - called Sympitar - with 12 sympathetic resonating strings inside the neck.

18 strings, not bad, eh? (this is my 'the more strings the better' of the week).

BC Rich Bich double-neck

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:29:00 +0000

Another double-neck guitar I do like, with its also divergent necks is the BC Rich Bich. You might be repulsed by its too pointy look but I find it quite elegant, and quite fonctional - that is often related. I was first interested in the Rich Bich 10 - also a good concept with 4 double strings and 2 single low ones - but the double neck works quite well too. If I was to buy a 12/6 one day, it would be probably this one..

60s Mosrite Joe Maphis double-neck

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:55:00 +0000

Many reactions on the previous post about the Gretsch Baritone double-neck, including a comparison with the great Mosrite Joe Maphis that has indeed a much cooler look and more important has non-parallel necks, that is more organic and allows a smaller body... I just regret that it only exists as a 12/6 and not baritone/6. Also it's long time discontinued and therefore unaffordable.

About why do people use double-neck guitars, if it's just to have a rhythmic neck / solo neck for a song, I'm far from convinced - would be more interesting to develop solos with 12-string, and unless you're Jimi Hendrix ou David Gilmour, solos are so often just fillings that they don't require something so sophisticated as a double-neck guitar... Jazz à la McLaughlin feels more relevant. And I know what to do with one too (but I'm not McLaughlin, for sure).

More double-necks later!

Gretsch G5566 Jet Double Neck Baritone

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:43:00 +0000

this Gretsch Jet double neck Baritone is on my list of must have - at least of must play (not a fan of the sparkle finish)! A Baritone double-neck is something - more interesting to me than a 6/12. I would open-tune the regular neck for slide so I could play it from upward and shift super quick from one neck to the other.

Two Bigsbys are a lot but I'd probably enjoy them if I was better at using them!

It's hard to comment more on a Gretsch guitar since I assume that they are perfect and that you just have to write Gretsch.

Danelectro also produced a baritone double-neck - I don't know other brands that did it.

While researching this guitar, I discovered that Gretsch also releases its own line of ugly ridiculous painted guitars - we are fronting terrible times for guitar lovers...

Gibson Firebird VII Vibrola reissue

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:25:00 +0000

You have the classic, the bizarre, and the classic bizarre (or bizarre classic) such as the great Firebird - here a white Gibson Firebird VII with its three pickups and Vibrola trem. This white one seems to be a very rare model...

And you know what? Heaven on earth is seeing PJ Harvey playing a Firebird... And I hate that I missed her concert with John Parish last May in Berlin, it was sold out within hours when they put the tickets on sale in January and it really SUCKS! Sorry, I had to tell it to someone...

60s Framus Billy Lorento BL10

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:23:00 +0000

This is a late 60s Framus BL10 Billy Lorento (aka Willi Lorenz aka Bela Lorentowsky aka Bill Lawrence).

Herr Lorenz is without any doubt an authority in guitar pickups, but this model looks like a shaped planck - that is always a failure for a guitar. On the other hand the shape itself is quite good, and in my opinion an unexplored yet direction for future guitar design.

Casio MG-510 / MG-500 MIDI guitars

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:24:00 +0000

Why is it almost impossible to have a good picture of a guitar from the 80s?

Anyway, here are the Casio MIDI guitars MG-510 (the strat clone) and MG-500 (the cool bizarre shaped one).

So no, Casio didn't just issue cheap watches, pocket calculators and toy keyboards for minimalist German electro-punk bands, they also produced some very interesting MIDI guitars - at least they provided the concept and the electronics and had famous guitar manufacturer FujiGen Gakki make the guitar parts.

It seems that these Casios where some of the best MIDI guitars of their time, a. o. since they completely integrated the MIDI system and the controls - no other did... You can get more info here.

And I think that the design of the MG-500 is one of the best of its MIDI 80s kind.

70s Hayman 30 30

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:53:00 +0000

I say, a guitar with a transparent pickguard and a fridge knobplate (not to mention the bridge) is a good guitar... So Hurray! for this Hayman 30 30!

I feel a little bit lazy today so if you want to know more about Haymans, please check here.

60s Framus 5/119-54 Television

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:32:00 +0000

It's been a little while since we've showed some nice German vintage guitar here (OK, just one week...) so here's a Framus 5/119-54 Television (not 100% sure because the gear is chrome, not gold). We've actually had the bass version shown here a few months ago but I like this guitar better for its fanned pickups, that with the asymetric F-holes make it quite unique.

There are many good pics of it on the eBay page where I found it - it worth having a look. You can also go directly to the excellent framus-vintage.de website, on which - what an excellent idea! - you can learn anything about the whole Framus production since almost ever. Other companies should really do that (Rickenbaker has something similar but not so complete), and I realised how interesting Framus guitars are - or at least have been - and I will be more aware of them now.

Eastwood Guyatone LG-200T

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:42:00 +0000

I've already written here how much I appreciate the work of Eatswood, reissuing guitars from more creative times and places - so plenty of 60s Japanese ones, like this Guyatone. I don't think that there are many other guitars built recently that have this kind of combination of 4 pickups, not to mention its interesting shape.

(Hey Mr Robinson, I say a lot of good about your company, can you please send me an Eastwood Wandre Doris? A Deluxe one, black with a vibrato - thanks).

Gibson Nighthawk 1996

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Three different pickups on a single guitar - or when Gibson is forbidden to be creative by its own customers... This short-lived mid-90s Gibson Nighthawk seems to have been a flop but I don't know why - look at it, these three pickups look so cool and promising of unexplored sonic areas...

So why why do people want the same Les Paul again and again when they have the opportunity to have something different. If the inventors of rock'n'roll would have reacted like this, we would still be listening to calypso, musette, Umpapah, doo-wop and whatever you should be happy to never have heard about...

Aria Pro II Howard Roberts 1977

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:14:00 +0000

You probably noticed that I love hollow/semi-hollow jazz guitars such as this Aria Pro II Howard Roberts (though I would probably stick a screwdriver through the strings and plug it on a fuzzbox with all its knobs on 11).

This Aria is a clone of the custom guitar Howard Roberts designed for Gibson based on the ES-175, but it is not clear if it's a copy from the 'lawsuit era' or one made in the short time when Howard Roberts was endorsed by Aria... But it doesn't have two pickups like the Gibson - only a neck one like the Epiphone version, but still three knobs like the Gibson!

Anyway, I'm not an expert so if you want to know more you can have a look here.

And let's enjoy the beauty and bizarreness of an acoustic flat-top with a florentine cutaway, a sound hole and a humbucker pickup - never seen one like this before!

80s Washburn A20

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:02:00 +0000

I know that Washburn guitars are not always appreciated for their sometimes cheesy looks, but hey, when you take risks, you have the right to fail - it's more difficult than copying again and again 50-year old models - and you can always end up with something challenging if not just really nice...

I like this Washburn A20 and its Explorer look - an Explorer made a little more comfortable it seems... But like for the SG Xtreme in the previous post, I wish I could see this guitar with a nice natural finish - I think that I will proclaim the right for any guitar in the world to look fresh and natural and not like a hooker with glossy lipstick!

Ah, I have to add that the headstock sucks.

Epiphone G-400 Xtreme

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 07:39:00 +0000

Similar process than on the Peavey Mystic, but applied to a SG instead of to a strat, this is a quite rare Epiphone G-400 Xtreme model that I never heard of until 10 minutes ago!

Though I like the idea, I feel that these back horns don't really work here - but it's actually hard to tell because the 'industriel steel scratch plate'™ ;) spoils it completely... I would like to see this guitar with a classic 'worn' finish and see how it feels... Am I too old to appreciate a guitar targeted at teenager gothic wanabees?

Kramer / American Showster 'the Biker'

noreply@blogger.com (Bertram) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:40:00 +0000

No this Kramer / American Showster guitar is not meant to look like an ice pop or a chili pepper like I thought first, but it's inspired by a Harley Davidson motorbike tank - I can't identify all the American icons at first sight but I can tell a cow-boy hat from a Bowler...

Anyway, if you don't have to believe that this guitar shape is cool a priori and if you don't mind about ergonomics, it's a good looking one, and I particularly like the headstock.

Looks like a tongue too...