Dusty Guitars online museum

guitarz.blogspot.com

I didn't post here for ages (if you want to know why, please check my own blog) so instead of one cool guitar, I propose you a whole bunch, and more, that you can discover on French e-museum Dusty Guitars. The guy who gathered these jewels has a good and personal taste, never falling for easy or glitter, and I extracted a few ones:  from left to right, a 1967 Kent 820 'Lady', a 1972 Gibson SG200 (we showed one a few months ago, this one is in a much better state and had some pickup upgrade), an extremely cool 1959 Burns bass prototype and a bizarrely finished archtop acoustic Alosa (a 1950s German brand, this model I never saw before). To see more, click on the link and enjoy!

Bertram

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

Mandolin beauties galore from Framus

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Martin Niggemann writes:

I just stumbled upon a recent addition to the Framus vintage archives you might be interested in: the mandolin section. Apparently they made a couple of high-end electric/acoustic mandolins that were modelled on their famous jazz and electric guitars, e.g. the Black Rose, Television/Hollywood, etc., but with a twist!

I never came across any of these on eBay, so I suppose they are quite rare.

Cheers from Germany,
Martin

Thanks for that, Martin. I never knew that these existed either. I note also that there are 10-string and 12-string mandolins (each with 4 courses of strings in pairs and/or triples) as well as the more familiar 8-strings. I really like the solid-body electric - it's a much more pleasing shape than the more usual Fender Mandocaster.

G L Wilson

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

Ibanez X-ING IMG2010

guitarz.blogspot.com

I could pretend to write something about this Ibanez X-ING IMG2010 but it would just be a simplification or a copy-paste of what you will find here and here - if you're in guitar synths and MIDI controllers, it's really worth a look! 

Otherwise just enjoy - or try to enjoy - this very 80s design, that was the last period when people still believed that electric guitar can evolve (and should have computer names)...

bertram

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

Atlas of Plucked Instruments

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Yesterday, when trying to find some information on the 14-string Philippine Bandurria, I found this wonderful resource, the Atlas of Plucked Instruments. I ended up spending quite a few hours last night looking through its pages.

Wow, I wish I'd had access to this website when I was writing the 500 Guitars book. The Atlas is a labour of love by Dutchman and musician Henry De Bruin who, it seems, has travelled the world and amassed an impressive collection of stringed musical instruments along the way.

The Atlas covers guitars, mandolins, banjos, ukuleles, citterns, lutes, dulcimers, sitars and all the variants that you can think of from around the world - plus many others that you never knew existed!

I'm happy to report that the author bends the rules slightly every now and again, and related stringed instruments that aren't strictly speaking plucked as such have entries (e.g. the Indian tampura and the original tapping instrument, the Chapman Stick).

It's a fascinating website and one that I would recommend to all interested in guitars and related instruments. But be warned, you might find yourself spending a lot of time there.

G L Wilson

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

An Interview with Vintage Guitar Restorer and Historian Richard Johnston

guitarz.blogspot.com:

If you've ever wondered about the history of the guitar, how the instrument first gained popularity and where the likes of the Hawaiian guitar, mandolin and ukulele all fit into the picture, then you could do a lot worse than to read this Interview with Vintage Guitar Restorer and Historian Richard Johnston courtesy of Collector's Weekly. Absolutely facinating stuff.

G L Wilson

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Aria Pro II Urchin U70

guitarz.blogspot.com

On the post about the Vigier Marilyn, a comment accurately pointed its ressemblance with the Aria Urchin, a guitar that I didn't know, so I googled it and here it is, and indeed they belong to the same family (I even prefer this one, a little bit more psychedelic than metal, just imagine it in glitter purple finish). Can't tell which one came first but they are both early 80s and sometimes ideas are just in the air...

This reminded me than when I got my first guitar kfgwx years ago, Aria Pro II were everywhere and it was considered a quite serious brand at a time Japanese guitars were really looked down at. There was also pedals and stuff and I still use the Aria power supplies I bought then, probably the most vintage parts of my material, and still valiant! But now I had to check if the company still exists (it does) because I never hear about them any more...

Anyway, here is a German website about Matsumoku guitars (Aria, Hondo, Westone...) and other pointy babes, no English though but many pictures...

Bertram



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1970 Ampeg Dan Armstrong

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This plexiglass body Ampeg Dan Amstrong guitar from 1970 is a classic that most guitar lovers already know, but I  thought that these unglamourized pictures from eBay can allow a more accurate look at it - and it's always a pleasure... 

And if you want to know more, have a look at danarmstrong.org.

bertram

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Guitarz blog featured in Guitar Edge

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Those jolly decent chaps and chapesses over at Guitar Edge magazine have just published a favourable review of Guitarz blog in the Digital Edge column in their latest edtion, cover-dated March 2010.

You can read a digital version here.

G L Wilson

Bartoli!

guitarz.blogspot.com

To celebrate this brand new year of the tiger, what's better than a glittery Italian vintage guitar like this cool Bartoli... So, as you can see, it's glittery, it's Italian, and, er... I don't know anything more about it!

But I can tell you where I found it, and there's much more where it comes from! Have a look at GuitareCollection.com, a French website particularly ugly but with many Italian vintage treasures, including the biggest collection of Wandre guitars I ever saw (and we love Wandre here!)

Bertram



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60s Maton Big Ben Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com

I discovered recently a cool guitar website - for some reason another one from Oz (it seems that down there to is the right place where to combine guitar passion and Internet).

Being Australian, Guitarnerd released a few interesting posts about vintage Maton Guitars, the historical Australian guitar company (I was actually trying to know more about the guitar Josh Homme played with Them Crooked Vultures on a cool concert on French TV (you'll remember that I presented here his other favorite guitar, the BelAire MotorAve)).

The last post of Guitarnerd from which I borrowed this picture is about he Big Ben bass, that is one of the coolest thing I ever saw! I won't copy this post, so the best is that you go there and read it by yourselves...

bertram

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Billy Boy guitars

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When surfing the Web I like to discover small guitar companies - I actually have in mind to start a new blog about these companies, for those who are bored to death with the endless reproduction of the same Fender / Gibson 4 models... I'm too busy now for an extra blog but I'll think of it seriously for 2010...

Anyway, browsing for what's going on in  the field of Italian guitars (you remember that Italy is providing regularly amazing vintage guitars for this blog), I just discovered the Billy Boy "brand" - well I think that the company is just one guy! Billy Boy guitars don't have a proper website but get along quite well with a MySpace - if you're interested, go there and check the many pictures presenting his different models.

Billy Boy has just three guitar models, the solid body that you can see on the picture, a semi-hollow and a Jumbo model - there are also some basses. His trade mark is the cartoonish skull bridge that exists also with a trem (if you don't like it, you can also ask for another bridge). Since his production rate is not high enough to produce stock guitars, most of Billy Boy's are one-offs, not for the shape, but for the pickups and knobs combinations. The picture I chose shows guitars with two humbuckers + one central lipstick and they are already slightly different. If you check other guitars on the Billy Boy MySpace, you'll find quite radical pickup combinations that I'd be embarrassed to describe here!

bertram


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Alison Mosshart plays white Gretsch Bo Diddley

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I didn't like Gretsch's Bo Diddley rectangular guitar so much, until I saw it in snow white in the hands of graceful Alison Mosshart fronting the Dead Weather. I know that this all white Gretsch's guitars band is some kind of marketing hype, combined with Jack White's well applied obsession with colour, and that Mr White himself is evil since he made some fancy duo for a Hollywoodian movie, but they are still quite beautiful guitars (including of course the white Jupiter Thunderbird that White uses on other songs, and that stands ostentatiously next to the drums), and I do enjoy the music (though I prefer the rawer music of The Kills).

And it's so cool to have such a guitar to play just one note, uh!

There is a nice live video of the Dead Weather to watch on From the Basement.

Bertram

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Shadow violin guitar

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You remember the German jazz guitars website? Well now you have the opportunity - if you have a few grands to spare - to buy one of the coolest guitar ever, that is extensively described on this site: the Shadow violin guitar is on sale on eBay!

I take the opportunity to give two links that are in the comments of the Jazzgitarren post, for those interested in continental European guitars: schlaggitarren.de & euroguitars.co.uk

bertram

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Yamaha's coolest guitar designs : SGV & SG-2C

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Another extremely lovable Japanese guitar is the Yamaha SGV-300 (the blue one). It's usually credited as a surf guitar, but if I'd play one (when I play one, soon enough I hope), my music would have nothing to do with surf music - I hardly know what surf music is, and the little I know comes from Tarentino's soundtracks - and again I don't understand why a specific guitar design should influence the style of music one would play on it! Anyway, when plugged in a couple of fuzzboxes and a Metal Zone, any guitar is suitable for extreme noise.

Couldn't resist to show its bizarre cousin the Yamaha SG-2C, also from the late 60s, not so sexy and sharp, but still an interesting design - that actually works better on the bass model (SB-2C). The SGV and the SG-2C share this great headstock, both elegant and ergonomic - I'm always surprised that it didn't have a bigger legacy...

Contrarily to the SGV, this guitar was never reissued and is not so easily found, I was happy to find this great Japanese webpage that show an incredible collection of vintage guitars, a. o. several models of Tokai Hummingbirds (that answers my interrogation about the upside-down Hummingbird, actually a regular model).

And since I talk about websites, I advise you to have a look at the Guitar Garage, a blog about guitar repair and refinish, with not only nice pictures of vintage models but their whole rejuvenating process extensively documented, very interesting indeed, it's worth taking the time to explore it all.

Bertram

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John Backlund Design

guitarz.blogspot.com

I've noticed John Backlund Design's guitars a while ago, but I discovered only recently that the very few guitars that were actually buit - such as the JBD100 down there - are just the visible part of an iceberg of design research. Have a look at J. Backlund online portfolio and enjoy his refreshing 'retro-futurist' aesthetic - of which you can see a few samples on the left.

It doesn't seem that these guitars are a big success - such sophisticated American hand-built guitars are not affordable for the average player -, and it's a pity since I think that, if widely spread, these guitars could change the curse of guitar design and take it of its current track if dullness and easiness.

Bertram

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Silvertone Blue Kentucky

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Fancy paint on guitars is no news, this Silvertone Blue Kentucky model was issued in 1955, you can imagine it in the hands of some operette cowboy all dressed in white and blue to fit together with the guitar (it was before Village People definitely twisted American macho self-consciousness). Anyway, acoustic archtops are way cool, it's a pity that they almost completely disappeared, vintage cultists should do something about this!

Silvertone's budget but appreciated guitars have been produced by several companies in the 60s, this one is a Kay product, so I take the opportunity to mention the King of Kays website, that is not only about Kay - though there is an important information there, that is that Kay claims to be the actual inventors of the electric guitar (to be added to the list) -, but also presents a nice collection of Japanese and European vintage guitars.

And even better, you'll find there a series of videos of some of these old ladys being played - that is not so often that they can be more than mere images. The demonstrator is not Steve Vai but he has heart - and guts!

Bertram


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Musima Eterna on Soviet Guitars

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Another guitar that is just a picture and no sound (until I finally manage to get one and post a track). But I can't imagine that someone would build such a beautiful and sophisticated machine if not to provide a good music instrument!

But this post is not only about the guitar itself, but about the website where I found it - sovietguitars.com on which you can see a superb series of pictures of it. It was hard not to hack their whole Musima Eterna page and show most of these pictures, so you must go there and check particularly the trem and the bridge.

DDR is often associated with rough and depressive design, but Musima guitars prove how untrue this is!

BTW, the Soviet Guitars website is in Russian so most of readers will have to navigate blind, but that's worth, and you will see some nice Jolana, Ural and this kind of stuff, all beautifully photographed.

Bertram

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Jazzgitarren website

I found lately an amazing Japanese website about German vintage guitars, Jazzgitarren, and it's absolutely baffling. A complete unknown part of modern guitar history is suddenly revealed to me.

So far I just believed (more or less) in the widely accepted but limited view of electric guitar history - Gibson invented the archtop mandolin then guitar then added pickups then made the semi-hollow then the Les Paul solid body. And then Fender found out how to make a guitar from a plank, and then the Japaneses started to copy American guitars and the Italians had a burst of creativity (this I still have to understand how and why)...

But all these German guitars were completely out of the picture, and they are so beautiful, so creative that I can't understand how I never heard of them before - though I've been curious about European vintage guitars for a while.

Anyway, I'm happy to share this discovery here. The Jazzgitarren website shows the early production (50s, 60s) of most famous German brands such as Höfner, Framus, Hoyer or Dynacord, and many more, both from BRD and DDR. I extracted a few pictures of of these guitars - left to right and up to down: Musima Record, Neubauer Thinline, Hoyer Bianka, Hopf Explorer Standard, Shadow Violin Guitar, Höfner 175. Your can really spend a few hours on this site, believe me!

There is something similar for Italian vintage guitars, the quite famous fetishguitars.com.

60s Framus 5/119-54 Television

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.

bertram

80s Klira

Sorry for the low quality and the small size of this picture, but I had to show you this very special 1980s Klira! A good compromise between minimal and ergonomic - even though Klira guitars have a terrible reputation for their sound...

Couldn't find more info about this one, but I can still remind you some valuable links for those curious about this kind of alternative guitars from another time/space continuum - junkguitars.com, vintageaudioberlin.de, lordbizarre.com and cheesyguitars.com that I already mentioned a couple of times...

bertram