A Christmas mystery

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I thought I'd end the year on a Chrissy-massy note so I did a search on eBay for "Christmas guitar" to see what I could come up with...

Well, I came up with a Spanish Christmas Mystery™... Almost at the top of the search was this... Six postcards (just four shown here for space as the others just contained more violins, which we all know are boring).

Mystery number one: Why are they described as Christmas cards when they are obviously EASTER CARDS (Pascuas is Easter in Spanish)? Maybe to trap some ignorant Guiri? (in Spanish - a foreigner - Like "Gringo" in Mexican - Just found this... a laughable foreigner that stands out like a sore thumb in Spain... That's me) I just emailed the seller and he answered in perfect Spanish so I'm certain he knows exactly what it says on the cards.

Mystery number two - and this is much more interesting: What on earth is the instrument this angel is playing? It seems to be a four string ukelele or mandolin with a single sided, Fender style headstock! It's certainly fretted. It has a violin size and shape and in pic 3, she's holding it just like a guitar! I've asked to see a better resolution image but the chances are this is as much as we're gonna get. The pictures LOOK pretty old and I'd love to know what the hell this is!

David in Festive Barcelona - Happy Christmas everyone, especially Gavin, for letting me mess around with his very cool blog and Bertram for his singular perspective on music and/or art and all our readers for all their support and contributions - Matt, Dre, Greg, Mike, Albert, Wendell, John - still checking your blog - Arne and all the other regulars. To all a very GASSY new year. PS The Mel-O-bar is now out of customs and when (if) I get back from my winter sojourn in dear old snowed-in Blighty, it should be waiting for me in my office. The only thing then is to find a way to get it into the house with the minimum of fuss so the Missus doesn't notice the collection has grown again - two 1940s lap steel guitars, one very cool Aria acrylic "Jazzmaster" Legend and a Fender FR48 resonator after I said "no more". Did I mention the Peavey Vypyr 30 and Sanpera II controller - also still in the office? What a F***ING beast! A future classic without a doubt. I got it as a practice amp - I had read somewhere that someone said they hadn't got it past one. Past one? I haven't got it past 0.1! It is so, so, so, so loud! And, if that wasn't enough, the range of sounds you can get out of it... OMFG! PLUS... ... ... TOP class effects and sims - I wonder what Santa has for me this year... After this lot, it had better be something really bloody good!

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

Vintage 1960s Klira German hollowbody bass guitar

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A similar shape to the 60s Kent violin bass shown back in 2009. One of the oddities of this Klira bass guitar is its "I'm a violin shape - no I'm not" lower cutaway. Can you call it a cutaway if it's more than the rest of the guitar? More of an add-on really. More than that, it's as if someone took a violin shape and regular guitar shape, cut them in half down the centre and glued two of the halves together (I wonder what happened to the other two halves). The other weird thing is the three plates screwed to front of the body. At least one has "custom" on it so justifying its existence. What the other two plates are for is up for debate. I think we'd all agree - nice sofa!

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

A story from Jim Hevesy

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Jim Hevesy writes:

I was at the petrol station yesterday after my son’s basketball game and this guy starts talking to me. Here is the conversation:

Guy: Hey man….are you a musician?
Me: (I’ve got music stickers on my truck) Yes I am
Guy: Awww Cool! What do you play?
Me: I play Bass, Guitar and a little Banjo
Guy: Aww man are you into bluegrass?
Me: I’ve played some bluegrass, I played in a symphony, I’ve played everything but rap
Guy: Aww that is cool. Hey I betcha don’t see one of these every day...

He then proceeds to open the back of his work truck and get out an old small guitar case. He opens it and here’s what he pulls out:

That’s right! A 1960s Hofner 459 6-string with wammy bar. He said he only paid $500 (375 euro) for it! It was strung up with round wounds and sounded great playing even with no amp and the -2C weather. I finished pumping my gas and we both got in our trucks and left. After I got in my car is when I realized I should have taken a picture with my phone because it was a beauty. My son said “Dad, did that guy used to be a hippy?” I said “no son, he still is a hippy!”

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

Saturn Violin Guitar by Kawai, Teisco or maybe Guyatone - you choose

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After Gavin's post of the Guyatone Saturn, this is my Kawai Saturn Violin shaped guitar which I picked up on eBay about four years ago for the princely sum of £149, which may have also been made by Guyatone. It seems it was made for just one year during 1968 then discontinued. I'm sure it's the same story for many "odd" guitars from this period. I've mentioned this before and it's hard to believe but the guitar industry was in decline at the end of the 60s and there were a lot of novelty instruments produced to try and catch the imagination of buyers. I guess, if they didn't sell, they were discontinued pretty sharply.

The logo is raised but is under the varnish - some kind of raised print, I guess - the one in the CrazyDave video (see below) has no logo so I supposed they were pretty slap-dash with some of the details and may have also made them under a different name for other distributers. Mine is in great condition and has hardly a mark on it. It's all original except I changed the pickups for some NOS ones from eBay. The originals were quite corroded and although they sounded fine, the NOS ones just look that bit better. Like many cheap pick ups from this time, they are quite microphonic but not distractingly so.

They only thing that's suffered over the years is the tremolo arm. The thread has stripped completely and now I use a slightly bigger nut to fill the old hole. Despite being a real cheapie, this guitar has a neck as straight as a die, a great action and even after some pretty strenuous wanging, it stays in tune.

The Presidents of The United States of America (the band not the wikileaks fearing politicians) used (ABUSED or TRASHED to be more accurate) one in their official video for their one and only hit "Lump" . After what they did to it, I guess there's one less Saturn in the world today.

For a slightly more respectful video go and see CrazyDave play his. Not me, the other crazy Dave. Yeah Dave. Crazy man! Yeah!

There are scans of a 1968 catalogue from the Canadian company Eatons (as Gavin mentioned the other day) at http://www.vintaxe.com but you have to pay to see them. I did manage to get access to them a while ago (I guess there site was having problems) and was disappointed to find it didn't include my guitar. Actually I checked them this morning and they didn't include Gavin's find either. I put pics of the covers in the comments so you can get an idea of their overall cheesiness.




By the way, the second picture is the wall in my studio. I am rather fond of violin (or viola to be pedantic) shaped guitars. The Epiphone is new. Compared to the boxy-ness of the Univox it's a little dull but, with tape wound strings and using the neck pickup, it has a satisfying thump and a beefy ooomph that almost gets you into sub bass land. Which is why I wanted it. The Univox was a dog when I got it. I had to ditch the neck as it was seriously warped and the truss rod was broken and I've since replaced it with a NOS Hofner bass neck and extra light wound strings. A VERY different "twangier" sound than the Epiphone.

David in Barcelona

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

Univox Lectra Violin Bass

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The seller of this 1960s Univox Lectra Violin Bass currently listed on eBay tells us that it is a:

"COPY OF THE HOFFNER THAT PAUL McCARTNEY PLAYED IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE BEATLES" (sic)

Looking at this solidbody violin bass, I'd say it was more likely a copy of the Gibson violin bass, and a more accurate copy than Hofner's version. I'm not normally a fan of violin basses and guitars but think this one is quite cool.

G L Wilson

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

Migma Violin Guitar

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I've shown already a bass version of this Migma violin guitar, but not only a violin guitar is a much rarer instrument, but this one has astounding soundholes, in addition to its very cool violin shape, and its crazy pickguard...

And I was thinking, if I had such an instrument (I actually do, but not so special), I'd put it on stage! I'm getting frustrated lately to see and show so many of these vintage guitars, and to know that they are widely exchanged over eBay, but to never hear or see them played. I understand collecting, I do it myself, but guitars are for music, aren't they? So since more and more readers send us photos of their instruments, please show us also that they are used! 

Bertram

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

Nino Ferrer plays a Favino violin bass in 1969

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Nino Ferrer was one of the most interesting pop musician in France in the 60s (you had then some genius in French chanson and many mediocre and very successful followers of English and American pop music). You can see and hear Nino playing his Favino violin bass - the best violin bass I've ever seen I must say, with a much better design that the classic Höfner made famous by Sir Paul (during his German exile, when UK didn't want him and his decadent crew).

Favino was a French luthier mostly making acoustic guitars from the 1940s to the 1970s, who had a few illustrious customers, a.o. Django Reinhardt and Georgers Brassens...

Bertram (from Berlin where it doesn't snow anymore, how could it, it's - 10° C!)

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

Electric 12ers #6: Firstman "violin" electric XII

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Finally in today's look at electric 12-string guitars...

We're all well aware of the Violin Bass, whether it's a Gibson, a Hofner or one of a whole host of copies. Less well known are its guitar counterparts, and - I shouldn't be surprised although I've never seen one before - here we see a 12-string carrying the Firstman brandname. The seller claims it dates back to 1967. It's not a name I am aware of. I'd wager that - once again - it's a Japanese guitar. If you know differently, please let us know!

Thanks again to Jaimie for sending in today's selections! (Please note, I'm not going posting six blog items every day).

G L Wilson

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

DANELECTRO Vintage VIOLIN SHAPE Acoustic Guitar - WOW!!!!

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We do get to see a lot of instruments being hawked under the banner of RARE!!!! on eBay (usually accompanied by WOW!!!) and often referring to a spectacularly bilious Steve Vai-esque paint job, an INCREDIBLE!!!! "C", "D" "U" or "X" neck profile, Kryptonite TONE-MONSTER PUPS, mother of Death-Metal-Toilet-Seat inlays or some such DAMN-GOOD-REASON-IT'S-RARE attribute, but this, as the seller say's is indeed PRETTY RARE!!!!! WOW!!!!!

And, pretty… pretty, to boot. A vintage Danelectro violin shaped f-hole archtop acoustic. And to answer his question. No, I have never seen another like it (except for the teardrop shaped Danelectro acoustic Gavin found about a year ago and another (signed by Steve Winwood and Kris Kristofferson WOW!!!) which appeared in an auction in 2007). Acoustic Danelectros are rare creatures indeed.

It's a cracking guitar (if you like violin/viola shaped guitars and as I own three, I must do) and in great condition. Apparently the original owner was in a cruise ship band (thought he doesn't say whether he took this on board with him). The seller also says that, based on his research (it doesn't say what that entailed or what his source was) it's from the 50's. I won't argue with that because I just don't have a clue. WOW!!! WOW!!!! WOW!!!!

Please excuse all the exclamation marks. I bought a job lot and have to use them up (there was also a bunch of {yellow} italics thrown in for free - and I'm not one to pass up a bargain).

David in Barcelona

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

Migma violin bass

guitarz.blogspot.com

A semi-hollow violin-shaped made in DDR vintage bass, this Migma jewel has everything to be loved (at least by me). On the top on that, the moon crescent sound-holes are beautiful and the guan dao shaped pickguard is terrific.

it's a pity that its eBay seller pretends that it's an exceptional bass. As much I do love this kind of instruments and would be delighted to add it to my collection, as much I know being a Musima bass and guitar player (Migma was a sub-brand of Musima) that they don't have the best sound. They are extremely cool but they are not at the level of the acoustic instruments built at the same time by the same companies - it's a question of culture, electrified pop music wasn't a priority in communist countries! 

On the other hand, I have no idea of how good the 60s Italian guitars were - maybe one should make a comparative test one day!

Anyway, this bass is definitely cool, if every reader of this blog would send me 1€, I would buy it right away!

bertram



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

Home-made violin bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This home-made violin bass is currently being offered for sale on Craigs List. The seller obviously wants to claim that it is an instrument of great vintage and optimistically labels it as being from the 40s or 50s.

Well, seeing as it uses Danelectro parts - witness the dolphin-nosed Danelectro headstock and the lipstick tube pickup - and Danelectro didn't actually come into being until 1954, he can certainly forget about the 1940s. That is just impossible.

A Danelectro expert might be able to date the dolphin-nose headstock design for us, but I actually suspect that this bass was thrown together in the mid 1960s. I say this because of the violin-shaped body. Although originally designed by Gibson, the violin bass was popularised by Paul McCartney of The Beatles - in his case it was a Hofner. The design of the violin bass became iconic and spawned a plethora of copies. The Beatles, of course, were virtually unheard of in America before 1964.

Of course the maker of this home-made bass may not have been inspired by The Beatles and may have arrived at the violin design by an entirely different course, but the odds are stacked against this eventuality.

It doesn't take too much detective work to more accurately date guitars like this. Which is better than making a wild stab in the dark and coming out with "1940s" just because it looks old.

The lesson to be learnt here is not to take the seller's word as gospel. They very often do not know what they are talking about.

Thanks to Emmett who emailed me about this bass.

G L Wilson

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

Vintage one-off violin guitar

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We've all seen guitars and basses styled after violins, but this one-off hand-built violin guitar would appear to use an actual violin body, or at least a very close approximation of one. Notice how because of the diminutive body size the bridge is positioned as far back as it can go while the tailpiece is off the end of the body on an extension (which reminds me of a similar feature on the original Ampeg AUB-1 "scroll" bass).

The headstock design is also very interesting, and features an inverted violin-like scroll in the centre. Someone put a lot of effort into this guitar.

The neck is very short and joins the body at the twelfth fret. In fact, there are ONLY twelve frets in total. If you like playing up at the top of the neck forget it! I guess it wouldn't appeal to many modern players.

Nevertheless it's a fascinating piece and worthy of our attention here at Guitarz.

G L Wilson

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Orfeus Violin Bass

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Last month we looked at an Art Deco finished Orfeus Hebros Bass and now I'd like to present for your viewing pleasure the Bulgarian take on the much imitated violin bass in the shape of this other Orfeus Bass.

Personally I am not usually a particular fan of violin-shaped guitar and basses, but this one I do find more appealing (aesthetically at least, I can't comment on what it might actually sound like). I like the pronounced lower bout, it lends the design an almost sci-fi element. No attempt to replicate a scroll-style headstock has been made, possibly just a stock neck was used, so we have a 4-in-a-line headstock style which further dilutes the violin aspect.

G L Wilson

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60s Kent violin bass

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It's quite difficult to find information about this Kent violin bass - Kent was one of these fake brands in the 60s that were used by several companies to penetrate the american budget guitar market. So the Kent brand was first used for this purpose by Teisco and Guyatone for Japan and Korea made guitars, then by Hagström - that was supposed to be an upgrade of the brand. Anyway, this one is a Teisco who - if I understood well - built a similar model under their own name.

What is remarkable about this hollow-body bass is the bizarre combination of the violin shape with a cutaway - I can't tell myself if I love it or hate it. This particular one is even odder with its beautiful 'blueburst' - I imagine that it was a hit back then in 1967... I found contradictory feedback about the sound - some call it crappy and sans-sustain, some say it sounds like a double-bass on steroids. I'd like to try.

Bertram

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Eko Solid-bodied Violin Bass

I rather like this different take on the now familiar violin bass, this example being from Italy's Eko guitars in the 1960s. The black finish on this solid-bodied bass is not original, but makes for a very attractive instrument. With a 30" scale length, it's a short-scale bass, and no doubt it has that particular 60s-era bass sound. Personally I have a soft spot for short-scale basses - I think it may have been a reaction to all that slapping and popping nonsense that happened in the 1980s - it's had a lasting effect on me!

Hofner Violin Bass selling for £12,995.00

This Hofner Violin Bass has quite a hefty price tag on it, and you'd be correct in thinking there may be a McCartney connection but as a righty you can guess it's not one that he's owned.

However the bass has had its fair share of muso owners, among them Marco Nelson (The Style Council), Damon Minchella (Ocean Colour Scene) and Paul Weller, and it has appeared on quite a few recorded works by each of those artists including Weller's first two solo albums. As well as all this history, the bass has been signed by the world's best known exponent of this style of bass guitar, Sir Paul McCartney himself.

If interested and you've got the cash, snap it up now, because if it doesn't sell on eBay it's going to be auctioned at Christie's.

Thanks to David Brown for bringing this item to my attention.