Harmony Caribbean

guitarz.blogspot.com:
This distinctive and colourful-looking acoustic is a Harmony Caribbean dating from the 1950s.

I can't imagine it would be the best sounding acoustic guitar in the world. The rather bizarre Art Deco-esque metal strips screwed to the top would surely make it a rattley sounding instrument.

The seller freely admits that these guitars are often "softer on the eyes than the ears".

It's probably one for the collectors rather than players.

G L Wilson





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Final Edition BabyBlues 1x10 Unique Plexiglass Cabinet

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I rarely post about amps on this blog (visually they are much less appealing than guitars), but I had to share this particular eBay listing for this Final Edition BabyBlues 1x10 Unique Plexiglass Cabinet with you.

It looks like it would be the perfect companion for my Sanox Sound Creator plexiglass "Strat" (scroll down to the 5th guitar pictured). Apparently, "it is loaded with a rare early 60's British Elac alnico 10 inch speaker and for tubes has one of each of these tubes, a 6L6, a12ax7 and a 5u4." (Sorry, I don't really understand this tube talk, as much as I love the sound of valve amps).

I am also reminded of this photo of 2-string bassist Stig Pedersen from D.A.D. with a bank of plexiglass speaker cabs behind him. Very cool!

G L Wilson

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Shadow violin guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com

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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Celtic Frost plays Ibanez Iceman

guitarz.blogspot.com

Another following to my Ibanez Iceman post. A while ago I found this enjoyable video of former death metal pioneer band Celtic Frost, surprisingly not ridiculous like most metal productions, musically simple, sharp and honest, carrying genuine emotions and expressing real issues - not just busy trying to scare parents to sell to teenagers.

In this video, you can see two Iceman guitars (Icemen?), a white one and a Giger custom, fitting perfectly with the right amount of theatricality, on the right side of the edge. About the sound, I couldn't tell since what you can listen to on computer speakers - and even worse playing a Youtube video -, is anyway so blur that it could be a 100 € made in Indonesia beginner guitar set and sound the same.

bertram

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Unknown bass - any ideas?

guitarz.blogspot.com:
This bass is one that I assembled from parts in 1990 (if I remember correctly). Most of the parts were bought from Brandoni guitars who bought up a lot of old Eko and Vox stock from Italy.

It's a through neck body with multi-laminates as was popular in the 1980s. When I bought the body/neck it was very roughly finished, and hadn't even been routed for the electrics. I sanded it until it was nice and smooth and oil finished it using Ronseal's All In One.

The P and J pickups were selected via a push/pull function on the single volume knob. Unfortunately, this set up didn't let me have the option of both pickups at once. There was no tone control because I don't like them.

I don't recall what the tuners where, but they were good quality and only cost me 50p each because I knew the guy who served me in the music shop!

Anyway, does anyone know what this bass is? I have seen other examples on occasion, but these have looked to have been custom finished instruments too (also bought from Brandoni, perhaps?).

I think it is most likely that it is an Eko, but does anyone know for sure? I'd like to see what the proper finished version of the bass looked like.

By the way, I no longer have this bass. I sold it a few years ago on eBay because I wanted to switch back to playing fretless again.

G L Wilson

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Gretsch Astro Jet

guitarz.blogspot.com

OK, this is not a new topic here, but what if Gibson never reissued the Explorer or the Flying V after their selling failures in the late 50s? The universe would be bleaker, and cosmic entropy would win sooner, since human creativity is the only anti-entropic force (as far as we know)...

So why did Gretsch gave up the Astro-Jet so quickly when it didn't become an instant hit in 1965? The guitar was anyway supposed to be controversial, since it was a clear effort to take distance with the old-school rock'n'roll hollow-bodies that made Gretsch famous - distance at least with the design, since the sound was to keep Gretsch standards! So why not assuming the slow start and give it time?

Simple like a classic, though twisted according to American aesthetics of the time (in Italy this guitar would have been just another one), it could have been one of the few designs that defines this part of modernity embodied by rock music and electric guitars.

You can find a nice review about the Astro Jet on VintageGuitar.com.

Bertram

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

guitarz.blogspot.com

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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