1970s vintage British-built Ned Callan bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Peter Cook developed the Ned Callan range in the 1970s, guitars being initially handcrafted by Cook himself from his small workshop in London's Notting Hill, and later for Shaftesbury with Shergold Guitars being commisioned to make Ned Callan guitars as designed by Peter. Shergold produced both the "Cody" and "Hombre" models under this arrangement and these odd-looking guitars earned themselves the nickname "Nobbly Neds".

This Ned Callan bass is, I'm guessing because of the lack of the Shaftesbury name on the headstock, one of Peter Cook's earlier hand-built instruments, which seems to take its cues from the early Gibson EB-0 designs.

This rare piece of British guitar-making history is currently being auctioned on eBay UK with a starting bid of £150 (and with no bids currently as I type this), although I would warn prospective buyers that the lacquer is very cracked which could present the buyer with a dilemma: to leave it as it is so that it is as original as possible, or to refinish it?

Peter Cook is still in the guitar business, but these days he sells them via Peter Cook's Guitar World rather than making them himself.

As as aside, the Shaftesbury name was also used by Rosetti Music as a brandname on various imported guitars from Japan and Korea.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Hayman 4040 bass from 1973

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's another one for the lefties. It's a Hayman 4040 bass, built in London by Jack Golder and Norman Houlder of Shergold Woodcrafts Limited (established 1967). The Hayman brand name was applied to instruments distributed by Dallas Arbiter until termination of the contract in 1975. From 1975 to 1982 their guitars and basses appeared under their own Shergold brand.

G L Wilson

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

double-neck 12/8 Shergold Modulator

guitarz.blogspot.com

This is the double-neck Shergold Modulator inspired by Mike Rutherford's custom model. Of course it doesn't have its characteristic splitting/recombining system (if I understand well, Rutherford claimed Shergold's exclusivity for this innovation, and I don't think that there's been any other builder that made a similar guitar) but it has the typical 12-string guitar neck on top and an quite unusual 8-string bass neck (Rutherford has been Genesis's bassist and rhythm guitarist behind Anthony Phillips then Steve Hackett before becoming the front guitarist, that had him develop a special style requiring a special instrument), plus the Modulator long upper horn that makes it look much better than the single neck (what a long sentence, and all these brackets!) .

If you want to know more about Shergold guitars, you can have a look at the most exhaustive website about them or wait a few weeks to read GL Wilson 's '500 guitars' book!

bertram

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70s Shergold Modulator 3

guitarz.blogspot.com

This is a Shergold Modulator 3 - that I first noticed because of its square knob plate, the kind of things that I love in a guitar (the general shape is not so exciting)!

Then I deepened a little bit the subject and I discovered that the square knob plate actually allows to interchange the electronics of the Modulator series - there are 6 versions -, and that Shergold was a kind of spin-off of Burns - actually a company that provided woodwork to Burns and Hayman and other British brands before making their own guitars in 1975, first from left over material.

Shergold's guitars and basses have been used by Joy Division / New Order musicians, and Genesis's Mike Rutherford played a famous double neck 4/12 custom guitar that could be reassembled in different combinations of basses and guitars... - I'll come back on Shergold double-necks in a following post.

bertram

NB: There are a lot of blogs STEALING content and bandwidth. If you read this anywhere else but on guitarz.blogspot.com then you are reading a blog that STEALS content. Please support original bloggers!

70s Hayman 30 30

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.

bertram