El-gitarrorgel - a hybrid guitar/electric organ from Sweden

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Hi, thanks again for maintaining such a great blog. Here is something you might like from a swedish auction site:

http://www.vend.se/ad.php?83223

Below is a translation, some info is repeated and the first line is a classic, but you get the idea:

This is a unique instrument! It is also the only one of its kind!

It is constructed as a guitar with all the possibilities of an electric organ. The instrument contains the circuit board of an electric organ, which is controlled from the strings and fretboard. Basically the organs "lower/under manual" (not sure what he means here) is replaced with a fretboard and strings.

When a chord is played on the fretboard and strings, a preset rhythm, background and bass line starts. The strings work as they would on a conventional guitar.

An organ keyboard is built into the instrument, with different harmonies.

The construction is a easy to handle electric guitar, with all the possibilities for rhythm, backgrounds and bass lines of an electric organ.

The builder was a musician and telephone electrician, who for years had been thinking about how to build a guitar with backgrounds, just like an electric organ. In the end he built this prototype. Technical drawing is available.

Price: £142 / €165

Kalle Mattssonwww.hijackyourlife.com

Thank you, Kalle. That is, indeed, a classic. Love it. - G L Wilson

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

BC Rich NJ Series Made In Japan electro-acoustic jazz guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

B.C. Rich's NJ Series replaced the B.C. Rico brandname that originally appeared on their Japanese-made instruments and which had been the subject of a lawsuit from the Rico Reed Company. Although the initials NJ stood for "Nagoya, Japan" where the first NJ instruments were built, later Korean-made guitars also received the NJ Series designation.

This B.C. Rich NJ Series electro-acoustic jazzer, reminiscent in some ways of Gibson's Howard Roberts model, is a Japanese-made example which the seller claims was made by the Daion company. (Check here for other Daion guitars that we have looked at previously here on Guitarz). Daion guitars were manufactured from the lates 1970s through to 1984 by the Japanese company Yamaki, so I guess that it was this same company who built these B.C. Rich models rather than Daion specifically.

The guitar features a humbucker pickup at the neck plus a piezo in the bridge, controlled via volume and tone pots for each and a 3-way pickup selector switch all boldy mounted on top of the guitar. The soundhole is a suitably angular shape considering the brand, as is the sharp Florentine cutaway. The heel of the neck is comfort contoured so as to facilitate playing at the top of the neck.

This guitar is currently being offered for same on eBay UK (although the item is actually located in Sweden) with a starting price of £599.99 and a Buy It Now price of £999.99.

G L Wilson

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

Vintage & Rare guitar(s) of the week: Deimel Guitarworks Firemaster

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Luthier Frank Deimel of Deimel Guitarworks based in Bautzen, Berlin-Schöneberg, has been building boutique guitars since 1998 and his customers have included such lumineries as Sonic Youth, Nikki Sudden, Shellac and the John Spencer Blues Explosion.

I particularly like the Deimel Firemaster guitar, a hybrid design which melds together elements of the non-reverse Gibson Firebird and the Fender Jazzmaster.

The Glade Green-finished Firemaster pictured above features two Curtis Novak P90s, one of Deimel's own self-made single Coils in the neck position, and a piezo by the bridge "to collect body vibration". There are various switches to activate series/parallel modes, ON-OFF for each P90, ON/OFF for the piezo, plus a killswitch. It also features a Jazzmaster style vibrato. This guitar is currently being sold via Vintage & Rare and is priced at €2850.

The Burgundy Mist-finished Firemaster pictured below is outfitted with an aluminium pickguard anodized in gold, two P90 pickups and a Duesenberg Tremola. Tuners are Kluson type Gotohs with the Magnum Lock mechanism. The body is made out of american red alder, and the neck is riftsawn hardrock maple plus rosewood fretboard. Also being sold via Vintage & Rare, this guitar is priced at €3400.

G L Wilson

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

Burns/Baldwin Virginian from the late 1960s

guitarz.blogspot.com:

We previously looked at a prototype Virginian from Jim Burns' involvement with Hayman guitars at the beginning of the 1970s, but the design predates that era and was previously issued in the late 1960s when Burns London Ltd had been bought out by Baldwin. This 1960s Burns/Baldwin Virginian is currently being auctioned on eBay, and is another Burns guitar I would dearly like to bid on if I had the available money. Design-wise it's a cross between an acoutic and an electric, and whilst for me such hybrid designs often just do not work, there is something about the Virginian that silently screams its coolness factor at me, in much the same way that Kurt Cobain's Martin D-18E seemed so cool during Nirvana's MTV Unplugged sessions.

I can't help thinking also that this guitar must have been the inspiration behind the later Burns Steer.

G L Wilson

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

Fender PBAC-100 Made In Japan Thinline Acoustic/Electric Fretless Precision Bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Ah, you don't see these too often. It's a relation of the Fender FMT Bass we looked at in January although, obviously, fretless, with a natural finish and a classic Fender P-Bass style headstock. (In fact, this is the bass, I was referring to in the write-up of the HMT bass.) It's a Fender PBAC-100 fretless bass, Made In Japan 1990, and is clearly based on the Precision Bass but given the Thinline treatment. The bridge is an acoustic-styled unit and features an under-saddle piezo pickup, which used in conjunction with the P-Bass pickup allows for a mix of acoustic and electric tones.

I briefly tried one of these years ago and quite liked it. Looking at these photos now I still think it's a nice bass, but those horrible tone-killing black strings would have to go.

Currently being offered for sale with a Buy It Now price of $1,299.99.

G L Wilson

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

Danelectro Convertible baritone/6-string bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's what the seller is describing as the "1st ever Danelectro Convertable Baritone/6 string bass" although, (a) it's actually spelt "Convertible", and (b) how do they know it's the first when anyone with access to the same parts could create the same Frankenstein job?

This hybrid has been put together using 1990s made in Korea EVETS Corporation Dano parts, most of which are pretty interchangable. (For years I had a 56 'U2 that I had assembled from the neck and body of separate guitars. The colours didn't match but I liked it.)

I can't imagine the intonation on that simple floating bridge is brilliant. Those Convertible bridges are just a piece of rosewood with three inserts for height adjustment and a piece of fretwire set into the top!

Anyway, with a Buy It Now price of $875, I think this is another case of optimistic eBayer!

G L Wilson

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

Some hybrid guitar designs are just not meant to be!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

My goodness, take a look at this... Flycaster... Telling V? Call it what you will, just because something is possible, doesn't mean that it should happen. As Guitarz reader Al in Crosby TX USA points out, even the eBay seller describes it as an abomination.

This Telecaster/Flying V hybrid comes from Indy Custom (The Indiana Guitar Company - not to be confused with Indie Guitars) and is one of a limited edition of 100 - even that sounds like pure optimism to me!

G L Wilson

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

Burns/Hayman prototype hybrid guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Am I the only one who thinks that modern electro acoustics and and hybrid guitars look just too sterile? I really never did like this business of hiding away all the gubbins. "Oh, you can't have any visible pickups or control knobs, that'll spoil the illusion of this being an acoustic guitar." Huh! As if those horrible little slider controls they stick on the rim of an electro acoustic are any kind of replacement!

I've always liked acoustics that have obviously been electrified with pickups and control knobs on show for all to see. They can have a rather Heath Robinson appeal sometimes (Oh, if only Heath Robinson had designed a guitar!), but to me they seem all the more honest, as if to say, "Yes, this is an acoustic but it's hardly unplugged!"

Think John Lennon with his Gibson J-160E, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain playing supposedly "unplugged" with a Martin D-18E, or John Martyn with a Martin guitar with pickups obviously gaffer-taped to the guitar creating loops on an Echoplex machine (as if an acoustic could do that without all the electrickery!).

So... the above pictured one-off Burns/Hayman prototype is a guitar that I find mightily appealing. It's an acoustic/electric hybrid guitar that proudly displays its electric components for all to see. I like the electric style compensated bridge set into an acoustic style "moustache" - that's a nice touch. Actually, I doubt that acoustically this guitar is very loud at all - looking at the picture of the back of the guitar (I'll put some more photos in the comments) it does appear to have a very shallow body. It's like they took the Burns Steer guitar, and made it a little bit more acoustic-y.

I don't really have much info on this guitar other than what the eBay seller tells us (hey, it is a rarity), so let's quote from the listing:

Rare Virginian hybrid guitar designed by Barry Gibson and Keith West of Burns London Ltd. featuring:

• Burns Rezo-Matik pick-ups
• Solid Spruce Top
• Rosewood back and sides
• Burns badged Gotoh tuners
• Burns Tortoiseshell bridge section

A real collectors piece for Burns/Hayman fans 1 only made as this model was never put into production. The guitar was made over 12 years ago in the U.K. and has been sitting in the Burns warehouse since then, untouched.

I'm actually surprised it's as recent as that; it looks older. Anyway, it has a starting price of £249 on it and a But It Now price of £850.

G L Wilson

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

Ibanez Artstar AE-200

guitarz.blogspot.com

This Ibanez Artstar AE-200 is quite an intriguing guitar, about which I couldn't find much information - feel free to contribute if you know more... The acoustic/electric hybrid guitars are not exceptional nowadays but this one is from 1988! It has a piezo pickup under the bridge and a mini-humbucker in neck position, and you can balance the pickups from full bucky for a jazz tone to just acoustic with the piezo. I have no confirmation for this but the slits under the strings next to the bridge seem to be sound holes - strangely located then because we are more used to semi-hollow guitars with a central beam prolonging the neck... Definitely would like to know more - it's very interesting... 

Bertram

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