Superb Vintage 66 Gibson ES175 (Florentine cut!)

A beautiful vintage 1966 Gibson ES175 is up for grabs on eBay. Reserve has not been met yet (at USD1,525 as of writing) but so far it is a decent price.


I especially love the color of this guitar. The sunburst has been extremely well done, to my taste. The trapeze tailpiece adds a lot of charm too. And I really like the florentine cutaway - a shape that has grown on me since I posted about the Gibson limited run series Les Paul florentine.

Other characteristics of the ES-175 which sets it apart (and make it a bit better / more stylish than the ES-335 IMO) are:

• The pickup switch's positioned at the top, like a Les Paul
• The jack output positioned on the side at the bottom (like a LP) not on the front
• The parallelogram inlays

This is a '66 model, so featuring two humbuckers. When the ES 175 first launched, in 1949, it had only one single-coil P-90. Starting in 53, it featured two P90's (see some more on eBay). And it's in 1957 that Gibson switched the 175 to a 2-humbucker configuration, like the model at hand.

It probably makes sense to bid on this one up to $3,500 since it is in good condition and the Custom Shop ES175 re-issue sells north of $3,800. Funnily, the denomination 175 came from the original price tag of the first ES, which was $175.00.

Iconic Fender Crashocaster on eBay -own one like Clapton!

Whao!

The description says it all:
Fender Master Built Crash Stratocaster Electric Guitar
Plus A Pro Junior Amp
Along With A One Of A Kind Canvas Painting
By World Famous Artist Crash

It's all in the pic on the left. Look!


In short: renowned Grafiti artist Crash painted a few Stratocasters for Eric Clapton in the 90's which prompted a custom shop limited series. And further, this integrated piece consisting of a canvas, an amp and most importantly to us: a masterbuilt custom shop strat'. The term Crashocaster was apparently coined by Clapton's guitar tech, Lee Dickson. (see below for more background)

Says the posting: "This is a unique guitar commissioned for a special project for a National Association of Music Manufacturers (NAMM) Festival. The artist combined for the first time canvas art and guitar and amp art and was thrilled with the results. It became one of his coolest and most favored pieces."

Hefty price tag on this Fender Masterbuilt Stratocaster: Buy it now at $24,000. But this is your chance to get a pretty unique piece of contemporary art and a guitar like Eric Clapton!

Although the whole piece would make the coolest guitar wall ever, this particular design on the guitar doesn't work for me. So, maybe you want to order your own direct from the artist (see this site: Crashocasters.com).
Or get a Fender CS Eric Clapton Strat' and a few spray cans and get creative!

My favorite Crashocaster designed for Clapton is the one he plays below. I think he used that one for the show in honor of his late friend Beatles George Harrison. He sure played it for the Queen Golden Jubilee (video).



If you like crazy designs on a Strat', take a look at the Fender Splatter!

Some background on John "Crash" Matos and his Fender design work through Wikipedia:

Crash is a famous graffiti artist. As early as 13, John Matos was spray painting New York City trains, the full image art as opposed to simpler tagging soon transferred to silk screened canvas. He was first noticed through his murals on subway cars and dilapidated buildings,
he is now regarded as a pioneer of the Graffiti art movement. His work is said to convey a "visual link between street life and established society". By the 1980s Matos had exhibits across the United States and abroad. He was given his first gallery showing by Sidney Janis at the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1983.

In 1996, Crash painted an Eric Clapton Signature Stratocaster and gave it to the artist as a gift. Clapton went on to use the specially designed guitar through his 2001 tour and later appeared with another. In total Crash has created 5 guitars for Clapton, though only three of them have made public appearances. One of Clapton's "Crashocasters" (nicknamed by Eric's guitar tech, Lee Dickson) auctioned for $321,100(USD) b y the name of "Crash-3" and was used extensively during the first Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2004. Soon after Fender Musical Instruments commissioned the creation of 50 such graffiti designed guitars from Crash and named the line "Crashocasters."

1960's Guild Starfire - cool vintage semi-hollow guitars

UPDATE: the auctions for the guitars described below have now closed. But browse more vintage Guild Starfire on eBay now!


And then I stumbled upon two nice 60's vintage Guild Starfire guitars on eBay.

Rewind. I was looking around for guitars a bit different tonight. And so I went on eBay and decided to stay away from my usual searches for Gibson and Fender vintage - no, they don't have the exclusivity for iconic guitars. So I typed Guild, which to me is like the sure thing to bring hidden jewels.

And so there I ended up staring at this 1961 Guild Starfire III and this 66-67 Guild Starfire V (see now on sell on eBay).

The is a florentine single cutaway. It is a beauty in its red finish (esp. in its blue case). I think it has two P90's (feel free to comment below). It has seen better days (a few serious repairs: headstock and jack output). It has no pickguard. Starfire III's are definitevely iconic: it was Jerry Garcia's main guitar on the first Grateful Dead record.

The is a double cutaway in the vein of an ES335 with some unique variations: the futuristic/cubist pickguard shape, the jack output on the side not the face of the guitar, position of the switches. This one has 2 humbuckers for sure by the look of it. Blues legend Lightnin' Hopkins was playing one when going electric. So much for claim to iconic guitar status!

These two Starfire's come in red (apparently likely refinishes), with bigsby-type tailpiece.

While both are probably not a collector's dream because of the repairs, refinishes and changes (bigsby tremolo, grover tuners), they are probably very nice players. These are 40-year old guitars of good craftmanship so I have no doubt that these Starfire would deliver a nice vintage tone with that 60's vibe (and maybe with some tune up).

Pricing is reasonable in the $1,200-1,600 range. And hurry up if you want to bid on those. Auctions close in 1 hour for the III and 2 days for the V at time of posting. (UPDATE: these have now closed)

More Guild Starfire guitars currently on auction below:

Now for something different: Batson Guitars!

I just discovered Batson Guitars thanks to them following me on Twitter.

They have a very nice website which reflects their love and ingenuity when it comes to guitar building. I especially liked the part about the woods.

Batson Guitars are acoustics and I know more about electric guitars as you might have figured from previous posts.That being said, I really liked some innovations like the soundport which is the whole moved to the side of the guitar on the ground that "since the soundboard of a guitar is like the head on a drum, why would you cut a hole in it?".

Another innovation is the Shortail tailpiece which is located on the edge of the body with the same spirit of preserving the movement, vibrations and resonance.

I have not been able to test one of those but I definitely will if I am near one of their distributors (a selected few so far). These custom guitars start around $5,000. Make sure to check out their site and their guitars if given the chance (and let me know!).

Also, more nice Batson guitars photos here (source of pic above).

UPDATE: the guys at Batson just let me know that they started a demo program (for $300 they send you a demo guitar to try out for 3 days) and some more Batson guitars photos.

Anvil is the new Spinal Tap - only real!

I think this thing is becoming a viral phenomenon but it seems so great: 80's metal band Anvil is featured in a documentary that follows them being reunited and touring.

The parallel with the fake "rockumentary" on Spinal Tap is evident but it is a true story -at least as far as modern documentaries go.

I'll have to look into their gear but from the "Story of Anvil" trailer it seems Anvil's axemen are fond of Flying-V's (original or inspired?) like most metal players of that era - Randy Rhodes comes to mind. I like the V - only not in lipstick red! :)

Anyway, check it out. Now waiting for the movie release and the Guitar Hero: Anvil version.

American Idol - Kris Allen's Gibson Hummingbird

I followed the final of "Idol" last week (as I mentioned here and here) and I really liked the Gibson Hummingbird that winner Kris Allen was playing.

Its heritage cherry sunburst finish looked all beautiful and natural under the spotlights. Clearly it was blending and reinforcing Kris' low key performance, a stark contrast to Adam Lambert's over-the-top show with Kiss and Gene Simmons' axe bass.

It's not often I write about acoustic guitars here but this is a nice opportunity to mention the Hummingbird.

Sure. These don't come cheap. USD2,299 new from Guitar Center: Gibson Hummingbird Artist Acoustic-Electric Guitar Heritage Cherry

You can try your luck on eBay. See some fresh listings below:

American Idol 8 - Santana is good PR for PRS (part II)

Yesterday, I started a short series of posts on guitars/guitarists guest starring on American Idol Season 8, following the final. Part I is here. Now to part II.

Carlos Santana was invited to play some of his most well known melodies with all this season's contestants dancing and singing around (very kindergarten...). He was of course playing his Paul Reed Smith signature model which is a nice guitar but...I am so not into PRS guitars. I have actually never played one. Probably my loss but I have never been drawn to these when visiting guitar shops.

Anyway, see Santana playing Idol, I actually visited the PRS Guitars site FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE. Quite a feat! I probably go once a day to the Gibson site (for this blog but also because I receive their newsletter) and at least once a week to the Fender site (they don't do such a good job at adding content and sending interesting emails).

So, there I was on the PRS site, browsing their news, when I noticed this awesome guitar which really caught my eye! Announcing the Release of New Metallic Finishes Featuring DuPont Hot Hues™, there is the PRS Starla in “Catalina Dream” metallic blue.

What a stunner! With its modern retro / 50's blue, its white pickguard, its Bigsby tremolo, and it's big yet sophisticated single-cutaway body with a quite original carved top!


Now, I want one. It might be a while before I get one though since current Paul Reed Smith Starla models sell new for $2,000 and up. Maybe I'll go and try one this week end since there are coupons and bargains out there.

So, well done Santana and PRS for being on Idol!