1960s Vox Phantom VI Special with built-in special effects

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Guitarz reader Andrew K writes:

Okay, what we have here is the Vox Phantom VI Special with the onboard effects. This was the full, top-of-the-line, Vox Effects guitar. While the Starstream and other hollowbodies contained the smaller 3 effect unit the special contains ALL the effects. And I do mean all. Reliability notwithstanding these were truly special instruments, they were just about the only special FX guitar ever built that was fully analogue and actually functioned properly, and to top it off they were dead awesome and dead sexy. They are not as specialised as the guitarorgan or as standard as the Starsteam and other hollowbodies, they stand alone and thanks to the fact the company was circling the drain, there are relatively few of them in good nick. The fact they kept breaking may have counted against them in the long run.

And, Ian Curtis played one in Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" video. Enough has been said, but still I will say more.

I am now enclosing an interview done with Bernard Sumner for the excellent book by Pat Graham called Instrument. The instrument being discussed was the self-same Vox Phantom VI Special.

Ian really liked this guitar. The Phantom had tons of effects built into it, as an added bonus. It had a pause unit, and a thing called the 'replat'. when we got the guitar, half the effects didn't work, and we were thinking "what the hell is the replat?" We got the guitar repaired, and it turned out that 'replat' was actually repeat - it was just a misprint. The guitar has a battery in it, and if you press the buttons in the wrong combination it will go into the self-oscillate mode and start to make this strange twittering sound that Ian liked very much. It is a pretty wacky guitar.

Ian didn't' really want to play guitar, but for some reason we wanted him to play it. I can't remember the reason now. It sounded like some of the thinner guitars on the Velvet Underground tracks, clean and jangly. I think Ian used to only play on 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'... no I'm wrong, there was another track too. Maybe, 'Heart and Soul'? I do remember Ian used to play only one chord, which was D. We showed him how to play D and we wrote a song. I wonder if that's why we wrote 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', you could drone a D through it. I think he played it live because I was playing keyboards. On the record, I played guitar, a twelve-string Eko (misspelt 'echo') an Italian guitar that sounded pretty good.

To pick it out, I think we just went to a record shop and said, that one looks cool, get that one and he said, yeah, I like that. I kept the guitar after he died, kept it under my bed in a case and then gave it back to his daughter when she came of age.

We did use it on a couple of New Order recordings. The one I remember is 'Everything's Gone Green'. On the rhythm guitar part on that song, you can hear this guitar. It just plays the D chord. That's a joke...

-Bernard Sumner.

If all of that is not reason enough for a feature, then I have absolutely no clue what is enough justification.

Do as you will.

Andrew K

P.S. if you read the description, It has a neck made by a furniture manufacturer. Quirky enough?

Currently being auctioned on eBay UK with bidding currently at £1,500 and three days left to run at the time of writing



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Frank Hartung Frost Omega one-off

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It happens often that luthiers, to prove their unbridled creativity compared to established guitars companies, over-design their guitars, with contoured outlines, exotic woods, wacky finishes and technical gadgets. But they are never as good as when their creativity express itself through sobriety, like in the case of this Frank Hartung one-off. 

Everything stands in just one line, then one pickup, one knob, and a cool 2+4 headstock (I love 2+4 headstock, so Teisco), that's it!

Bertram D

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Bizarre EMG-equipped headless metal guitar on eBay in Germany

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Will saw this bizarre headless metal guitar on eBay.de (the German eBay site) and has kindly translated the listing for us:

Handmade Metal Guitar Bizarre and Cool!

The ultimate metal guitar! This Metal Guitar was handmade by my colleague, and is a real 'Unikat!' Made of Steel, Brass, Iron & Aluminum. All parts, including the bridge, battery compartment were hand made. Only the pickups, Knobs, tuners, electrical wiring, output jack and a couple of screws were purchased. Very impressive. Comes with Zak Wylde EMG 81 & 85 pickups. 2 volume controls blend the imput of the pickups. Weighs 17.5 pounds. Bizarre & Cool Require a very thick leather strap while playing. Absolute eye-catcher and may be of interest to collectors. Guitar sold "as is." We're always open to offers.

He goes on to add that:

At 17.5 lbs., this is the sort of plank that would make Les Paul players stop whining about how heavy their guitars become after a short time playing them. Check out the frets on this monster. Could they be any fatter?

Remember, it is both bizarre AND cool!

Those frets remind me of the now legendary Gittler guitar - but of course that didn't have the fingerboard.

Unfortunately - for those of you who might have wanted to bid - the listing has now ended. Could this guitar really have sold for as little as €141,50? I would have thought it was worth more than that in scrap metal value alone?

G L Wilson

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Gretsch Synchromatic Jr. G3967 Historic Series

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Gretsch guitars are usually associated with cool super classic outlines, but the rare Gretsch Synchromatic Jr. G3967 really stands out of the lot, with its claw-like florentine cutaway, thin waistline, cat's eye sound-holes and gold finish!

Reviews say that it has its own specific sound with its floating mini-humbucker creating an almost acoustic quality than people often associate with some kind of jazz, but of course you can play any kind of music with any kind of sound!

It's exactly the kind of guitar I love, a classic base with a twist - well this one has more than one!

Bertram D

PS. exceptionally I take the opportunity of this post to invite you to pay a visit to my other blog, where I posted my first pedal review - for the Inductor Guitars Mellifluous Pussy MP-1. 

I enjoyed making this review, and I plan to do more, feel free to leave comments! 

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1980s ESP Hybrid I Telecaster/Stratocaster crossbreed guitar in shell pink

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This ESP Hybrid I guitar from the 1980s is a Strat/Tele hybrid. It's essentially Tele parts on a Strat body, plus a Strat-like tremolo with a David Gilmore-sized arm. (Not that Gilmore is short, I'm talking about his preference for diminutive tremolo arms). Anyway, it's a lot nicer aesthetically than those other Strat/Tele hybrids that feature Strat parts on a Tele-style body, and which unfortunately look like someone has taken a saw to a Stratocaster.

As an 80s Japanese-made guitar, it's quality all the way, and so should appeal to those who like their Teles to look a little more contoured than usual and to have sprouted an upper horn and tremolo arm. Hopefully they like shell pink too. For those people, this guitar is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $790.

G L Wilson

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Westone Clipper Six ... someone please snap this one up!

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As I write this blog entry there are 17 hours left on the eBay UK listing for this Westone Clipper Six. Here's my recommendation: someone out there, snap this up soonest! I'd buy it myself if I wasn't financially embarrassed. It's a 1986 Matsumoku-made Japanese Westone guitar and has a Buy It Now price of £155. What more could you want?

It's a simple no-nonsense guitar, as the seller points out:

Slab hardwood body, maple neck with a beautiful genuine ebony fingerboard. Westone engraved genuine Gotoh tuners.Tele style through body bridge. The slant pickup is unique. This is NOT a humbucker, but 2 seperate single coils on 1 baseplate, that can be switched on or off using the 2 toggle switches. Single vol, no tone and a nice tight jack socket.

The singer of a band I was in during the tail-end of the 1980s had one of these guitars; he only used it on one or two songs, and despite the fact that I had a pair of Fenders (a Strat and a Tele), I always secretly coveted his guitar. It was such a nice player.

And yes, it does have a Telecaster thing going on stylistically (so much so that Status Quo's Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt were roped in to advertise it in the music press), although the sharp lower horn is a nice departure from the original Tele design.

If you do buy it, please tell us in the comments below.

G L Wilson

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K. Yairi YB-13 electro-acoustic bass

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The K. Yairi YB-13 gives us a completely different take on the electro-acoustic bass guitar, with more than a nod to the violin bass design of Gibson, Hofner, et al.

The Yairi name is well respected in Japanese luthiery, although you may have seen Yairi guitars variously badged with the names S. Yairi, H. Yairi, and K. Yairi. Basically what we are dealing with here is a family of luthiers: S. (Sadao) Yairi who built guitars in the 1960s and 1970s, his son H. (Hiroshi) Yairi and nephew K. (Kazuo) Yairi. To confuse matters further, Yairi guitars have been marketed under several other brand names including Yairi & Sons, Kohno, Shelly, and Wilson. Today, the K. Yairi factory also produce a line of top-level guitars for Alvarez.

On the bass we are looking at here, I am surprised - given the quality of instrument we are looking at - that the rear access to the electronics couldn't have been more elegant.

This bass is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $1,794.99.

G L Wilson

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MIJ vintage Elk strat

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Elk was an esteemed Japanese amps and guitars company in the 1960s/1970s - more known for its amps actually, and it ended up building some for Fender.

This two pickups strat copy is quite beaten, but I like the look of a Jaguar tremolo on a strat body - it feels right, isn't it?

Bertram D

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Pre-war 1930s vintage Harmony Supertone parlour guitar - La Habernera

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At nearly 80 years old and showing signs of heavy usage, this pre-WWII 1930s Harmony Supertone "La Habernera" parlour guitar could surely tell a few tales.

The "La Habernera" artwork on the front of the guitar could be considered kitsch by today's tastes, but to me it all adds to the guitar's whimsy making it all the more interesting. Personally, I'd much prefer this than anything with skulls all over it, as the modern cliché seems to be.

The fingerboard seems to be covered in some kind of pearloid material - I've seen the same on other parlour guitars of the same era - but you'll notice that wear and tear through heavy playing has worn away much of the pearloid down to the bare wood of the neck, possibly illustrating why it was used in the first place: so as to avoid using expensive rosewood or ebony for the fingerboard.

Currently listed on eBay this auction is finishing within the next 24 hours as I write this, with bidding at $50.99 at the time of writing.

G L Wilson

EDIT: Sold for US $168.39.

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MeloDuende Aluha 2 aluminium Hawaiian guitar

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What with French luthiers and metal body guitars? We saw already steel instruments by Trussard and LePape, here is MeloDuende - who dropped steel for aerospace grade aluminium, and as you can see the Aluha undeniably shares DNA with spaceships! Doing so they went back to the origins of electric guitar - the original 1932 Rickenbacker Frying Pan was made out of aluminium...

Unfortunately MeloDuende doesn't have original models - come on people, why have a luthier's guitar that looks like everybody's Squier? - but this Weissenborn style hawaiian guitar seems quite unique - and sounds terrific! 

Bertram D

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