Electric guitars; eclectic guitars

Here are a few more electrics, from the vault, for you. In 2003, as a bit of fun, I built two matching electric guitars; a bass and a 12-string, both loosely based on Rickenbackers.  The bass, which is a monster, was for me and I still have it.  Being a bit of a Deadhead, I decided to inlay the Grateful Dead’s Steal Your Face logo into the body.

The 12 string was far too heavy so I re-built it in 2007 with a black walnut SG style body which worked so much better- it was sold on in 2011.

Here’s an odd one that I put together in 2004. We were browsing the West-End guitar shops and I came across a semi-acoustic body, obviously from a factory and unfinished- 25 quid? Who could resist?  Judging from the newspaper that I extracted from its insides, it was a Hofner body from the 1960s.

So I built it into this---.

This too was sold on 2011

Another completed in 2004 was this Les Paul style solid with a carved bird’s eye maple top and neck.

 And then there are these two ergonomic electrics which I greatly enjoyed building. The 7-string was commissioned in 2009 by Latin-Jazz guitarist Stefano Kalonaris; it has a wide fingerboard as he wanted a classical guitar style fingerboard.

And the 6-string in 2011 by a local player, Phil, who suffers with back pain. This guitar was specifically designed to allow him to play with a greater degree of comfort.

Remember the bass at the top of page? Well, in 2023 I decided to re-model it and here’s the result.

Electric guitars; early guitars

This is where it stared! This is the first instrument that I sold! Being played at a gig in the 1970’s by John East. I built this bass whilst at Sir Walter St. John’s school in SW London; the body is teak from a door step given to me by my uncle and it has a Guild humbucker. There were another two solid bodies made at school- one a fretless bass that John also had. Who knows where they are now!
John is now professional bass player and music teacher.

Around this time (1977?) I also made a Firebird style electric that I sold to a friend, Ray. He eventually sold it on; so that remains a mystery too.