Conference napalm::guitar

    Sounds like a 1960's or early 1970's Japanese pseudo copy of a strat,
    with a Philipine (spelling??) Mahogany neck (These Never seem to stay
    in tune, or at least that's my experiance, unless ultra light - 007 or
    008 - strings are on them). Probably from Tiesco in Japan (they sold
    them with no brand names on them so that the end re-seller could add
    them later). I could be wrong. If I'm right, the actual value is
    quite minimal as these were 'cheap' guitars & some of them wouldn't
    even fit the qualification of 'beginners instrument' because of their
    quality. Some, however, turned out to be fair guitars, if you treated
    them right.

							    Jens
    

                          
    This is definatly not a Strat copy - it bears no (or at least 
    very little) resemblance to a Strat.
                          
    Someone in another conference suggested that it was a guitar made
    by a local chain of stores ("Woolworths") as a budget guitar.
    
    Any other ideas ?

    Tony-
    
    I could probably come up with lots of ideas about what to do with
    it......
    
    But first, How does it play? Are you going to keep it? Is it worth
    repairing/the effort?
    
    Ask yourself..... wouldn't I rather have a Night Swan....
    
    ;') only raggin ya dude!
    
    
    Bonzo

    Is the body of solid wood? or plywood?
    If it's solid, get it up dude! Some plywood cheapies aren't worth it.
    
    ANdy, whose self-made guitar is comng well, but decided to put a
    les-paul type tail in over the Floyd. $$

        
    re: Toenail (ie -1) - The body is solid
        
    re: Bonzo - the thing has no machine heads or strings, so I 
                can't tell how the thing plays 8^)
        
    I'm gonna kep it and fix it up some time - just for the fun of 
    it. 
         
    -Tony

    Yeah, and if it turns out to be no good, you could load up the front
    pickup slot with some plastic explosive and blow it up on stage!!

    jc (Who always has an idea !)

    
    Hhhmmm...   #^>

    re .6
    
    Jeff,
    	
    It's been done. I've seen it. (exept it wasn't plastic explosives,
    it was a Gold Star Flash Bomb)
    
    Bonzo.
    
    P.s. It scared the sh*t outta me coz I was standing next to the
    jerk who set it off.

	My favorite unknown guitar was one I saw in a music shop in
	Redondo Beach California. The body was an oak toilet seat, where the
	top of the lid was facing where who ever played it's belt was. The
	other part of the seat (the oval shaped section) was facing up (so
	a few things had been flipped around. None of the other parts were
	recognisable (as to manufacturer). No, I never played it, but it
	did catch your eye as you walked into Mel Bay's store (He was the
	one who wrote all of those various guitar books). If you are inspired,
	you may be able to do some interesting things with your unmarked
	guitar.

								Jens

    
    
    
    
I was at a flea market in Batavia NY over the weekend and walked out with a 
very strange guitar that I cannot identify. It is an electric double cutaway 
archtop 12 string. It has seen some use judging from the fret wear around the 
first position but other than that the neck is in good shape. The fret board 
is mystery wood, medium brown coloration with dot mother of pearl fret markers 
on the left hand side (not in the middle). The neck is maple and double bound 
with white plastic. It is bolted on with four bolts. There is evidence that 
there was at one time a metal plate where the bolts went through the body in 
the back. 

The headstock other than being rather large, is faced completely with mother of 
pearl and is somewhat rectangular but comes to a single soft peak at the top. 
Hard to describe. There are two small holes where a name plate must have been 
affixed. They are diagonal from each other as though the plate was rectangular 
or perhaps a slanted signature (This is just a guess).

The body is black although it appears to have been painted by the previous 
owner. Not a horrible job but the guy selling it, for his son, said it had 
always been black so there were likely several previous owners. Unless the 
original paint was done sloppily, ie there was spray evidence inside the F 
holes. 

On the right horn of the cutaway is a 3 way toggle switch to control the two 
pickups, surrounded by, you guessed it, mother of pearl in a quasi teardrop 
shape. Each pickup is surrounded by a mother of pearl border, about a half inch 
wide. The pickups themselves are rectangular in shape, black, with a convex 
curved top. No markings inside as to maker. The pickguard is raised and faced 
with mother of pearl also. There are two volume and two tone knobs, gold 
conical shape.

The bridge is fixed to the body with the strings held by a chrome trapeze 
tail piece. There are six adjustment screws that move six scored cylinders
that hold two strings each.

This could be a homemade hodgepodge job or some strange off brand. Anyone know
or have ideas? There are no other markings that I can find. It actually plays 
pretty good and for $50 (talked him down from $95) who could resist? I only 
have six strings on it right now to mess with it. I'll have to go out and get 
a couple of sets of 12 this week. Super light gauge I suspect as I'm not sure 
how much tension this baby can take!
    
    Dave Kinney

    Someone at a local shop guesses it's a Silvertone or a Danaelectro
    (sp). Looks like a Rik copy. Anyone have any information about these
    guitars? 
    
    D.

    Late reply to .10
    
    If the "electric double cutaway archtop 12. No kidding!" guitar has a
    body shaped like a Gibson ES-335 (which I believe it does) then I
    *have* seen one of these critters before.  A *long* time ago, Pruneau's
    Music in Worcerster used to carry the Aria "Diamonds" series which had
    the mother-of-toilet-seat covering the headstock, the right-hand horn
    where the pickup selector was, and surrounding the pickups themselves.
    (for that matter, I remember seeing the same decor on a 1968 flyer for
    Ventura guitars).  These were offered in six-string, 12-string and
    electric bass models and usually had a Telsco Del Rey vintage sunburst
    finish ;^)
    
    Talk about fugly - these guitars would make a Gretsch White Falcon look
    conservative! 8*)
    
    						--Eric--