Conference marvin::uk_music

417.0. "Identifying old guitars ?" by CHEFS::DALLISON (Stepping on the little people...) Tue May 09 1989 17:59

    
    
    Also posted in CVG::GUITARS and SUBURB::UK_MUSICIANS
                                                                      
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    I have a question - what is the best channel to go through for the  
    identification old of guitars ? I'll tell you the situation:   
                                                                   
    I was given a guitar which was found in a dustbin.  I took it home
    and combed every inch of the body looking for markings or a brand
    name.  All I found was a plate on the headstock with the word  
    "STARWAY" on it and a small silver sticker on the rear of the  
    headstock which says "MODEL:J**" (where ** = unreadable).  Thats it!
                                                                   
    I dismantled the whole thing and cleaned it up, and I still found no 
    markings which would lead to and identification.  I've never seen 
    anything like it before :-                                     
                                                                         
    Headstock     : Same shape as a strat , but its about 1.5 times the 
    		    size (length) of it.  Its looks really stretched and 
    		    long.                                          
    Machine heads : None (no strings either)                       
    Neck          : 4 x Bolt on (w/truss rod).  Can't figure out what
    		    wood it is.  Its deep red/brown in colour        
    		    (Rosewood?).  22 frets.  It has no inlays as such on
    		    the neck itself, but the neck binding has the usual 
                    dots on it except that at the octave marker there is
    		    only one dot, as apposed to the more usual markings
    		    of two.  At every point that there is a dot on the
    		    binding, the binding overlaps onto the neck itself by  
     		    about 4mm on the low E side, but when it reaches the 
    		    octave, the binding extends 4mm on *both* sides, so I 
    		    guess these are supposed to be the neck markings.
    Bridge        : Silver - it has a whammy but its real old a decreped.   
    		    the bar itself is missing but it looks like it would    
                    still function with a little work and a gallon of       
    		    WD40 !                                                  
    Body          : Black with Sunburst coloured centre.  Rather small in
    		    shape (smaller than a Strat or a LP) and is not
    		    dissimilar to an SG with less of a sharp contour on
    		    the "horns".  I don't know what the body is made of.
    Pickups       : It has two metal pickups (about .75 of an inch high,
    		    about 1.50 wide and about 3.50 inches long) with no
    		    visible markings.  These things actually still work
    		    fine.  What I did was rig up the guitar to my amp and
    		    held my other guitar about a half inch over the top
    		    of the other guitar and strummed my guitar - this was
    		    picked up by the pick-ups on the old guitar and
    		    sounded through my amp.  The two pickup selector   
    		    toggles are real interesting - they are plastic 
    		    switches about an inch long by about .5 inches wide 
    		    and are white plastic (similar to a UK light switch 
    		    button) and have a "MIC ON" label above each switch 
    		    (they didn't even call them pickups in them days!).  
    		    Its has two volume pots and two tone pots - all sat 
    		    on a metal (aluminium) scratch-plate.          
                                                                   
    So, if anybody has any ideas or suggestions please let me know.
                                                                   
    Cheers,                                                        
    -Tony                                                          

    Sounds like you've got an "electric guitar" there Tony
    
    :�) 

    
    #^/

    Sounds to me Tony you've got a *home-made* job there or some sort
    of a hybrid maybe even a *custom*. How good is the workmanship?
    any signs to tell if it was done by an amatuer or a pro?. The reason
    I think it might be *home/hand made* is the lack of any trade mark
    (except for that writing you mentioned)...also the serial number
    could be from another guitar...is it just worn away or deliberatly
    scratched out?. I have a Dutch friend who makes guitars...he made
    a bass for himself recently...and the neck was looooooong,he himself
    is 6' 8"...and the thing weighs a tonne!!!
                  
    - Dave K.

    
    The SN is just worn out - it hasn't been scrubbed out.
    
    It doesn't look like a home made effort - the quality of workman
    ship is quite good.
    
    -Tony

Tony,
      I had a similar experience with a remarkably similar sounding guitar. The
main difference being that the one I found (in a junk shop) was a 12 string 
electric and therefore did not have the Strat' head. 

  It turned out that mine is a VOX and now that it has been renovated is 
superb. The fittings sound very similar, as does the description of the neck.
Just a suggestion, could be totally off the mark.

(Note there was no manufacturer's name either).

Good luck
    Chris.

    Not selling that Vox are you, Chris? 8^)
    
    Bob