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STOP PRESS: Upcoming Guitar Listings: scroll down to see what might be lurking in the salmon pink newsprint. Many guitars never make it past this point.
Or drop into twangLINK where (amongst other things) we will be building links with other genuine, reputable, private collections such as FramusVILLE.
STOP PRESS: Upcoming Listings
LET'S GO SURFING.....
Yamaha SGV-300 (Samurai styled Mosrite influenced surf plank)
Superbly crafted one of with the best trems ever, this is the last one from a former collection of late 90s Yammy SGVs - the one the owner couldn't bear to part with. It is in black sparkle finish (a rare finish on this model as it was usually only available on the SGV-800). This is the model with the bridge humbucker that does all sorts of weird and wonderful things with a pan control. Arguably Yamaha's finest ever solid bodies (don't mention SG2000s to us) these SGVs drip with surfin' cool. Check out youtube for some surftastic sounds from these guitars. These are serious planks, not retro toys!!
Long since discontinued, the SGV-300 features a solid alder body; a 12-degree angled headstock; chrome hardware; chunky 3-position toggle switch; 24.75" scale, volume and tone control knobs; a fast, thin maple neck; roller bridge; and rosewood fingerboard. It also contains innovative electronics which are original Yamaha designs, including an incredibly smooth, non-locking tremolo system with roller-type bridge. The SGV300 contains single coil Ferrite pickups (1 x s/c, 1 x h/b).
- Condition: B (provisional, pics & details to follow). It will come with full set up and gigbag, ungigged as far as we can tell and in superb condition.
- Price: £325 (...don't hang around)
Yes, you can believe your eyes, a Les Paul on twangMART!
It's a Korean (not Chinese) model from 2004 - don't get confused as prices & quality are VERY different. These are no longer available. Also, and twangsters take note here, the alder body construction gives a brighter sound (and is a wee bit lighter) than mahogany. This is why the current owner snaffled it up. Most of all it plays and sounds great:
BODY : Maple Top / Alder Body
NECK: Maple set neck
FINGERBOARD: Rosewood
BRIDGE : Tokai Original Vibrato Tremolo
PICKUPS: PAF Vintage MK4
CONTROLS: 2 vol/2 Tone/3 way switch
COLOR: Black
- Condition: B (provisional, pics & details to follow). It will come with full set up and gigbag, ungigged. A Les Paul that truly shimmers - Nice!
-
Price: £325 (The last shop price we
saw in UK new for this Korean model was £450 a couple of years
back. Now discontinued, it is no longer listed as a current
model.)
From the renowned Samick factory in Korea, this was the Epiphone brand name claiming back a 60s guitar model that Gibson actually stole from them in the 70s. Black, 20 fret, single floating pickup, oval hole, laminated top jazz guitar with a 25.5" scale length.
There are so many variants on this model over the decades that it gets confusing, but this is essentially the hollow body Artist style. It received excellent reviews on release, and is an excellent alternative to a 175 or Herb Ellis. Loud enough acoustically for practice or guitar duet rhythm work or recording (louder than a 175, for example), it then comes alive with a touch of the pickup through a small amp.
'So, if you're looking for a pretty good, very cool looking, easy to play, and inexpensive jazz guitar, this may be your axe. Especially if you don't want to look like all the other guys with their ES-175's. It's not a Gibson, but will cost less than half the price of their cheapest jazz box. This is my favorite archtop, hands down.' (Harmony Central Review)
<< More Harmony
Central Reviews- Condition: B- (provisional, pics & details to follow).
-
Price: £375 (with set-up & gigbag) (Now discontinued, it is
no longer listed as a current model. Epiphone's core models are now
mainly made in China with a corresponding drop in quality, but
(strangely?) just as expensive....)
Hondo II HL5 BB (MIJ)
Hollow thinline ES5-Byrdland-350T style Jazz Guitar made in Japan by Tokai (1980) in the golden era). Specification:
Natural.
All original & legendary 22 fret L5 style 'Big Boy (BB)' model.
Original factory USA DiMarzios.
Overall: Easily converted to anything you like via Bigsby & Filtertrons to Gretsch territory or PAFs to Jazz land - or simply keep it as the blues/rock beast it is....!
- Condition C+/B-
- PRICE: £495
A couple of rarely used Ibanez Talman solid body guitars are to be released by a collective member. These are both TV series models from the very top of the Japanese made range with H-S-H Kent Armstrong pickup. Both date from 1994 and came straight from a UK guitar journalist's extensive private guitar collection in 2002, so have had a very easy decade and a half so far:
(NOTE: pic for illustration only, not actual guitar).
Specification:
White bound 'resoncast' body with gold fittings.
Kent Armstrong Pickups, H-S-H configuation with lipstick and 2 mini humbuckers.
Strat style fulcrum trem.
Bought from Paul Day's private collection in 2002
Overall: Aside from a slight lacquer crack in the neck pocket (typical of any bolt on neck guitar with this type of finish) that has been there since present owner acquired it the guitar is in very good condition indeed. Very little playwear of any sort as it was always a more posy backup to the working studio Talman TV750 below, as sound-wise it is virtually identical.
MORE IBANEZ TALMAN INFO
DETAILS & PICS TO FOLLOW
- Condition (provisional B, details to follow)
- PRICE: £495
‘The Resoncast on original Talmans was medium-density fiberboard (MDF), which took otherwise unusable bits of alder and mixed them with resin for a high-pressure compression. This material actually had a very "vintage" sound quality. For pickups, the Talmans used Sky pickups, from Korea. Skys (by Kent Armstrong) were one of the few pickups at the time that were actually wound as replicas of the original Danos. Talmans also used Sky replicas of '60s mini-humbuckers. The firstTalmans were the TC530, TV750, and TV650, all of Resoncast with bolt-on maple necks. The TC530 (Like the TC630) featured three of the Sky lipstick pickups and a Vibrato, great for Ventures tunes.’
(NOTE: pic for illustration only, not actual guitar).
Specification:
Non bound gravure finish 'resoncast' body with photo-flame finish & gold fittings.
Curious photo-flame birds eye maple finish neck over real maple!! (see below)
Kent Armstrong Pickups, H-S-H configuation with lipstick and 2 mini humbuckers
Strat style fulcrum trem.
Bought from Paul Day's private collection in 2002
Ex professional collection and pretty much unplayed except for studio use, fifteen years on the body still looks like shop display condition. Some tarnish to the gold as you would expect.
The current owner found the lacquer finish too sticky and so the neck was carefully and professionally smoothed of just enough of the lacquer to give a satin feel without taking away all the micro thin photo flame 'birds eye' layer underneath (the neck was a veritable sandwich of wood + thin photo laminate + lacquer). There are now small areas of thin photo finish where the natural wood has been revealed, which looks funky as well as feeling very comfortable to play! The new owner might want to strip the back of the neck completely of this redundant (and utterly superficial) photo layer to an oiled natural wood finish to let the wood breathe - as on G&L and Framus guitars - but for the moment this seems a sensible compromise between original intent (no matter how oddly conceived) and playability. NOTE: The head (back and front) retains the full original birds eye photo & lacquer finish.
DETAILS & PICS TO FOLLOW
MORE IBANEZ TALMAN INFO
- Condition (provisional B-, details to follow)
- PRICE: £495
(USA c1998) with original case.
(NOTE: pic for illustration only, not actual guitar).
Specification (NOTE: this is the real deal NOT the junior model):
Solid mahogany body with flame maple top, single cutaway, sunburst finish, ivory color pickguard & top binding & nickel plated ribbed sieve coverplate. Spun cone.
Active electronics: Highlander transducer in biscuit bridge & Duncan P90 neck pickup.
Individual volume controls for each pickup, a master volume & 3-way toggle switch.
Maple neck, rosewood board, 26" scale for rich low tunings.
Original hardshell case.
Some dulling to the chrome where the right arm plays, otherwise outstanding condition.
DETAILS & PICS TO FOLLOW
HARMONY CENTRAL REVIEWS (look at all those straight 10/10s!)
- Condition (provisional B/B+, details to follow) two careful owners, never gigged.
- PRICE: £1195 (the average USA shop price is now $2400, add VAT, duty and shipping to this and it will cost you well over £2k to bring it over.)
(MIK c2002)
(NOTE: pic for illustration only, not actual guitar).
Superior (and rare in Europe) quality model by top Korean factory more used to producing Epiphones etc. This is not a tatty tin pot resonator, but that's what you usually get for under £300! Part of the re-vamped Greg Bennett range, and definitely a cut above the usual quality.
Specification:
Chrome Resonator
Super Jumbo size
Select Spruce Top
Mahogany Back and Sides
Spyder Bridge
Die Cast Tuners
- Condition: B (provisional) very little play, one previous fastidious owner DETAILS TO FOLLOW
- Price: £195 with gigbag (new these go for £325-£350 new IF you can find one)
OK, folks, that's it for now from the STOP PRESS. These guitars should be listed properly with pics and full descriptions over the next few weeks, but we thought we'd get them out there in salmon pink first. Now, check out the main listings: