Guitar
guitarz.blogspot.com:
Happy New Year to all our readers. Those of you who had a copy of our Guitarz 2012 calendar on their wall over the last year will recognise the above guitar as our guitar for April (although in the spirit of keeping the calendar photos exclusive, this is an alternate photograph). To copy from my own blurb in the calendar:
Malmberg kindly took some time to tell us about the guitar when I emailed him back in 2008:
Speaking of calendars, unfortunately - as some of you may have realised by now - we weren't able to put together a calendar for 2013. I'm sorry, and despite the offer of assistance from one enthusiastic Guitarz reader, I just haven't had the time over the last few months to get my arse into gear and even get the ball rolling in this department. Thanks also to Bertram and David who have been posting solidly these last few weeks whilst I've been out working anti-social hours.
So what have we lined up for 2013? Well, to be honest, I don't know for sure yet, but you can expect even more of the same, i.e. weird and wonderful guitars! We also enjoy seeing your guitars, so if you have any that are that little bit different from the same old guitars we see everywhere else, please get in touch!
G L Wilson
© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
- Guitarz Calendar For 2013... Contributions Wanted
guitarz.blogspot.com: This time last year we were busily putting together the Guitarz 2012 calendar (as pictured here). Because of a distinct lack of finances, until very recently I had thought that we wouldn't be able to produce another for 2013,...
- 1976 Mosrite Bicentennial Acoustic Guitar ... + Speaking Of Anniversaries...
guitarz.blogspot.com: We don't normally associate Mosrite with acoustic guitars, but this Mosrite Bicentennial edition from 1976 proves that they did indeed produce such guitars. For those outside of the USA, that's America's bicentennial...
- Musima Lead Star Superstrat
guitarz.blogspot.com Usually when one thinks of GDR electric guitars, what comes to mind are superb and very German hollow-body jazz guitars, or these later through-the-looking-glass designs, both familiar and askew, sometimes radically and wildly...
- Coming Soon: The Guitarz 2012 Calendar Featuring 13 Brand New Exclusive Photos
guitarz.blogspot.com: I'm pleased to say that I've taken delivery of these calendars this very morning and that they are looking fantastic. Many thanks to those of you who contributed photos. The calendars are A3-sized (420 x 300mm), beautifully...
- Dave Hill Plays The Superyob In The Promo For Slade's "my Friend Stan"
guitarz.blogspot.com: In the 1970s it seemed that nearly every popular band in the UK had to have a wacky John Birch guitar. Here we see Slade's Dave Hill playing the original Superyob guitar as built by the legendary John Birch. The Superyob was...
Guitar
Goran Malmberg's Abba "Star" guitar replica
guitarz.blogspot.com:
The Swedish pop group ABBA won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, held in Brighton, UK, with the song "Waterloo". For the contest and for subsequent TV appearances and public appearances around the world, Abba member Björn Ulvaeus played a multi-pointed star-shaped guitar created by Goran Malmberg. Unfortunately, the orignal guitar is now missing, but Malmberg has created this replica for the ABBA Museum in Stockholm.I don't care about ABBA's "pop" credentials, or the (im)practicalities of such a very pointy guitar design, this is one of my favourite iconic guitar designs and along with the John Birch Superyob as played by Slade's Dave Hill it epitomises the whole glam rock era.
Malmberg kindly took some time to tell us about the guitar when I emailed him back in 2008:
I designed the entire guitar shape. The original question from Bjorn was that they liked a guitar in the shape of a star, and I made a few baseline drawings for him to look at. If you look at the shape it is not symmetrical. We have the Gibson guitar "Flying V" and "Explorer" from the time that has "horns" in different directions. A common thing with those guitars along with my star guitar is that it has to serve a practical purpose, therefore the horns are pointing logical directions. The strap has to be fastened in a good balance position. There should be no horn where one has its right arm. There has to be a horn to place tone and volume knobs. So the design issue was to find a design balance that included those features. I have seen copies of the guitar. No criticism, but if the builder does not has a very good picture to make a copy from, he will surely miss the geometric figures behind the design. And the guitar will not show the same harmony as the original.For more see this post.
About the "player" issue, it is just about the same as a Strat with patent number pickups. The body is laminate plywood, for the reason that the edge of the horns should not break. It is all solid as a Strat. Good sustain. However, the guitar main purpose was for image, and even if Bjorn had come "asking" for it as an instrument, there was newer any time for fine tune adjustments.
Speaking of calendars, unfortunately - as some of you may have realised by now - we weren't able to put together a calendar for 2013. I'm sorry, and despite the offer of assistance from one enthusiastic Guitarz reader, I just haven't had the time over the last few months to get my arse into gear and even get the ball rolling in this department. Thanks also to Bertram and David who have been posting solidly these last few weeks whilst I've been out working anti-social hours.
So what have we lined up for 2013? Well, to be honest, I don't know for sure yet, but you can expect even more of the same, i.e. weird and wonderful guitars! We also enjoy seeing your guitars, so if you have any that are that little bit different from the same old guitars we see everywhere else, please get in touch!
G L Wilson
© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!
- Guitarz Calendar For 2013... Contributions Wanted
guitarz.blogspot.com: This time last year we were busily putting together the Guitarz 2012 calendar (as pictured here). Because of a distinct lack of finances, until very recently I had thought that we wouldn't be able to produce another for 2013,...
- 1976 Mosrite Bicentennial Acoustic Guitar ... + Speaking Of Anniversaries...
guitarz.blogspot.com: We don't normally associate Mosrite with acoustic guitars, but this Mosrite Bicentennial edition from 1976 proves that they did indeed produce such guitars. For those outside of the USA, that's America's bicentennial...
- Musima Lead Star Superstrat
guitarz.blogspot.com Usually when one thinks of GDR electric guitars, what comes to mind are superb and very German hollow-body jazz guitars, or these later through-the-looking-glass designs, both familiar and askew, sometimes radically and wildly...
- Coming Soon: The Guitarz 2012 Calendar Featuring 13 Brand New Exclusive Photos
guitarz.blogspot.com: I'm pleased to say that I've taken delivery of these calendars this very morning and that they are looking fantastic. Many thanks to those of you who contributed photos. The calendars are A3-sized (420 x 300mm), beautifully...
- Dave Hill Plays The Superyob In The Promo For Slade's "my Friend Stan"
guitarz.blogspot.com: In the 1970s it seemed that nearly every popular band in the UK had to have a wacky John Birch guitar. Here we see Slade's Dave Hill playing the original Superyob guitar as built by the legendary John Birch. The Superyob was...