Those Wild 60's Italian-made Electric Guitars! 🎸 PART 2 Warning: Image Heavy

[justaprogressive]

(yes it's a Bass guitar)















Enjoy!

**Hint: the Brand and model (when possible to identify ) are in the names of the images.
Collect them All!

[ultralite001]

1. Wow...

Now do pics of bands playing these guitars...

🤣🤣🤣

Cheers!!!

[justaprogressive]

2. this is probably the best we'll get...

This one's a keeper!

[ultralite001]

3. Awesome!!!

Thanks!!!

[ProfessorGAC]

4. The Tear Drop 12 String Is Cool, I Guess

But, over the last 40 years or so I've been able to play a half-dozen of those old italo-tars.
They are junk!
Bridges are unstable; pickups are noisy but weak, and many were microphonic. A few were very neck heavy, because I think the bodies were cheap pine. I also found the necks chunky.
A lot of them look neat, but they aren't even good for beginners. Maybe worse, because they're harder to play.
Having said all that, I checked Reverb and they are fetching some pretty high prices. Several over a grand.
I might pay $200 as a wall-hanger, but the prices I'm seeing are stunning.

[keep_left]

5. My jazz guitar teacher in college had some real insight about...

...beginner and semi-pro instruments. He said that the guitar was one of the only examples of an instrument where the cheaper, novice-grade models were much harder to play than the professional models. Gibsons, Paul Reed Smiths, Charvels, etc. come with nearly perfect setups, low action, play like butter, and cost big $$$. Whereas most beginner instruments are a struggle to play well, even for experienced players. This is especially true where it comes to the filing of the nut slots, which is a real pet peeve with me. Many beginner guitars are nearly unplayable because of bad setups.

My teacher was also a woodwind player (flute, primarily), and he explained that beginner woodwinds are designed to be really easy to play, with valves that seal (not very well) with minimal finger strength, etc. They are not known for outstanding tone, however. As one trades up to better, more professional instruments, they become harder and harder to play, requiring exceptional finger strength and dexterity in order to work the valves (which seal extremely tightly). It takes many years of practice to develop the chops to play an instrument designed for professional orchestra performers. The tone of these professional woodwinds is superlative, with a price to match, of course.

BTW, the pictures of those cheesy Italian guitars reminded me of that really bizarre instrument played by Warren Cuccurullo during his tenure with Missing Persons; IIRC, it was a Vox wah pedal with a Vox neck somehow attached to it. The wah pedal electronics had been gutted and replaced with all sorts of other devices: a preamp, a couple different fuzztones, EQ, etc. Cuccurullo eventually had several replica models made by Performance Guitar in L.A.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. All Good Points

Nobody would ever beginning flute player an open hole instrument.
On the bright side for guitars though, is that there is no such thing anymore as a crappy guitar.
There is good, better, great.
There are $159 Squiers at Guitar Center that 99% of pros/semi-pros could gig with. Not for 20 years, but....
The change in guitars at the starting level compared to 55 or 60 years ago is profound.
I'd say it started with Ibanez in the early 70s.

[justaprogressive]

7. Many neck-heavy because their bodies were

pine or even FIBERBOARD many of course also with mother-of-toilet-seat laminates!

Here's one story where the writer had to rebuild several parts of a guitar, you might enjoy....

https://www.premierguitar.com/this-60s-italian-electric-guitar-is-straight-out-of-a-dream]

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Boy, That Is One Ugly Guitar!

I don't get the pickup observation.
I found the pickups weak & noisy and the half-dozen or more I've played.
Not quite as bad as the Global & Greco brands out of 1960s Japan, but still bad.
(I once played a Guyatone on which the pickups were microphonic with no strings on the guitar!)
There a store in Oswego Illinois that has an owner that is fascinated by the 60s Japanese guitars. You can try most of them & he has dozens as a personal collection. I haven't played one that sounded good.

[justaprogressive]

9. Now now

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!