ShortScale.org

Really cool cuitar. I love it.

Seven years ago, I picked up one of the Marvin Guyatones in the UK for about $80.00. Since then, I've seen a photo of Ringo Starr playing one (probably Hank's). It was in poor shape and I decided to re-do the body, then got hooked on some other projects, which have never ended.

I also got two brand new 1961 Guyatone pickguards, NOS, from a music shop in Leeds that closed down. These guards have all pickups, wiring, pots, etc, are in mint condition and were still wrapped in vintage Brit newspaper from '61.

So, now it's time to build a couple of Guyatone Marvin/Cooder models. Weird guitars, but how can you not like something that odd? The headstocks are nearly a foot long!

desertan wrote:Seven years ago, I picked up one of the Marvin Guyatones in the UK for about $80.00. Since then, I've seen a photo of Ringo Starr playing one (probably Hank's). It was in poor shape and I decided to re-do the body, then got hooked on some other projects, which have never ended.

I also got two brand new 1961 Guyatone pickguards, NOS, from a music shop in Leeds that closed down. These guards have all pickups, wiring, pots, etc, are in mint condition and were still wrapped in vintage Brit newspaper from '61.

So, now it's time to build a couple of Guyatone Marvin/Cooder models. Weird guitars, but how can you not like something that odd? The headstocks are nearly a foot long!

Cool!

Weird Ringo Starr played it. I wonder if one of the other beatles would of played it if it would have had huge vintage following. 100 sounds like a good deal but im not sure what the regular price range is and how much it would cost to right the wiring.

Guitar is exactly like the one Ringo's playing, except black in color. Same pickups, teacup knobs. But guard is one piece acrylic, not two, and has a weird 1/8" jack socket, not 1/4".

Anyway, I'm going with a curly maple body like the higher-end models at the time.

Ringo was playing Johny Guitar's Guitar.



"THIS NAME isn't getting us very far," Alan Caldwell said to his Raving Texans one night in 1959. "We'll call ourselves the Hurricanes and change our own names. I'll be Rory Storm, Johnny Byrne can be Johnny Guitar and Ritchie Starkey can be Ringo Starr." And so, with Lu Walters ("Wally") and Ty Brian (also pseudonyms), Rory Storm and the Hurricanes became the most popular band on Merseyside. That is, until the Beatles came along."

I remember that now...from this site, no?

http://www.thecanteen.com/fabguitars.html

desertan wrote:Seven years ago, I picked up one of the Marvin Guyatones in the UK for about $80.00. Since then, I've seen a photo of Ringo Starr playing one (probably Hank's). It was in poor shape and I decided to re-do the body, then got hooked on some other projects, which have never ended.

I also got two brand new 1961 Guyatone pickguards, NOS, from a music shop in Leeds that closed down. These guards have all pickups, wiring, pots, etc, are in mint condition and were still wrapped in vintage Brit newspaper from '61.

So, now it's time to build a couple of Guyatone Marvin/Cooder models. Weird guitars, but how can you not like something that odd? The headstocks are nearly a foot long!

Awesome find on the pickups and guitar!! If you do put it all together and want a case PM me as I think the one i have will fit it - the indentation looks like the same shape anyway. If not SELL ME GUITAR AND PICKUPS!!

Also: photos please

Actually chap could you possibly post a picture of the tuners you've got on your Guyatone? Mine are not original and they're shit. I've got a heads up on possible original replacements but need to know they are correct!

Thanks

Couple of LG 60s in black. Fucking ebay have made it hard to either save or embed the images.

Guyatone lg 60 1

Guyatone lg 60 2

Guyatone Hank Marvin

if anyone knows how to get these images I'd apreciate it...tried looking at source info and everything.

Cheers

i still need to scan that article for you that I saw last month Dave, I will try and sort it out tomorrow

Here Davvid - measure how deep the neck is on yours, would you? As a big neck fan, I loved it, but would be interested to know just how deep it was.

Thanks Chris! No rush but sounds reet interesting!

benecol wrote:Here Davvid - measure how deep the neck is on yours, would you? As a big neck fan, I loved it, but would be interested to know just how deep it was.

Tim - no problemo will have a look this evening and report back.

Dave wrote:Couple of LG 60s in black. Fucking ebay have made it hard to either save or embed the images.

if anyone knows how to get these images I'd apreciate it...tried looking at source info and everything.

Cheers

When I have trouble getting an image off of the web, or sometimes I have programs that will not let me turn a graph of figure into a picture, I use a screen shot grab and crop. On the mac you can use the grab application and then go to selection and frame what you want. Then save as. There may be better ways but this is simple enough.

westtexasred wrote:Ringo was playing Johny Guitar's Guitar.



"THIS NAME isn't getting us very far," Alan Caldwell said to his Raving Texans one night in 1959. "We'll call ourselves the Hurricanes and change our own names. I'll be Rory Storm, Johnny Byrne can be Johnny Guitar and Ritchie Starkey can be Ringo Starr." And so, with Lu Walters ("Wally") and Ty Brian (also pseudonyms), Rory Storm and the Hurricanes became the most popular band on Merseyside. That is, until the Beatles came along."

Look closely and you'll see that Johnny Byrne's Guyatone has a Kauffman "Vib-Ro-La", which is an American-made part. How did this Japanese-made guitar in Liverpool end up with an American-made oddball vibrato which was originally designed for a steel guitar in the 1930s?

John Lennon bought a 1958 Rickenbacker 325 short-scale guitar, V81, in 1961. It came equipped with a Kauffman Vib-Ro-La, invented by "Doc" Kauffman (yes, of Fender fame) for Rickenbacker steel guitars in 1937, and adapted by Doc for use on Spanish-type guitars of all sizes.

Lennon hated the Kauffman and took his Rick to Hessey's Music Store in Liverpool, to have the Kauffman removed and a "proper" Bigsby B5 installed. This was done on the spot at Hessey's. The Vib-Ro-La from Lennon's Rickenbacker was purchased by Johnny Byrne and installed on his own Guyatone. At the time, Ringo was with the Hurricanes. Small world, innit?

BTW, the B5 on V81 is about 5% smaller than the American-made original B5 was. This is because the European factory that made the B5s under license from Bigsby, used an actual American B5 as a casting pattern for their own B5s, instead of creating their own wooden pattern 5% oversized. So, the Selmer B5s from Europe are smaller than their American contemporaries.

Dave, my Guyatone has those cheapo Japanese open-backed tuners with the parallelogram footprint and white plastic knobs.

Wow ! I wonder what ever happened to that guitar? Never new it was a "Lennon collectable".





Here is guitar from auction above

1950's GUYATONE MODEL LG-60B

First (bandstand) shot above shows the Guyatone with Kauffman installed. Bottom, posed, shot shows it with a trapeze tailpiece, probably the original.

Thanks Desertan on the tuners - presumably the same then as the ones in that ebay auction I posted up thread? Looking at them the base of the tuner is the same as the indentation on the headstock of mine. I wonder where I can get some decent ones - repros will do for performance. Not arsed about spending load

Also: Great story on that Guyatones history! LOVE THAT

TIM: I DONE FORGOT TO MEASURE - will do tonight chap.

I'm going to change the title of this thread to a general Guyatone thingy. I LOVE these guitars and be good to have a thread on the general subject and maybe folks googling will stumble across it and add over time.

Deserttan - deffo post some pics sometime - be cool to see what you've got, or what you come up with!

Dave:

Those tuners up-thread are sort of rectangular in footprint...the ones on mine had parallelogram-shaped baseplates, with two acute angles and two obtuse. I have several sets of these from different Guyas, Teiscos, etc. There was even a Rickenbacker student guitar that used these back in the '60s...

Maybe tonight I can get some pics.

Well, anyway, here's a pic of the carcass--so badly abused that I'm simply remaking it, top to bottom.