Rob’s World of Unusual, Unique, and Ugly Guitars

09/23/2024

It’s Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend and first day of fall.

We kick off the week with this very unique antler bass. I don’t know anything about it but it looks difficult to play. If this was a production instrument what would its name be?

09/21/2024

Saturday is finally here and to wrap up the week, we have this very unique headless bass from the 80s, the da 1984 Riverhead Unicorn bass. 

Riverhead was a brand established in Japan in 1984 by Satoshi “Kei” Yatsuzuka who founded Headway Guitars and its parent company, Deviser. Riverhead guitars were all made in Japan and exported mainly to the United States and Canada.

The Riverhead Unicorns were patterned after the Burns Flyte style guitars but as a headless version. Unlike other headless basses that used double-ball strings, for instance Steinberger guitars, the Unicorn basses used regular single-ball bass strings.

Due to to an economic crisis in Japan production of these guitars was suspended after only on year. The brand was revived in 1992 but only sold domestically in Japan.

This guitar was for sale recently on Facebook Marketplace for $750 I’ve personally never seen or played one of these but I would have loved to have gotten my hands on this one. I love headless basses.

I hope everyone has enjoyed this week of bass guitars. Have a great, fun and safe weekend.

09/20/2024

09/20/2024

Today we have a really cool hand built copy of a Rickenbacker style bass. It has a neck thru design and custom design that’s been carved into the top of the bass. It was recently for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $250. I wish that I could have picked this one up but it sold very quickly.

09/19/2024

I know a lot of guitarists whose favorite pedal is this one.

09/19/2024

I’m not sure why anyone would do this to such a cool Fender Musicmaster bass. They should have had their ass kicked. I’m guessing it wouldn’t fit in the case.

09/18/2024

Epic rock n’roll tattoo fail.

09/18/2024

It’s once again ‘Rockstar Wednesday’ where we take a look at the guitars of the stars and tributes to them both.

Today we have four beautiful signature model basses from Lakland that pay tribute to one of my rock n’ roll heroes, Geezer Butler.

Terence Michael Joseph “Geezer” Butler was a founding member, primarily lyricist, and bass player for Black Sabbath as well as bass player for Heaven & Hell, his own band GZR, and Ozzy Osborne. He’s played on over 25 studio and live albums and EPs.

In addition to Lakland basses, Butler endorses DR Strings, Hartke amplifiers and EMG pickups, which I use.

09/17/2024

Today we have a really cool cigar box bass. I love these.
I am working on one of these myself.

09/16/2024

Good Monday morning! I hope everyone had a great weekend. This week on the page is bass week. No particular reason why, I just have a lot of pictures of bass guitars that I’ve had saved for a while and need to share with you all.

To kick things off, today we have the Yamaha BX-1 headless bass. These MIJ instruments were introduced in the mid 1980’s by Yamaha as their entry into the headless craze at the time, kicked off by Steinberger. Unlike the Steinberger, these used standard, single ball strings instead of double-ball ended strings.

These can be picked up on the used market for $850 - $1300.

09/15/2024

2 used Gibson guitars just in:
Custom Shop Murphy aged 58 Goldtop reissue,
Cherry ES-335.
Stop by and have a look!

09/15/2024

I rarely play guitar anymore but prefer .10’s on my SG. On a Strat I would put .11’s to .13’s. After playing bass for so long, light gauge strings kill my fingers.

Thoughts?

09/14/2024

Today we have a very unique three string guitar. These are usually tuned in an open chord and played with a slide. To me this sort of looks like a bloated Charvel Surfcaster. I do really like finish and wood that reminds me of an old wooded butcher block.

09/13/2024

For Friday the 13th.
I’m with the Wolf. I’m not superstitious at all. I will walk under a black cat, step on a cracks, drop salt, and not worry if a ladder crosses my path. 😀
What’s a superstition that you have?

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, ...

09/13/2024

It’s finally Friday and we’ve got a unique one for y’all today.

The asymmetrical body with longer lower horn gives this one a unique look that sets it apart from other hollow body guitars such as a Gibson or Harmony.

When I first saw it, I thought maybe it was some sort of a Rickenbacker. However, this is actually a made in Japan Yamaha SA-15 hollow body from the 1960s. You can find one of these unique guitars on the vintage market for $550-$850.

09/12/2024

You don’t see many of these 1937 Gibson EH-150 10-string lap steel guitars around.

09/11/2024

It’s once again ‘Rockstar Wednesday’ where we take a look at the guitars of the stars and the tributes to them.

Today we have the 1985 Kramer Billy Squire. It's basically a Les Paul
Junior model with a six on one side ‘hockey stick’ headstock.

This guitar featured a locking tremolo system, P90 pickup, and a Telecaster like control plate.

There's really not a lot going on here. It has a simple, clean look that blends classic and contemporary styling into a cool Les Paul style guitar.

09/11/2024

Bass-cycle!

09/10/2024

Today we have a very cool tribute to ‘The Walking Dead’. I’ve never watched a single episode of the hit TV show but I know many fans who would love this Peavey Rockmaster guitar which was recently for sale on Facebook Marketplace.

09/09/2024

Good Monday morning! I hope everybody had a great weekend.

Today’s guitar comes to us from eBay. The other day I searched simply for “electric guitar“ on eBay and sorted the results by the most expensive first. This was the top result.

This is a 2004 made in Mexico Fender Stratocaster tribute to rapper Nipsey Hussle. I admittedly don’t know much about Nipsey Hussle, but I didn’t know he was widely known for his guitar playing, so I’m not really sure why there is a guitar tribute. Hussle was shot and killed in 2019 at the age of 33.

I don’t know if someone was really serious, had a sense of humor, were just looking for a sucker, or if their finger got stuck to the zero key.

This guitar had a buy it now price of $3.3M (or best offer). That’s $3,300,000. I could see maybe $3,300, if it was for charity or a good cause, but that would be the limit. Also, why use a 2004 Mexican Strat for a tribute? Why not at least a 2019 guitar and why not a USA made guitar?

Incidentally, the next two most expensive guitars that I saw were an ESP Explorer type guitar played by James Hetfield(Metallica) for only $500,000 and a 1965 Gibson SG owned and played by Angus Young(AC/DC) for $275,000. 

09/07/2024

It’s finally the weekend and today we have a real dog of a guitar for you guys. Really. It’s a dog guitar.

From Grant Guitars it’s the Barkcaster!

I wonder if I could get a doodle bass, made to look like one of mine?

Whether you’re on the couch watching some football or out enjoying the last few weeks of summer, have a fun and safe weekend and thanks for supporting the page.

09/07/2024

Unnecessary chrome makes everything cooler. I like bridge and pickup covers on my basses too but this is too much of a good thing.

09/06/2024

Not much I can really say. This one speaks for itself.

09/04/2024

It’s once again ‘Rockstar Wednesday’ and today we have a really interesting one for you guys. This one comes to us direct from Charvel’s page and with quite a pedigree.

This is a Charvel built for the original Superfreak himself, Rick James. It is now owned by Mick Mars of Motley Crue. Very cool!