the Challange

Music and the collecting of different music gadgets often seam like a huge challange. At least thats a fact on my behalf. A challange I do enjoy every minute of.  It also seams like a standard that guitarplayers try to get more and more guitars. Almost like having a couple of mistresses.

New songs have been written and the latest one is possible to hear at HypedSound. One among many. Natuarly in My dreams its a real Hit-song that is going to make me a millionare! That is if someone ever listen´s to it.


outer room at "dare studio´s" 
here´s where amps, PA-systems, old posters and some guitars is stored.

So it´s a lot safer to stick to the collecting of various music gadgets. Most of them with the hope to find the perfect sound in My demo-recordings. A problem not at all uncommon is the lack of money.  That´s the one reason why I have buildt a few guitar. Like me latest that already have been shown here. The "dare Burns 4-pickup clone. 


the "dare Burns 4-pickup Bass clone" 
at last sounding great and a very useful tool! At the cost of 30,oo£

Everytime I try to build a guitar seams like a race at the start. From idea to some kind of guitar it only a short while, followed by weeks and month´s where the actual guitar is to be play´d and adjusted. In regards of the bass, it turned out great exept for a hmmings grounding sound that the other day was solved with a small piece of kitchen folie. 

All of a sudden the guitar was quite, and a hole lot mor fun to play on. oin fact it is as good as most of those basses that can be bought on todays market. Still to come is the finishing touch.

An exchange of amp´s lead to a really nice VOX AD30 combo. Perfect in many ways, for its size and the fantastic sound it delivers. Those partly solid state VOX´s is really something special. A great amp even compared to the old tube amp´s. And they seam to cost very little money as second hand. 


the "VOX AD30VTX" combo. a great sounding little gadget.

Back to music where my latest piece of music was recorded a couple of days ago. Woke up in the middle of the night hearing it´s leadguitar in my head, I went out to my small Studio and in a couple of hours it was recorded. 

A new finding at a fleamarket in Uddevalla was now added and used for the first time. 

As usual I use My CASIO CTK keyboard to get a useful drumsection, adding all other instruments one by one in true old fashion tape recording style. This time the almost 10,oo£ JEN Lincoln organ was used. this organ was during the 60´s also sold under other brandname´s. Among them VOX! Made in Italy as lots of other oprgans was during this period. Before putting it to use it was cleaned inside so it did sound exactly as when it was brand new.

"JEN-Lincoln Stereo organ" organ from the early 60´s

Searching for mor musicgadets goes on all  the time and wisiting various scrapyards sometime end up in a nice gadget for free. Last week it was a 1987 Yamaha C1 music computer! Sold as new in the pricerange of 4500,oo £ picked up for free! I dont have a clue in what can be made with such a gadget, as far as I understand it was made for use with a synthesizer of some kind, but I couldnt leave it at the scrapyard and hopefully soon someone will have a need for this item.

The chanse to find a vintae electric guitar at LOW prices seam´s almost impossible today. All the Fenders, Gibsons, Burns aso guitars seam to be found already and do have a pricetag compareble to a nice car. o find old electric guitars for sale at low prices isnt common. In fact today it seams impossible to find the really nice guitars as barnfinds. But it may happen, and the funny thing is that today those guitars does not have to be good instruments. Some vintage guitars was real crap as new, and not at all better by todays standards.

the Egmond Solid 7, before cleaning and polish

One of Europe´s most wellknown producers was the Dutsch company Egmond who made something looking like nice guitars, but often they was inpossible to use as guitars already as brand new. In Sweden the main part of those guitars was sold on postal order at very low prices.

picture showing the nicely curb´d neck

So today as me love and her mother went sight seeing among fancy gardens, we did not inly find a real nice garden with lots of flowers. In the owners garage that we had to pass on our way out from the premesis caused by heavy rain, I spotted an old 60´s Egmond guitar. A quick discussion regarding its value resulted in a new-old guitar.

Egmond Solid 7

polish´d, vax´d and looking real nice

This Egmond Solid 7, with three pickups and lots of styling did look okey. Even if its neck looked like a bow without arrows. Anyway as soon as We arrived home I dismanled the guitar and started ot clean - polish the guitar. 

three pickups and an amazing tremolo.

After a couple of hours it did look if not as new, at least very good with almost no scratches and dents. the main problem was left to the neck, that is going to be reinforced to straiten it up and take the thing back to  the guitarworld.

the Egmond Solid 7, ca 1958-62

with it three pickups and extremly funny tremolo it seam to be very rare. Well as far as I know Paul Mc Cartney used one in the Beatles early days.

What about all those Strat´s?

Well what about all those Stratocaster. I guess that Leo Fender´s intentions´s was to produce a cheap fairly good electric guitar for the common people. First the Telecaster then later the Stratocaster. To guitarplayers in Europe they could have been real bargains but the cost of freight from USA and tolls made them expensive.

In the late 60´s early 70´s Japan beguin producing copies of Fenders. Natuarly Fender did loose a lot of money, but found a sollution after a coupke if years. They started to make copies of their own guitars in Asia.

Among all Fender US, Fender Mexico, Squire theres still loads of copies made looking as the original Fenders, Gibson and many other brands.

Is those lowprice Fenders and all the other good guitars!? Value for the money. What makes the price difference between a US made guitar and one made somewhere else in the world. 

And can I as a potential buyer trust the company  that the guitar named and badged as a US Fender really is made 100% in US. they all look similar, they all share the exact same shape and form. Fender would really earn loads of money if the main part of their guitars was made in Asia, then transported as part and finally assambled in the US.

Here is a load of pictures of different Strats by Fender. Also a few copies made by other companies.

got me hands on a Squire Strat 2006 today, and after a couple of hours of intonation, adjusting, grinding and finishing the guitar was not bad at all. In fact it felt, it sounded and look as good as a US Strat sold at 10 times the money.

 Here pics of two non original Strats. The one on top was imported from Japan in the early 80´s. An extremly good Strat, far better then most Strat+s I ever hade the chanse to play. Everyting on this guitar is Top Class, and in a discussion with the importer He told that they was really expensive back then.

The Ibanez Roadstar, an other Strat copy of high quality.

Stratocasters can be found in the pricerange of 50,oo£ to 15000,oo£ (a 1961 secondhand Strat)

the Stratocaster is possibly the best known electric guitar design in the world. If its the best is up to you. But then again, whats the value in the Stratocaster Jaguar / Harley Davidson editions at app 3000,oo£ compared to the much cheaper Squire´s and copies. 

With the same drawings, construction machines producing similar guitars in different countries. Is there really such a big difference? On my behalf I dont think so. Different blind test among guitarplayers, shop personal that can be seen on YouTube. I might be right... It seams even for Fender dealer staff to tell witch guitar is the expensive and lowprice.