GuyaTone guitars

[Clive Hugh]

I have just started refretting an old GuyaTone guitar, the model is Resonet, it has a maple one piece neck and fretboard, bolt on style.
It was made in 1963 and has the most amazing tremolo/vibrato block I have ever seen, really intricate in its workings compared with the Fender of the day. I haven't got round to dismantling it to see what all the screws do.
The body is Jazzmaster shape and 25.5" scale.
Does anybody know anything about these guitars?

It has spent it's life on remote cattle stations in the outback of Western Australia and the Northern Territory, it looks it too, it must have a hell of a history.
The owner is an old Aboriginal stockman (cowboy) and has owned it since new but he came in out of the bush, left it with the music shop I do repairs for and went bush again, telling them he will come back in a few months for it.
In the meantime I am curiouser than hell about it.

Clive

 

[eyeslikefire]

In the meantime I am curiouser than hell about it.

So am I!
Post a pict.

 

[dr.colossus]

i have a guyatone strat copy (ser # 1975101, so im guessing its a '75 model).... got it for $150aus....

it has a very sweet neck, and is very easy to play, but the sound is nothing to write home about... this is about all i know about guyatones, then again i am a drummer... hope i helped a little

 

[Clive Hugh]

Eyeslikefire and Dr.Colossus,
Sorry, I can't post a picture as I don't have a digital camera, Doc, I got a reply from Guyatone and they stopped making in the 70's, if you take the neck off it will have the date of manufacture under the heel.
The neck is battered as hell but still straight, it has shrunk with the dry conditions we have here but I got all the frets out real easy, which can be a pain with a laquered maple fretboard and am waiting for the new ones to arrive. If I can get a pic done I will post it.
Clive

 

[harpnguit]

guyatone

i have a star(brand) guitar, given to me by the aboriginals, and it was sitting in peices in the shed for 10 years. i was to busy making guitars and harps. it has a suzuki capacitor in it and i thought it was an early cheap guitar by suzuki. so, one day i thought i'd put it together and found that under the pickup cover was engraved GUYATONE! i didn't really know anything about that brand, then someone told me that rye cooder played a guyatone, big deal i thought. anyway, seeing it is a short scale neck i tuned it to open tuning E. wow, what a nice surprise.
Now this guitar is my favourite . i think its the best guitar i've ever heard! the recording sound and big sustain is nothing short of amazing!!!! throw the gibsons and strats away!! and the small thin body is really cool. it has a serial number, very faded, behind the head. but as expected i can't find it on the internet. hope this is of interest

 

[Clive Hugh]

I haven't seen the one I repaired since the owner picked it up, but it did sound good through my Fender Twin.
I recently was browsing a book about the Beatles and on the cover was George Harrison playing the same model.

 

[harpnguit]

thanks for writing, i didn't know if this thread was still active or what. i'm off to live in scotland in a few weeks so i'll pick up an old valve amp over there especially for this guyatone.

 

[doppler]

Hey this is my first time her and i couldn't leave with out tellin my guya story.
I got it from a friend's cousin who's mom (well his family) lived in Nicaragua , during the years of the "guerrilla" ( thats around1980) thieves broke in to her house cleaning the place, they took tvs,stereos and all the valuable stuff, but guess what....they could'nt carry everything they had stolen( it happens they stole in 3 or 4 houses in a row), so when this lady came home she didn't find her families home appliances, instead of that she found a guitar. Then she moved to Honduras (my home country). also in central america .So i bought it in 1999 and i had it since.It appears to have been made in the early '70s, color sunburst , and it looks like a inverted strat.
it needs new pickups, and the tremolo bridge needs to be fixed/changed. i guess thats about it . thats the story of the central american guyatone.

 

[tourettes5139]

Cool story man! And welcome to the boards!