What guitar is this ?

spantini

spantini

COO of me, inc.
This is from the mid 60's. Body shaped like a Strat, but the bridge pickup, cord socket and almost clear signage on headstock are from another world.

what guitar.jpg
 
Even blurred, I was guessing that name was Höfner, but I wasn't going to bet my life on it. How 'bout that. I couldn't pick up on the switches and rotary knob on the horn because they blur into the pickguard. Thanks Rich ;)

I went looking for what the hell "DECANT" on the middle PU switch means and found these - the video is a slightly different Galaxie model, but still a nice demo :

guitarz.blogspot.com

1966 Hofner Galaxie in absolutely beautiful condition on eBay

guitarz.blogspot.com : With a starting price of £799 on eBay UK right now, this Hofner Galaxie is in such wonderfully good condition for...
guitarz.blogspot.com guitarz.blogspot.com

 
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mixsit said:
On another note, I know damn well when I see a Sears Silvertone :rolleyes:
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Lordy, don't get me started on the Sears Silvertone. My first guitar was a single pickup Dano built Silvertone. I didn't get the case with the amp tho. I think dad paid $10 for it used, and that was probably overpriced. It was made from masonite (the finest pressed tonewood ever created), had action almost as high as a lapsteel guitar and the gorgeous black sparkle finish. I couldn't get rid of that guitar fast enough. What a piece of S**T! I suffered with it for almost a year.

Then I see them selling for $800 or more on Reverb and I think "are they crazy"?
 
Somewhere in the early to mid 60's, I was hanging with my best friend at his house and he pulled out an electric guitar. I didn't know jack from guitars at the time. He said his dad bought it for him at the Sears store. The name Kay was on it. We both handled it for a while, then he put it away and I never saw it again - he was not a guitarist. IIRC, it was sort of a light monochrome colored body, not a sunburst.

I found this sunburst/tobacco on GC's used page :

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/K...-Electric-Guitar.gc?cntry=us&source=4SOS0DRBA
 
Kay made a lot of student level guitars. They were a bit like Valco, in that they made stuff for retailers like Sears and Western Auto at a time where everyone wanted to sell guitars. Mail order catalogs like Service Merchandise and JC Penny often had some Kay guitars in them. Most of them that I remember seeing were acoustics, but they made archtops and electrics too.
 
TalismanRich said:
Lordy, don't get me started on the Sears Silvertone. My first guitar was a single pickup Dano built Silvertone. I didn't get the case with the amp tho. I think dad paid $10 for it used, and that was probably overpriced. It was made from masonite (the finest pressed tonewood ever created), had action almost as high as a lapsteel guitar and the gorgeous black sparkle finish. I couldn't get rid of that guitar fast enough. What a piece of S**T! I suffered with it for almost a year.

Then I see them selling for $800 or more on Reverb and I think "are they crazy"?
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I had friends who worked in the danelectro factory in Neptune N.J. The lipstick pickups are just that. The owner went over to Canal St. in NYC, rows of surplus stores and found the lipstick tubes and bought them really cheap.
 
Yeah, DG. I heard about them buying surplus tubes for the pickups. That funny, but clever on Daniel's part. Cheap was the name of the game.

As a 10 yr old, I had no more idea of what good or bad sound was, so the lipstick pickups were fine. I didn't have an amp anyway. I used my dad's reel to reel deck, plugged in an external speaker, pressed the "record" button and it would amplify the guitar. My first amp came a year or more later.

It was the horrible action that was the deal breaker, which seems to be an issue with a lot of the cheap student guitars of the period. Mine was a real pain to play, especially with a 10 yr old's tender fingers. Today, I could probably have adjusted it or taken it to a luthier to set it up, but at that point, I was clueless. I was supposed to practice for 30 minutes every day. That was a struggle! G-C-E... 1, 2, 3. G-C-E... 1, 2, 3. G-B-F... 1, 2, 3. G-B-G... 1, 2, 3. OUCH!!!

I still remember my first guitar lesson, 60 years later. It left an impression!
 
TalismanRich said:
Lordy, don't get me started on the Sears Silvertone. My first guitar was a single pickup Dano built Silvertone. I didn't get the case with the amp tho. I think dad paid $10 for it used, and that was probably overpriced. It was made from masonite (the finest pressed tonewood ever created), had action almost as high as a lapsteel guitar and the gorgeous black sparkle finish. I couldn't get rid of that guitar fast enough. What a piece of S**T! I suffered with it for almost a year.

Then I see them selling for $800 or more on Reverb and I think "are they crazy"?
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:facepalm: Back when I had two buds w/ the Silvertones- bass, had the 2-12 cab, guit' had the 6-10 cab (go figure).. and the case w/ amp.
Hell should mention.. I had a Gibson Falcon, steel player.. he had the Hawk. :>)
 
TalismanRich said:
Yeah, DG. I heard about them buying surplus tubes for the pickups. That funny, but clever on Daniel's part. Cheap was the name of the game.

As a 10 yr old, I had no more idea of what good or bad sound was, so the lipstick pickups were fine. I didn't have an amp anyway. I used my dad's reel to reel deck, plugged in an external speaker, pressed the "record" button and it would amplify the guitar. My first amp came a year or more later.

It was the horrible action that was the deal breaker, which seems to be an issue with a lot of the cheap student guitars of the period. Mine was a real pain to play, especially with a 10 yr old's tender fingers. Today, I could probably have adjusted it or taken it to a luthier to set it up, but at that point, I was clueless. I was supposed to practice for 30 minutes every day. That was a struggle! G-C-E... 1, 2, 3. G-C-E... 1, 2, 3. G-B-F... 1, 2, 3. G-B-G... 1, 2, 3. OUCH!!!

I still remember my first guitar lesson, 60 years later. It left an impression!
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I never took a formal guitar lesson.
 
I took for almost 2 years, when I was 10-12 yrs old. They wanted me to play songs from the 30s and 40s written in books with notes. It didn't go well. I wanted to play The Kinks, Beach Boys and stuff.

There are times when I wish I could understand some of the stuff that I hear good jazz players doing, but my brain doesn't work that way.
 
TalismanRich said:
I took for almost 2 years, when I was 10-12 yrs old. They wanted me to play songs from the 30s and 40s written in books with notes. It didn't go well. I wanted to play The Kinks, Beach Boys and stuff.

There are times when I wish I could understand some of the stuff that I hear good jazz players doing, but my brain doesn't work that way.
Click to expand...
I wound up taking two semesters of Music Theory when I attended the local CC in the late seventies. I had been playing about 15 years by that time.
 
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