Unidentified guitar(s) - att: Wingsdad

[tjcurtin1]

I should have separated this out from my post on seeing John Hiatt live. I figure someone here (I'm guessing our in-house expert on all guitar things particular and exotic, Wingsdad will know) will be able to ID the guitar in the photo and the one described...

Doug Lancio is the guitarist on Hiatt;s current tour and new CD. He had a big rack of guitars that he was constantly cycling through! Some - the Gretsch country gentleman, the tele and the LP - were immediately recognizable, but several were not. I found a photo pf Lancio with one of them -

I've never seen anything like it but I'm sure someone here will know what it is. He played this to great effect - a big, punchy sound - in Riding with the King.

He also played a strange little paddle-shaped body, short-necked, 12 string thing with two lipstick pups, also to nice effect but I forget which song...

 

[wingsdad]

Flattery may get you somewhere, tj...

There's been one just like it in a local pawn shop here for about a year. (So why haven't I scooped it up, you may ask? Not in good shape...)

That's a Harmony Rocket, 60's vintage, made in Chicago, when Harmony made guitars for Sears (as Silvertone brand), Montgomery Wards (as Airline brand), et al., available by catalog order.
Here's the details:

Harmony Rocket H59

I gotta think about that funky little 12 string, though...the lipstick pups hint 'Danelectro' maybe, but...the short neck and paddle body suggest it may be some kind of electric mando...sure it had 12 strings?

 

[markb]

Yep, Harmony Rocket, the poor man's Gretsch. These sound great but prices are rising and quality is spotty.

 

[tjcurtin1]

Aha! I knew that 'someone' (in this case, more than one someone!) would know. The Harmony sure did have a great sound - it really projected with punch. Kinda funny looking (in a 60's way) with all those knobs along the lower bout. Thanks guys! Curious minds just had to know...

The other guitar/or.. : it looked like more than 8 pegs on a side, but maybe not; and the neck, while short for a guitar seemed long for a mando, but in retrospect that well may be what it was - had a space-agey kind of look.

 

[wingsdad]

Aha! I knew that 'someone' (in this case, more than one someone!) would know.

...I was thinkin' markb would stroll in...there's your treeasure trove of knowledge:AOK

..The other guitar/or.. : it looked like more than 8 pegs on a side, but maybe not; and the neck, while short for a guitar seemed long for a mando, but in retrospect that well may be what it was - had a space-agey kind of look.

I had to look around to find one, but when you described 'paddle-shaped body', the first & only thing that came to mind was the Vox Phantom series, a mid-60's 'space-age' line. But the lipstick pups hung me up...anyway...here's a Phantom XII on sale at a Chicago store...Holy Vibrato, Batman! A Bigsby (type) unit on a 12???

Tom Petty has used a Phantom XII on stage; Brian Jones and Bill Wyman used 'em in the early Stones...as did Paul Revere & The Raider's guitar & bass players. I remember checking them out as a teen...they had necks like 2x4's.

 

[tjcurtin1]

Hmmm... wasn't that one; The body was more rounded (almost an oval) as I recall; a silvery-blue sparkle finish, lipstick pups at neck and middle, so maybe also at the bridge (covered by his right hand)? The headstock was dark colored, narrower at the top and flaring out on both sides (symmetrically) towards the neck.

 

[wingsdad]

...hmmm...sure sounds 'Danelectro-like'...or maybe Coral, a close relative...one of Vinny Bell's oddball 60's creations...Bellzouki, Electric 'Sitar'...

 

[markb]

A handy little site about VOX guitars.

The more oval "teardrop" Mark guitars have been copied a lot with various pickups over the years. In fact I remember a load were "found" in the Eko factory around 1980 or so (I'm not sure how you lose a few thousand guitars for ten years) and sold as new in the UK. They were actually a good deal at the time selling for less than a vintage model.

Brandoni in the UK bought all the remaining Eko stocks when the Castelfidardo factory was closed down. They can still make you a "new guitar out of (mostly) 1960s Eko parts.

http://www.brandoniguitars.co.uk/vox.asp

 

[tjcurtin1]

Those Vox's are quite cool - the more I look at them the more I like them!
The teardrop shape is closer to what Lancio was playing, but more oval, but still - different headstock. Also, the lipstick pups were surrounded by a white pick guard (like a strat). Thanks for the efforts, Mark!