ELECTRICIZED

Brian May Special

2006-Present
Mahogany, Ebony

Family-built by Brian May and his father, the Red Special has been reproduced several times by brands like Guild and Burns since the eighties. In 2006, May created ‘Brian May Guitars’ to market his own take on the ‘Old lady’. Loaded with three Burns Tri-sonic pups, it’s a great quality instrument for $800. 

Fender Voyager

2012
Maple,Ebony

One of Fender’s prototype at NAMM 2012 this winter was the Fender Voyager. Designed by former Charvel master builder Josh Hurt, the Voyager has their pickups hidden below the pickguard, just like on the original Fender Marauder

Gibson CS Marc Bolan Les Paul

2011-2012
Maple, Mahogany, Ebony

Marc Bolan’s Les Paul was a FrankenPaul. It was built out of several LPs from different eras. Its whereabouts are unknown, but Gibson believed its last state to be a 50s Les Paul body with a 70s LP Custom neck. That’s on these specs that they built the Custom Shop Marc Bolan signature Les Paul. Of course, its a limited run of 100, on top of which another 350 VOS have been produced.

The aged finish may be called ‘Bolan Chablis’, its not by licking the maple top that you’ll get a proper taste out of this axe.

Photo by the Music Zoo

Gibson Byrdland

1955-Present
Spruce, Maple, Ebony

The name Byrdland is a mashup of the names of Billy Bird and Hank Garland the two guitarists who participated in its design. They had requested a short scale archtop that would be less bulky than the traditional hollowbody, and this is basically what they got: A short-scale thinline L5CES.

P90s, PAF pickups, venetian or florentine cutaway, the Gibson Byrdland went through several phases, but was always seen as a remarkable and prized instrument. Some of Gibson’s finest. Hear it

Photo: Georgesmusic

Magneto Velvet

2011-Present
Mahogany, Maple top, Rosewood

One thing to know about Magneto guitars is that they are entirely, and beautifully, hand crafted — a rare feat in the modern world. Magneto founder and luthier Christian Hatstatt was inspired by the powerful sound of Gibson SGs when he designed this Magneto Velvet. Two Lollar Imperial pickups deliver a sound with a lot of emphasis on the mids and an impressive sustain. Visually, the guitar looks stunningly clean, and the hand rub oil finish really makes the grain of the wood shine. Nice job Frenchies. Hear it.

Dunlop Tortex Pick

1972-Present
Thermoplastic

Since an international ban on tortoiseshell in 1973, Dunlop has been successfully offering the most iconic and recognizable pick in guitar history. The variety of colors/thicknesses makes any decently obsessed guitarist want to try them all. And that logo is spot on. Keep smiling, Turtey.

Yamaha SLG-100

2000s-Present
Maple, Mahogany, Rosewood

Yamaha came up with a new line of guitar called Silent Guitars in the early 2000s. Basically electro-acoustics with a headphone jack, the SLG are available with nylon strings (SLG-100N) or steel strings (SLG-100S). Yamaha also included a set of FX controls: Two reverbs, a chorus and a delay. The Silent Guitar has been designed with travelling guitarists in mind, as the frame can be dismantled easily. Hear it

Misa Digital Kitara

2010-Present

And now for something completely new and different, here is a digital guitar that is basically the evolution of our beloved 80s synth guitars. The guitar hides a LINUX OS in its shell. Just like a Guitar Hero instrument, you press buttons instead of strings, but unlike the video game, It has 24 frets with 6 buttons on each, and a very cool strumming pad.

It has both MIDI and standard output, and it seems possible to pull few pink-floydish sounds out of it. +1 for the design effort. Hear it laser

Teuffel Tesla Prodigy

2001

While Gibson tries hard to appear on the forefront of innovation (with its painful and unconvincing Firebird X), others feel already at ease. Hard to believe this Teuffel guitar hosts an ultra compact 30” scale.

2010 Hutchins Eliminator, made in UK

Recent Eastman AR810CE-17 Uptown Professional

Although he also played 6 strings, Morphine’s Mark Sandman was mostly known as a bass player. Didn’t stop Waterstone music from releasing this Waterstone Mark Sandman Tribute series in 2010

2010 Taylor T5-X Ovangkol

2011 EVH Wolfgang Stealth. By the way, EVH stands for Eddie Van Halen.

Chicago based Hanson Guitars have a nice set of original designs at a very reasonable price. For instance, this Hanson Cigno with 3 P90 pickups.

http://www.hansonguitars.com