Fender Stratocaster 1963 Jimi Hendrix owned

This Fender Stratocaster serial L14985 was manufactured in 1963. It  was owned  and used by Jimi Hendrix, and comes with a notarized letter from his brother, Leon Hendrix, which indicates, that Jimi had this guitar at his home in Benedict Canyon, L.A, in 1968, and that he used it in Juggy Sound studios in New York.

Check this incredible guitar out here

The package also includes an additional letter from Leon with more info: that the guitar was subsequently given to the studio owner and was used as an in-house instrument until the owner’s passing. Furthermore it also comes with photos of Leon holding and playing this guitar. This is a real “insider” guitar with an unique provenance, signed and notarized, from Jimi’s own brother, Leon Hendrix.

It’s the real deal!

Jeff Buckley owned Fender Telecaster 1983 Butterscotch

We are currently offering Jeff Buckleys Fender Telecaster 1983 Butterscotch in collaboration with Chelsea Guitars, NY.
This is the Telecaster he used throughout his short performing and recording life.
The guitar is owned by a close friend of Jeff’s who sadly needs to sell it. With all proof and paperwork.
You can see Jeff using this guitar live from the concert DVD “Live In Chicago 1995″
Please contact us if you are interested in this guitar. Full story and more pics available from VintageandRare.com.
Jeff´s Fender Telecaster guitar for sale on Vintage and Rare here
Jeff Buckley Fender Telecaster 1983 Butterscotch, Original Mystery White Boy

 

Mad Professor Amps Boutique Guitar Amplification and Stompbox Effects Pedals

On this video from winter NAMM 2011, Harri is taking us through the new amps & pedals from Mad Professor

Old School 11 combo and Old School 21 combo, Stone Grey Distortion and Blueberry Bass Overdrive.

Nicolai from V&R on Mad Professor: “About five to six years ago I purchased an original 1981 Gibson Flying V Korina guitar from a gentleman in UK.

He told me he was selling his beloved Flying V to raise money for what he called the worlds best amplifier – the CS-40 amphead from Mad Professor Amplification.
That was the first time I came across the magnificent scandinavian boutique amp & pedals company from Finland – Mad Professor Amps.”

At that time we were taking our first babysteps with Vintage & Rare and one day I called up Harri Koski and told him about our project – V&R. We have now been working closely with Harri and his team since then and are proud to have
Mad Professor onboard with us.
Hope this will inspire you.

All the best,
Nicolai & Team

Interview with Kim Kix of PowerSolo

Yesterday VintageandRareTV went to Kødbyen in Copenhagen to meet up with Kim Kix of Danish band PowerSolo. Kix and PowerSolo held a release party for their fifth album “Buzz Human” at the venue Bakken.

Kim shows us his vintage Höfner guitar and talks about his live setup of pedals and his amps and reveals a couple of future plan for the band.

“Buzz Human” is out on Crunchy Frog on Monday, February the 14th.

Enjoy!

Fibenare Guitars

On Winter NAMM 2011 we had the pleasure of meeting Gábor Goldschmidt from renowned Hungarian guitar company, Fibenare Guitars.
Gábor tells us about the Fibenare company and shows us their new beautiful line of guitars.
Fibenare Guitars was founded by the Benedek Brothers, Attila, Csaba and Árpád

All of the Benedek familily are musicians and have all studied classical music throughout the years in their hometown, Kecskemét.
Thanks to its musical tradition, Kecskemét is well-known all over the world for its musical education and Zoltán KODÁLY. His approach and methods are used today in more than 50 countries world wide.!

Around 1990, The Benedek Brothers was encouraged by their father, József Benedek, to start building their own guitars. From early on the three brothers were very interested in rock, blues, jazz and ofcourse electric guitars – because of the iron curtain Gibson and Fender guitars were very expensive and good ones were very hard to find around this time.
At VintageandRare we are proud to be working with Fibenare Guitars and hope this video will inspire you.

All the best,
Nicolai & team.

Ruokangas Guitars – interview

Next one up in our series of interviews with luthiers is Juha Ruokangas, who for the last 16 years has been an increasingly inspiring player on the guitar building-scene. Vintageandrare.com had a chat with Juha about the qualities of their unique wood and Ruokangas way of advertising for themselves.

Juha Ruokangas – Photo by Ruokangas.com

1. Hello Juha, and thanks for wanting to talk to us!  What made you enter the business?
As a teen I was supposed to become a rockstar – what else! My musician career didn’t pick up the way I hoped so I was kind of drifting around for a couple of years. This was in the beginning of 1990′s – no internet or even cellphones yet invented. I had been repairing guitars a bit since I was a young guy but it just never occurred to me that this could be a profession – until I accidentally heard about this small school in Finland where you can learn to be a luthier / guitarmaker. I applied and got in – and I knew immediately that I had found my true calling. This is my labor of love, truly. And now more than ever I feel I’m on the right path, as the company has grown to a very comfortable size, we’re 5 persons all together and everyone of us enjoys what we’re doing.

2. How did you come up with the idea for your very clever online guitar builder?
I started making guitars for a living in 1995, and I noticed very soon that one of the biggest problems was how to communicate with the customer about all possible options we can offer – and once the option lists were presented, in many cases the result was that the customer was literally paralyzed – so many options, how can the customer be sure to pick the right combination when there’s no chance to even see how it will look like. So I did like everybody else, kept building guitars, and my early website photo galleries grew slowly bigger. And of course I noticed that players are ordering guitars many times on basis what they saw in the galleries – and this was bugging me, cause I knew they would order a wider variety of colors and other specs – if they just knew that they could! So I started a huge website project in 2002 with a great graphics designer and he built me the Mark I of the guitar builder. It was nowhere near as complex a system as what we have now, but it did give us a head start. Now we have the Mark II guitar builder online and it works beautifully. We even published a little iPhone app guitar builder sort of as a teaser of the fully blooded system on our website.

3. How was the first guitar you ever made?
I was told by my teachers that a good start in learning this profession is to learn building what’s already out there. That way you learn the basics, the existing techniques, constructions etc. So I started with a strat replica. I’ve built quite a few of various kinds of replicas in the early days of my career. Stratocasters, Telecasters, Les Pauls etc.

4. Which instrument has made you most proud?

There are so many. Every one of them still feels quite special to me, but of course every now and then there’s something that’s pops out. I’m very proud of the first Unicorn guitar I built. Not only the guitar, but the whole documentation of the design process in the YouTube videos we made. It enabled me to show in detail why my guitars are special. I hadn’t realized the power of videos before that really. Nowadays we do a lot of videos, it’s a great way to be transparent to the clientele.

Ruokangas HQ – Photo from Ruokangas.com

5. What has been your biggest challenge?
I would say that the whole process of starting the business and striving to be the best I ever can – now there’s a big challenge! I’m such a hopeless, romantic idealist that sometimes it drives everybody at the shop crazy. I love to finetune endlessly the whole concept of what ‘Ruokangas Guitars’ is about – and sometimes this happens at the expense of forgetting that we need to sell guitars all the time to survive financially!

6. What made you pick the Arctic Birch for some of your guitars? What is it’s features?
This was a coincidence. I got a piece of beautifully flamed birch from a friend and it was laying around at the shop for quite a while. Then I ended up using the piece on one of the Duke guitars 1999. I completely fell in love with the tone and the unique looks – flamed but not in the same way as maple. Since then I’ve come a long way. The birch we use is quite difficult to find since it’s not such an organized business as revolves around maple in the North America. I can’t call any wood broker for AAA flamed birch tops. I need to go to the sawmills, pick the trees standing up and so on – all totally from scratch. The use of Finnish Arctic Birch has become our most distinct trademark on the market, and I’m really proud of it. Structurally, Finnish Arctic birch is very close to maple. The weight and color are similar to maple as well. The flamed figuration is usually “wilder” than maple. I prefer the birch tone over maple, especially when used in a combination with our other trademark wood, the Spanish Cedar.

The raucous Ruokangas rockers – Photo by www.ruokangas.com

7. Do you feel it as an advantage having so vast amounts of beautiful timber close at hand, being Finnish?
I feel really proud of being able to offer some domestic wood species in my guitars. In some ways it’s an advantage, but also a challenge, knowing how conservative the business is. It’s not so easy to break through with a non-traditional material in this business. I’ve worked on it for nearly 16 years now and only during the last few years I feel the work has started to pay off, as the guitar enthusiasts have seen me around long enough doing what I do.

8. What is your favourite stage of manufacturing a guitar?
The devil is in the details. I love working on the intricate details and to make everything perfect. I don’t mean necessarily an inlay work or anything as striking as that. It could be just the fretboard edge, fret end, nut bone – or whatever detail. Building guitars can be a very “therapeutic” profession – you start building a guitar, and one day not in the too distant future you get it ready – it’s a very rewarding process mentally.

Juha and his work – Photo by www.ruokangas.com

9. What are your ambitions on behalf of Ruokangas?
It’s interesting that even though Emma (my wife) and I work together in the company, we also share our hobbies – so we’re basically never apart! 🙂 We’re both music enthusiasts – we have a rock band called Tadalang – I play the guitar and Emma sings. My brother plays the bass and we have also another guitarist and of course drums. We’re gigging locally and having fun. I love motorbikes too. Rest of the time is more or less family stuff, nice and cosy.

Interview with Henman Guitars, pt. II

As a follow-up to Nicolais chat with Graham Henman from Henman Guitars at NAMM, we got the opportunity to make a small interview with Graham per mail. Here, he you can read more about the story behind the design of the guitars, the significant role, which Graham’s wife Paris plays in this, and the idea behind the stunning photo campaign that promotes Henman Guitars.

1. Hi Graham, thanks again for taking your time to do this. Could you first explain, what made you enter the guitar business?
It was completely by default. A few years ago we were approached to provide the financing for a guitar company. We agreed on the condition that Paris and I designed the instruments.
From that point on, we went full bore into researching every cool vintage guitar from the 50s and 60s.

The guitar builder as a young man – Copyright: Henman Guitars

2. What are your focal points, when planning out the construction of the guitar?
There are 2 main focal points: Modern minimal design and exceptional playability.
First, the designs had to be very modern with a very simplified design aesthetic, but at the same time, evoking the nostalgia and history of classic vintage designs.
And then most importantly, exquisite performance. Superb comfort, balance, ease of playability and great tonal qualities with beautiful sustain and resonance.

3. Could you tell us more about your wife Paris’ role within Henman Guitars?
Paris has a great eye for fashion and good design. She was a fashion stylist for many years, which is actually how we met. She is very visual and sees everything photographically and then I’m the interpreter. We work together like different sides of one brain. Her imprint is everywhere. She and I designed the instruments together.
She also chose all of the color finishes and oversaw all the final sampling and tinting. However if truth be told, she is quite an extreme minimalist and naturally gravitates to a more minimal color palette of black, white, silvers, gunmetals etc, where as I like to push for a bit of color. I like to think we compliment each other.

4. As a photographer, how important are the aesthetics to you, when designing the Henman guitars?
Aesthetics of well designed products are crucial for me. A well designed instrument becomes a piece of art, a piece of history.
It evokes an emotional response that goes beyond its function. The goal is to produce guitars that have the potential to become iconic in years to come.

5. Can you please tell us something about how you came to work with Rick Turner?
After our original collaboration became financially unviable, we did our homework and searched for an ideal partner to help us fully realize the potential of these beautiful instruments.
Rick Turner totally understood what we were trying to achieve and had the pedigree, craftsmanship, experience and most importantly, the dedication to build these instruments to a much higher level of quality craftsmanship than we had experienced before.

6. How did you come up with the idea behind your promotion of your guitars? The look is striking.
I’ve been a director working with clients for many years, creating their ad campaigns to help sell all kinds of products. Its all very natural to me.
When I looked at what was going on in the guitar industry, I was horrified. The lack of taste and quality in general was astounding.
I decided to keep it simple, just like the instruments. Strip away all the unnecessary. We also had no budget for advertising, so we used our talents and what we had at hand.
It became home grown. I photographed everything, Paris styled everything and in the absence of a famous face, our son became our branding icon.
I love that we created something completely different from what people were used to seeing.

Henman Jr. equipped with a Mod – Copyright: Henman Guitars

7. What are your preferred types of wood when making guitars?
Mahogany, maple and ebony. All our instruments are made from a single mahogany block, 1/2 inch maple tops and ebony fingerboards. The combination is fabulous.

8. What are your ambitions on behalf of Henman Guitars in the future?
We would like to see ourselves grow from a small boutique builder into a small manufacturer. Our goal is to be recognized as the designers and builders of truly remarkable guitars, both aesthetically and performance-wise. We hope to see our instruments in the capable hands of respected players and collectors all around the globe.

Henman Guitars / Interview

Hey Everybody.
Just returned from this years winter NAMM in Anaheim, CA.
Here I (Nico) had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Graham Henman – the owner of Henman Guitars.
I stumbled over Henman Guitars on NAMM in a few years back in 2008, where I instantly fell in love with these amazing guitars.

Henmann-Guitars1
Henmann_Guitars2Henmann_Guitars3
The design is very unique and I really admire Graham and his wife, Paris, for their courage to put out such a spectacular design – especially their Mod models has a conservative reminiscence of the surf guitar design era of the late 50´s – which I personally find very attractive.

It is the renowned US masterbuilder, Rick Turner and his team that builds the instruments.
Interview with Graham Henman.
Please go ahead and check out their company here:

http://www.henmanguitars.com/
https://twitter.com/HenmanGuitars
https://www.facebook.com/henman.guitars
http://www.myspace.com/henbev

Kari Nieminen/Versoul Interview

At Vintageandrare.com we would like to introduce a new feature on our blog: The V&R-interviews. The purpose of this is to give a slight introduction to some of the amazing people, who build, sell or just plainly love their instruments as much as we do.

Our first headliner is the renowned Kari Nieminen, who is the mastermind of  the magnificent Versoul, residing in Helsinki, Finland. Karis stringed instruments has attracted a lot of attention from some cool customers, and here, Kari lifts the shroud on what lies behind his success in the business.

Raya6_Baritone_electric_guitar_Versoul-2

A closer look at the rockin’ custom made Raya for Billy Gibbons – Photo by Versoul

Hello, Kari, and thanks for taking your time for this interview. Could you tell us, what initially made you become a luthier?
I started carving wood at age of three in 1963 and when I built my first guitar in 1973 it was technically an easy switch. I have been addicted to music since early 1970′s. Music has been a generator for my career; rock, blues and soul are the most important styles. At 17 I got my first guitar order and after since I have been experimenting with materials and technics. At 20 I built my first acoustic influenced by The Everly Brothers guitar sound.
I’m educated as an industrial designer and a self learnt guitar builder, so my approach to guitar building is different compared to traditional luthiers. I’m always searching and developing new concepts and ideas for new instruments, which are based on deep knowledge and analysis of guitar history and evolution.

Raya6_Baritone_electric_guitar_Versoul-1

What has been your biggest challenge?
You have to be very patient since it takes at least 10 years to get more renowned and establish your brand at certain level. When you are a one man company you have plan your time and resources carefully. A major part of my work is communicating with clients and travelling to meet up with musicians and media for Versoul promotion.

What is your biggest dream of building someday?
Well, I’m only trying to make better instruments for open-minded musicians who would then use them as tools in the creative process of making immortal music.

Which was the first instrument you made?
I was about 13 years old in 1973 when I built my first guitar, an electric solid body at home. You may find a picture of it at my website’s gallery. (We did, red).

Kari and his first, selfmade electric guitar – Private photo

What instrument have you been most proud of?
There are several instruments, actually.
There are the Kenny Burrell Jazz Models: A “Kenny Burrell Jazz Model 6-string” and a “Kenny Burrell Jazz Model 12-string” acoustic guitars made for jazz-guitar legend Kenny Burrell. I have also made a series of custom Raya electric guitars for ZZ Top-guitarist Billy F Gibbons, which made him so pleased that he named the models as ‘Raya Billy F Gibbons Blue Light Specials‘. Also I have built three custom 10-string guitars for Keith Richards during the last three years. Dusty Hill of ZZ Top bought my one of kind Raya Blue Light Bass in 2009 and keeps it at his living room with his favourite basses. My first important customer was Amancio Prada, a well respected Spanish artist, who ordered and plays my Touco Classical guitar. We have to remember that Spain is the home of the classical guitar and Amancio already owned the best, historical Spanish classical guitars. That order meant a lot.

What type of wood is your preferred, when building an instrument?
Of course the quality is important, wood have to be well seasoned and cut right. I use East Indian rosewood for fingerboards, back and sides & parts for acoustics and electrics. Also a bit of ebony fingerboards and parts. Red cedar and spruce for acoustic tops. Alder for electric guitar and bass bodies. Maple and aspen for neck material. Also curly and very rare visa birch for electric guitar tops. During last ten years I have been experimenting with domestic woods: alder and aspen. We have to remember, ecological aspects are more and more important, since certain tropical hardwoods have been over cut and are in danger of disappearing and have fortunately been protected. Therefore I do not use mahogany anymore.
The most essential thing about building guitars, is to use the right construction materials in balance with lightness, stiffess, resonance, flexibility, all combined with aesthetic aspects.

How did you get in touch with people like Ronnie Wood, Roger Daltrey and Billy Gibbons?
Around 2000 I got a great dealer, Westwood Music from Los Angeles. The owner, Fred Walecki, had very nice contacts and plenty of hi-end customers. Roger Daltrey was one of them. He got very excited by my Buxom acoustic guitar and wanted to help me, so he called Alan Rogan, a highly respected guitar technician. Alan has worked with George Harrison, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, AC/DC, John Fogerty, Joe Walsh, Keith Richards; etc.

Kari and Ronnie Wood – Photo by Alan Rogan

So, I sent two guitars to Alan and he was very impressed. First he introduced Versouls to Ronnie Wood. According to Rogan, Ronnie hardly even get excited by guitars, but after checking the Versouls, he immediately wanted to buy both. Since then, Ronnie has bought 6 other Versouls.
In 2006 I bought Billy Gibbons’ book ‘Rock’n’ Roll Gearhead’ and that inspired me to build a special Raya guitar with a Blue Light and perforated steel sides in a gold leaf finished body.
After one round of trying to get in touch with Billy, his long time friend Elwood Francis contacted me by chance. Elwood was working for Rich Robinson of Black Crows. Anyway, nice timing, so I sent some photos of the Raya Blue Light to Elwood and immediately afterwards, Billy wanted to buy it.

Were they demanding customers?
Yes, after all guitar is a communicating tool for them. Ronnie knows exactly what he wants; not only sound wise, as he is a visual artist himself, who understand aesthetic values a great deal. Also Billy Gibbons has played hundreds of guitars, and he’s very hard to please sonically and visually. Besides this, Billy has very creative ideas of guitars.

What did they like about your specific style of building guitars?
Ronnie and Billy both like the Versoul uniqueness: The sound and playability & ergonomics combined with unique artistic features.
Ronnie Wood has bought two Raya Electric Baritones 6 string models, Raya Blue Lite Electric Guitar, Buxom 12 Acoustic Guitar (my gift to Ronnie when he turned 60) and a Henry Gold Leaf Top Electric Guitar.
These Versouls he used on the Bigger Bang Tour with The Rolling Stones.
In addition to this, he has bought Buxom 6 String Acoustic Guitar, which he for example used in the BBC Documentary about him. Also he has bought Resosun 6 String Electric Acoustic resonator guitar and Raya Electric and Buxom Acoustic Baritones, both 12 String Models.

Versoul_Raya_Billy_F_Gibbons_Blue_Lught_Special_09

The custom made Raja guitars for Billy Gibbons – Photo by Versoul

The first guitar, Billy bought, was the above mentioned Raya Blue Light. a solid body guitar in gold leaf finished body. Right after that, he ordered two Raya Custom versions with chambered bodies and Les Paul scale length and all gold leaf finish, body and neck with chrome hardware. Billy was so pleased with his new Versouls that he named the model as Raya Billy F Gibbons Blue Light Special.
A year later he bought a Baritone 6 string version of the model concerned. In the summer of 2010 Billy then bought a Black finished Raya Billy F Gibbons Blue Light Special with gold hardware.
Billy has used his Versouls both on ZZ Top Tours and several other performances, like at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK in 2010 with Jeff Beck and Jimmie Vaughan.

Visit Kari and Versoul at his website and have a look at the awesome craftmanship. It made Ronnie Wood and Billy Gibbons turn their heads, and yours will too. You should also check our current list of our associated dealers at Vintageandrare.com.

George Gruhn on vintage and rare guitars

George talks about vintage, rare and modern electrics & steel string flattops guitars.
He shares his thoughts and perspectives about the differences between playing vintage guitars and new ones.
George also talks about some the most collectible guitars and what to look for. Examples from the 1940´s to present.
Good words and interesting views.

Make sure you stop by Gruhn.com. Here you can find a large selection of fine guitars for sale and useful information. Find more about Gruhn on Facebook or on Twitter.
The video is done by our friends over at GearWire.com. Check them out! They produce a lot of great material.

Happy new year, all the best.
Nicolai & V&R Team