Headway HD YOZAKURA’25/STD

If we are being completely honest, #AcousticApril has been a bit rough. The problem is that acoustic guitars predominantly have a natural finish, and to a lesser extent, black or sunburst. Red is uncommon, but not so much as to raise eyebrows. With basically any other color of acoustic guitar, you are making a statement. Apparently manufacturers feel that if you are going to make statement with the color, why not also make a statement with the shape? Unfortunately, it seems that too often that statement is, “WTF is THAT‽”

Headway is a Japanese company. Their parent company also owns several other brands, whom we may get around to posting about sooner or later.

“Yozakura” translates to “night cherry blossom.” This guitar has obvious cherry blossom themed fret inlays. Less obvious is the fact that the back and sides are also made of cherry wood. Although cherry is a popular wood for furniture, and cherry stain is common for guitars, we can not think of another guitar that is actually made from cherry wood.

It has a spruce top, as is typical, but the (somewhat Star Trek-ish) pickguard appears to also be made of cherry. The guitar has a purple pearl finish. The headstock features an inlay depicting a swallow feeding its young in a nest built atop one of the tuners.

While we can see how this guitar perhaps might not appeal to someone who is really not into the cherry theme, on the whole, it is just a really nice guitar that happens to be purple. Why is that so hard‽

#PurpleGuitarPhursday #HeadwayGuitars

Schecter Orleans Stage VRBS

This guitar is a good looking guitar. Curvier than a dreadnought, it has more of a jumbo shape, although in isolation, it is difficult to tell if it has the jumbo size. It has a pointy Florentine cutaway and abalone fretboard dots and purfling.

The real question is the finish, which they call, “Vampyre Red Burst Satin.” We can see the “burst” and the “satin” with no problem, but what color is “Vampyre Red”? Here it looks purple. It looks even MORE purple than the purple Zemaitis. https://beige.party/@Neat_hot/116376491409294780

However, “Vampyre Red” does not sound very purple. It sounds like it should be a blood red (but not “oxblood”, which is its own thing https://beige.party/@Neat_hot/115148505637892106). An image search suggests that the color varies rather significantly depending on lighting conditions. Come on now, Schecter. We know you know purple.

What we are saying is that if you are thinking about ordering one online and expecting purple, be wary about inviting it into your home.

#PurpleGuitarPhursday #Schecter #AcousticApril

Ibanez Twophur Phursday!

1. Ibanez Talman TCM60 Purple Burst Gold Sparkle

We’ve had this in the files almost since the beginning of #PurpleGuitarPhursday, but never posted it because… it’s so goofy looking.

The Talman shape (which Ibanez also sometimes uses for electrics) is like a cross between a tele and jazzmaster/jaguar. (Not to be confused with a “telemaster”, which was an unofficial name amateur builders would give to custom guitars that had a jazzmaster shaped body with telecaster hardware and electronics, of which Fender would later release an official version as the “Offset Telecaster.”)

It has a weird pickguard surrounding an asymmetric triangular soundhole and single-coil neck pickup, all of which combines into what looks to us like an excited cartoon fish. Lavender burst. We can not really see any of the stated gold sparkle.

Let’s move on.

2. Ibanez ALT50FATVT

Way back pre-Phursday, we posted this guitar from the uncanny valley: https://beige.party/@Neat_hot/109765081005129175

The ALT50 guitar is an update of that one, in a less sickly shade of purple. It also now has a Florentine (pointy) instead of Venetian (rounded) cutaway, and… an even more asymmetric soundhole? Or is it the same, just that the angle of the photo makes it look different? Still has a neck that looks like it belongs more on one of Ibanez’s electric shred machines.

While we have a little more confidence in this one, we still feel that if you are going to take this out in public, you had better be able to play the hell out of it or the audience is likely to be unkind.

We are really starting to wonder if anyone even makes purple acoustic guitars that are meant to be taken seriously.

#Ibanez #AcousticApril

Zemaitis CAF-90H

Tony Zemaitis was a British luthier known for building guitars with elaborately engraved metal tops or inlaid pearl mosaics that look like museum pieces from the Renaissance era. They were played by some very famous artists, particularly in the 60s and 70s. Zemaitis Guitars is now owned by the same Japanese company that owns Greco (who as far we know, do not make purple guitars, and therefore we have never had any reason to mention).

We have seen heart-shaped sound holes before, often in “affordable” instruments. Whether or not this was something Tony Zemaitis himself came up with, or a later introduction, or who may have copied whom verses parallel thought… we simply do not know.

This guitar extends the heart theme with mother of pearl inlaid hearts (and dots) surrounding the sound hole. It also features a vaguely mustache-shaped bridge with abalone-inlaid pegs. Purple satined top with natural finish on the back and sides, and what lookalike tortoise shell binding.

All in all, while not as gaudy as their electrics, it is still excessively ornate enough to be worthy of the Zemaitis name.

Unfortunately for purple fans, these are only listed on the Japanese website and might only be available in Japan.

#PurpleGuitarPhursday #Zemaitis #AcousticApril

Hand Finished Purple Velvet Rhinestone Acoustic Guitar by MoonRiverCrafts24

Welcome to #AcousticApril!

Alright, what’s happening here is that someone took a cheap acoustic guitar and bedazzled it with color shifting purple/violet-to-blue/indigo rhinestones.

The artist claims that “The rhinestone detailing adds just the right amount of sparkle without distracting from the guitar's beautiful sound.”

Yeah, we don’t believe you. While we admit to doing a fair amount of hand-waving and unsupported speculation as to exactly what does and does not effect tone and to what degree, we are confident that covering the top of an acoustic guitar with *anything* is absolutely going to change the sound, and likely not for the better. That is, unless the guitar sounded horrible to begin with, but we can be certain that is not the case here, because we can see that the guitar was made by Tiger. While we are unfamiliar with this brand, we do of course know that tigers excel at any endeavor that they should choose to undertake, and that obviously would include building guitars. (He’s right behind me isn’t he‽)

Interesting note, this guitar has a cutaway, but no pickup/preamp. We don’t think we have ever seen that except possibly on high end, handmade instruments. We like the access of a cutaway, but have never cared for piezo pickups, so this guitar is actually rather appealing in a not-paying-extra-for-stuff-you-don’t-want-anyway sense.

Let’s be honest though, no one really cares how this guitar sounds, do they‽ It is very pretty.

#PurpleGuitarPhursday

Ibanez Lari Basilio LB1

This guitar combines tele and strat features, which many have done in one form or another. In this case, it combines a tele shape with strat contours and body binding even around the arm carve, which seems non-trivial construction-wise, but this is a premium guitar.

Featuring custom Lari Basilio pickups from Seymour Duncan in HSS configuration, including a tele neck and an unusual looking middle pickup which is actually just another tele style pickup with an open-top cover. Much has been said on the internet about covered vs. uncovered humbuckers, which we are not going to rehash, other to say that the cover affects the magnetic field which therefore affects the tone *in some way*. How does an uncovered tele pickup sound in comparison to a covered one, or for that matter, a strat? We could not say, but probably different.

Five-way pickup switch, volume, tone, and an extra “Alter” switch that allows for five additional series and/or split combinations. Mostly gold hardware, including a fancy looking Gotoh two-point trem (vibrato) bridge, though the switches are not gold for whatever reason.

Violet finish with the aforementioned binding in white.

#PurpleGuitarPhursday #Ibanez

Fretlight FG-651 Orianthi

Orianthi haș a custom purple PRS that was later developed into a signature model, which is purple and pink and floral themed. It’s probably great if you like that sort of thing, but we are not really into PRS. This post is not about that.

It turns out that a few years ago, she had another signature guitar / endorsement deal with a company called Fretlight. As the name suggests, they make guitars with light up fretboards that teach you how to play. That’s cool, we suppose. It is literally for beginners, and one does not typically build gimmicks like that into high end guitars. Is this a quality guitar? We have our doubts.

It does look pretty freakin’ sweet though. It has a basic Strat shape with hardtail bridge and HSS pickup configuration. We have to say, the black-to-trans-purple burst with gold pearloid pickguard is definitely working for us.

Also that Fretlight stuff is controlled wirelessly from an app with no additional controls on the guitar, so you could just forget that it’s there at all.

#PurpleGuitarPhursday #Fretlight

Nancy Wilson’s Custom Baritone

This guitar has a basic tele shape, but with some sneaky features, if the real thing don’t do the trick. First of all, it’s a baritone, so a longer neck and lower tuning. Fishman Fluence are active pickups with multiple voicings. An Evertune bridge is sort of like the opposite of a vibrato, with fancy engineering and individual springs that keep each string at the proper tension (and therefore pitch) no matter what else is going on. Our understanding is that you can not even bend notes unless it is set up right to the limit of its workable range.

All this in a nice sparkly purple.

This is a one of a kind instrument that you can not buy, so if you want one, then you would have to steal it. In fact, someone already did. They were caught though, and it has been recovered, but if you do ever see anyone other than Nancy Wilson playing this, you should probably say something.

#PurpleGuitarPhursday

Daisy Rock Stardust Elite Venus

Last year https://beige.party/@Neat_hot/114118581800557449 we stated that we did not know what happened with Daisy Rock as a company, and actually we still don’t, but the good news is that whatever the deal was, they are back now, with an updated website and taking orders again!

Although, at the moment, they are only offering Heartbreaker models, and not even in purple. (Boo!) So let us revisit the past.

This guitar is shaped like a Les Paul Doublecut featuring a basic two humbucker, toggle switch, volume, tone, and tune-o-matic bridge setup. The offset block fretboard inlays reminiscent of piano keys are a nice touch.

The real show here is the pearloid top and matching headcap, both finished with a violet edge burst.

#PurpleGuitarPhursday #DaisyRock

Warwick RockBass Bootsy Collins Signature SpaceBass

Bootsy Collins, legendary bass player know for his work with James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic and numerous solo and guest performances, is not known for subtlety, and this bass is anything but subtle.

Purple burst, star-shaped body with matching star-shaped headstock, star-shaped fret inlays, and purple pearloid star-shaped pickguard. (Incidentally, Warwick also has a model line called “Star Bass”, which is actually a more traditionally shaped semi-hollow body style.)

The bass features Warwick’s adjustable “Just-A-Nut” and two piece bridge. Single and double active pickups from MEC. We have only ever seen that pickup brand on Warwicks, but as far as we can tell, they are independent companies both based in Germany. It has knobs for volume, pickup balance, and stacked treble/bass controls.

It is worth pointing out that RockBass is Warwick’s import line. Bootsy Collins actually plays several custom instruments with significantly more complicated electronics and pickup arrangements. This model is more of an authorized tribute than his weapon of choice.

#PurpleGuitarPhursday #Warwick