Friday, November 27, 2009

The Musicvox Space Ranger

Franz Liszt
When I first got on the internet there was a service called Liszt that had a compilation of discussion groups. One of these was Alt.Guitar. I believe Liszt eventually was acquired by Yahoo. In those days you would be surprised who read the comments and responded.



Around this same time a small guitar manufacturer named Musicvox was advertising in various music publication. As I recall this was around the year 2000. Musicvox had come up with this bizarre asymmetrical guitar they called The Spaceranger.

An "excited" Les Paul
Pictures are sometimes worth maybe not a thousand words, but at least a descriptive paragraph For that purpose I offer this picture. On Alt.Guitar discussion group we were talking about the Spaceranger and I commented that it looked sort of like a Gibson Les Paul with an erection.

A few days later the head of Musicvox, Matt Eichen, emailed me offline saying that he got quite a laugh at my description.


1997-98 model 
By looking carefully at this unusual guitar, you can tell it is a well made instrument. I'm sure it fits the bill for some music genre.


Not really Al DiMeola


I just don't see Brad Paisley or Al DiMeola using one of these babies anytime soon.

The Spaceranger comes in a variety of colors. All the guitars are six string and have either PAF single coil or Humbucking pickups.


Black Stripe Pickup
The company also offers a pickup they call blackstripe, but it sort of resembles the toaster style pickups of those guitars made by a closely held California guitar manufacturer.

Musicvox 12 string bass


Musicvox also manufacturers a line of equally odd looking bass guitars including a 12 string bass. Not only is the body totally bizarre, so is the headstock. It is sort of Gibson meets Vox and gets run over by a steamroller. Except for the website the Musicvox company no longer advertises. The sell direct to the consumer.






Musicvox 12 string




I'm not certain their guitars are still in production. However I salute the Musicvox Spaceranger and it's cousin, the Musicvox Space Cadet as Unique Guitars.

 



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8 comments:

Matt Eichen said...

Mark,
Musicvox is gearing up for release of new models currently in production and some upgrades to the iconic instruments that were featured in Austin Powers Goldmember..Spaceranger guitar and bass played by Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet along with Chris Ward. Please stay tuned as our website is under construction and will feature the new line up for 2011. We are back in action following a serious family illness that side tracked us in a major way for quite a while.
Thanks to you and all those loyal fans and supporters of Musicvox. Your enjoyment of our products has been our greatest pleasure.
Matt Eichen
President
Musicvox LLC
guitar@musicvox.com

cjonesplay said...

That's great news, Matt! Your guitars are both a salute to the past and ahead of their time. Maybe the world wasn't ready for the Space Ranger in the 90's, but the market has changed a lot since then and fetish guitars are more accepted. I personally hope there are plans for a 12-string, perhaps a hollowbody?... there just aren't any new 12-strings being with 1/100th the personality that the Space Ranger has...

Kamagra Oral Jelly said...

men I don't know I don't like the design of that guitar, is maybe that part, is too long look more like Rosie O'donnell's chin jajajajaja.

Unknown said...

See Musicvox on Facebook now. Our website is still under construction as our new models are being released for production.
We now have 11 models including two 12 string guitars, several 6 strings, several basses. Our models range from vintage to modern style. We are sure you will be pleased. We are very excited about the new Musicvox instruments for 2011 that will be displayed to the world initially at this summer's NAMM show in July in Nashville. Thanks to one and all for your dedicated and diehard support of our products!!
Best regards,
Matt Eichen
President
Musicvox LLC

Guy said...

I have a gold sparkle model, can you tell me anything about it? Plays and sounds great, very balanced.

Strataspear said...

See Facebook.com/musicvoxguitars
Www.Musicvox.com
Thanks for everyone's kind support and excitement for Musicvox guitars and basses!
Matt

Anonymous said...

Everyone,
Matt is a great guy, and the basses are killer! I highly recommend that anyone pick on up. They have the warmest most buttery sound I have ever heard. I am currently playing my musicvox spaceranger with PopROCKS! (www.poprocksrocks.com) though an Aguilar DB 750 and either matching GS 212 cabs or a BagEnd 115 and 410. In either capacity, it sounds great. Additionally, the basses are sure conversation starters at any gig! Go get one now!
Jason.

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