Amazon Guitar Finds

 I tried to get this one out as soon as I could, however health problems have delayed me. I apologize.

As I have been spending most of my time at home this past year, I have discovered home shopping.

In the past I did purchase one guitar and some equipment from Musicians Friend. The guitar was not exactly what I ordered, but I kept it and it has become one of my favorite instruments. However, I digress. Last year I had discovered a really unique guitar under the brand Lava Guitars. These carbon fiber instruments are sold exclusively through Amazon. 

The company's name is Lava Music.  They are offering three guitars, the ME2 , the ME3, and the MEPro. 

Honey Comb Design
 of Lava Guitar 

These guitars are manufactured totally by one piece injection molding with proprietary high pressure laminate carbon mixture they call Airsonic.

Neck Design of Lava Guitar

Lava Music was founded by two students at the Musician's Institute (formerly The Guitar Institute of Technology) back in 2013.  

Controls of the ME2

By 2017 they had invented a process by which a guitar could be crafted entirely out of carbon fiber, which they have patented and call AirSonic Carbon Fiber.  This includes the L.R. Baggs preamp with reverb. 

Lava ME3 Guitar

The ME3 Smartguitar is quite an upgrade from the ME2. It includes the same features, but with a touch screen operating system that syncs to their proprietary app.  This is called The HILAVA Operating System.

ME 3 Control Panel 

This allows you to tune your guitar, add effects and loops, and even record your songs. 

Lava Guitar ME PRO

The ME PRO is very similar, however it includes a built-in L.R. Baggs pre-amp with multiple effects. The ME2 retails for $699 USD, the ME3 retails at $999,  while the ME PRO goes for $1399 USD.  The most expensive guitar includes a charging dock base.  

All of their instruments come in multiple colours. Song write Jack Tempchin, who wrote many songs recorded by The Eagles seems to prefer a Lava guitar for his beach concerts.

If Lava Guitars seem too expensive, you may consider an Eyna or Donner Carbon Fiber Acoustic guitar. These are made in China (as most things seem to be manufactured there). The only experience I have with Donner is from last year. I purchased two effects, a compressor, and a reverb-echo unit from them. Both guitar effects work well, so no complaints from me.  In my opinion there are only slight difference in both instruments; the headstock, sound hole shape, pick up, case vs. bag, and price.

Enya Carbon Fiber
Guitar with case

The Enya Carbon Fiber guitar comes with a 100% Carbon Fiber Soundboard. 

As a substitute for tone wood, carbon fiber has the resembling tonal traits. The top of X4 Pro is made of a carbon fiber composite material with a purity of 95%, maximally transferring the string vibration energy into great acoustics performance, loud and balanced.  Carbon fiber never warps, cracks, or scratches, staying consistent across different temperature and humidity conditions. 

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The patented AcousticPlus Pickup system works for both acoustic guitars and acoustic-electric hybrid guitars. It gets you reverb, chorus, and delay, with no effects pedals needed.. 

Donner Carbon 
Fiber Guitar

The Donner Company makes a very similar carbon fiber instrument called The Rising G Pro. There are two models, neither is electric. The neck has a truss rod like most wood guitar necks, it’s for adjusting the bow of the neck to the exact preference of every player. The Fingerboard is made of high density and high stability greatly improves the problem of fret floating and deformation. The crowned fretboard is complete with rounded frets and Elixir strings. This is unlike the Lava instrument in which the neck and frets are molded carbon fiber, the neck and fretboard are made of high pressure laminate.

Donner Carbon
Fiber Guitar Pack

These guitar includes a travel kit, a set of Elixir strings, a very sturdy protective gig bag, straps, capo, Allen wrench, and tuner. The Donner guitar with black top and colored sides and back sell for $399.99, while the guitar with the black top and black back and sides sells for $599.99 with a hard case, $499.99 with a gig bag.

Voyage -Air Folding
Guitar

A few years ago a company called Voyage Air Guitars came out with the concept of a folding guitar. Their versions which sell from $700 up to $2700 include a hinged neck that folds over the body, The guitar come with a proprietary travel case that can fit in an TSA overhead airline bin. 

Journey Collapsible
Guitar

Now a company called Journey Guitars offers similar portability with a full sized acoustic guitar that breaks down to fit in it’s own airline sized bag at a less expensive price. These guitar come with their own gig bag that includes a compartment for a 14” laptop. 

Journey Guitar in it's bag

Unlike the Voyage Air, which have a hinged neck joint, the Journey guitars have a collapsible neck system which allows the player to disassemble the guitar in 20 seconds without removing the strings. The guitar body stores in one padded compartment, while the neck stores in a separate section of the bag. The headstock on the Journey guitars is slightly smaller to accommodate the travel bag. 

Locking Nut
Mechanism

The neck is held on by a recessed stainless steel nut and screw locking mechanism with a lifetime guarantee on the instruments back. 

Journey Puddle Jumper

Journey guitars feature a traditional sound-hole that is forward shifted, a solid top, and X-bracing, and of course the gig bag is included. There are several models that range in price from $399.99 for the mini “Puddle Jumper” with a solid Sitka spruce top and sells for $399.99. 

Journey Acacia
Model

While, $849.99 is the price for the full size solid Sitka  or Acacia top model. The Journey guitars also are available with a Koa top, and nylon string models. 

Journey Carbon Fiber
Collapsible Guitar

Journey Guitars also offers a collapsible Carbon Fiber Guitar with similar features and a proprietary TSA approved bag. These sell for $1399.99 for the steel string acoustic model to $149.99 for the red finish or classic guitar model. 

Journey Carbon Fiber
Collapsible Bass

Journey also offers a collapsible bass guitar., with or without frets. 

Check  Amazon for pricing and deals.

Click on links below the pictures for sources and the links in the text for more information.

© UniqueGuitar publication 2023 (text only)

 

 

Where Did The Unique Guitar Blog Go? - You Can't Keep A Good Man Down

 

For the majority of 2022 I have been unable to continue the Unique Guitar Blog due to illness and changes in my life.  

Regrettably 2022 welcomed me to the new normal.

Looking back from November and December of 2021, I began having significant mobility issues. I had been using a cane to steady myself for several years when walking in public, but as my wife pointed out, my walking was becoming much worse. 

In December of last year, I developed double vision. This condition was quite annoying. I could not drive. I had to close one eye to focus.  My doctor immediately sent me to the emergency room for CT scans and MRI studies. 

The report came back negative, but for a white space at the top of my brainstem. (I figured my stuffing was probably falling out). I regained my normal vision, but still had trouble walking. 

By January of 2022 I was sent to physical therapy because of my limited gait. (I was pretty much walking like Tim Conway’s little old man). The therapist consulted my doctor asking why I had not been assessed for Parkinson's Disease.

In March I visited a neurologist and was diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, which is a Parkinson type disease. I was told by my doctor that white spot at the top of my brainstem showed a “hummingbird’ sign.

This white area is a positive indicator of this disease. This condition is also known as PSP. It is not true Parkinson Disease, which causes involuntary shaking of the body. PSP affects balance and mobility and also the voice and vision 

My therapy was then changed from physical to a form of occupational therapy called LSV Big and LSV Loud. This therapy involve exaggerated movement and counting in a loud voice to overcome what your brain is telling you that you can’t do. 

 I spent the next five months doing therapy, an hour a day for four days a week, plus exercising at home. 

I can walk around my home unassisted, although I have fallen three times, but outside I must use a walker. It is sort of unseemly, but it beats hitting the ground. Concrete is very solid and since I don’t easily bounce, and it hurts.

We had moved into a large apartment complex in March of 2017 after taking care of my aging mother since 2011. 

My wife and I had left our home in 2011 to take care of Mom.  However, she  went to a nursing home in late 2016, so we had to move so her house could be sold. 

Five years later, in July of 2022 the entire complex was purchased by an investment company, and we received notice they were converting the building into luxury apartments. To do this all 232 units and residents were being forced to leave so construction could get underway.  

I have since found out this is happening not just to me, but to renters worldwide, as investment companies are buying up property.

Robotic open heart surgery

We moved in late October to a larger and much nicer complex. Moving was difficult due to my illness.  Weeks after the move, in early November, my wife suffered a massive heart attack. 

Her doctor immediately put her in hospital and within a week she underwent robotic cardiac bypass surgery at Christ Hospital in Ohio (a procedure that is not even done in the state where we live). 

All went well, and she is currently recovering from the surgery at home. I am thankful for the help and support of my children. I am thankful that she was quickly diagnosed and treated by the most excellent staff and doctors. However all of these health problems have caused significant changes in our lifestyle. 

Recently I learned that Progressive Supranuclear Palsy is the same disease that has forced Linda Ronstadt to retire. I was able to write to her recently to share my experience. I received a lovely response. 

Now here it is New Years Day of 2023. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and may you have wonderful New Year. 

I hope to get back to the blog sometime in early 2023 with some new ideas.

 

Rick Turner - Founder of Rick Turner Guitars Passes Away At Age 79

 

Rick Turner Model 1

Warwick Lancelot Armstrong "Rick" Turner III was born on July 30th, 1943. and passed away recenly on April 17th of 2022. Though his guitars may not have been as well known as Fender and Gibson, many players such as Jesse Colin Young, John Entwistle, and especially Lindsey Buckingham all relied on his unique instruments. 

Rick Turner (recent photo)

Turner grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts and started helping to make and repair musical instruments when young soon after was given his first guitar at the age of 11. He attended boarding school in Rhode Island before starting at Boston University in 1962. It was there where Turner started going to folk clubs and coffeehouses, and began repairing guitars at a store in Cambridge. 

He also began playing in a band called Banana and the Bunch, with Lowell "Banana" Levinger and Michael Kane, who later played with The Youngbloods. 

In 1964, the three musicians opened a music store in Martha's Vineyard. The next year Turner was invited to play guitar on tour with Ian & Sylvia. He also played on the duo's 1966 album, Play One More. 

Early Days In A Band

Following this tour Turner moved to New York City in 1966. He was a founding member of the psychedelic band Autosalvage, which released a self-titled album on RCA in 1968. He continued to work a second job repairing guitars, 

His band, Autosalvage,  eventually split up and Turner moved to Point Reyes, California. 

An Early Alembic Guitar 
 Does it look familiar? 

Then in 1970 Rick Turner, Ampex audio engineer, Ron Wickersham, Bob Matthews, a recording engineer, became three equal shareholders of Alembic Incorporated. Alembic was founded by Owsley Stanley in 1968, and was involved in the design and construction of the Alembic instruments. 

The initial purpose of Stanley's company was formed to support and supply The Grateful Dead. After the sale Alembic  went on to build exceptionally fine guitars and basses. 

In 1979 Turner founded Rick Turner Guitars, the business he ran for the remainder of his life. 

Early Alembic Peanut Guitar

Turner joined Gibson in 1988 where he served as president of Gibson Labs West Coast R&D Division. 

1992 Gibson Chet Atkins SST

Four years later, he left Gibson in 1992 and ran a guitar repair shop at Westwood Music in Los Angeles where he developed piezo pickup designs, while working with Jackson Browne, David Crosby, and others. He later co-founded Highlander Musical Audio, manufacturer of piezo pickups for acoustic guitars. 

Rick Turner

Through Rick Turner Guitars he continued to design and build guitars for many professional players including Lindsey Buckingham, Ry Cooder, David Lindley, and Andy Summers. He was also a regular columnist for Acoustic Guitar magazine and was a columnist for Bass Player, Frets and Guitar Player magazines. 

D-Tar Pickup-Mic System

He partnered with Seymour W. Duncan to form D-TAR Multisource Pickup-Mic System. He used this in his most well-know instrument The Turner Model 1 electric which Turner designed in 1979 for use by Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham Buckingham continues to use the Model 1 to this day. 

Model 1

The Turner Model 1 pioneered the use of curved plates on the front and back in order to reduce standing wave hysteresis loss and the use of 18 volt preamps in an attempt to tame the 'quack' sound commonly associated with piezoelectric acoustic guitar pickups. 

Modulus Graphite Neck 

Rick Turner also held the patent on the graphite guitar neck, which he developed in 1976 with Geoff Gould. Gould used this neck as the basis for his guitar/bass replacement neck company; Modulus Graphite. 

Rick Turner was generous with his time and taught mandolin-building courses in the US and Australia and was extremely active on a wide range of musical instrument Internet forums and social media groups. 

Turner died from congestive heart failure and a stroke on April 17, 2022, at the age of 78. 

His friend, Paul Reed Smith, described Turner as a “special soul”. 

“Rick Turner was a gifted guitar maker, an innovator, and a special soul,” wrote Smith. “At the beginning of my career, he selflessly helped my company through a review in Guitar Player magazine. His honesty and willingness to help another instrument maker left a lifelong, very positive impression on me. I send my very best to his family and friends.” Rick Turner guitars, basses, and ukuleles are exquisite instruments. 

Turner Model 1 and
Model 1 Featherweight

The guitars include two versions of The Model 1; The Model 1 and the Model 1 Featherweight.. Both versions of this guitar comes in 3 models; Deluxe, Standard, and Special.  

These instruments include the Timerline Piezo pickup with the built-in D-TAR 18 volt preamp.

Turner Renaissance Models

Turner also offers four versions of his Renaissance model guitars.

Rick Turner Bass Guitars

In addition to the company's guitar line, Rick Turner Guitars also offers three models of bass guitars.  

The Pretzel

Rick Turner built a couple of very interesting guitars in the 1970's. One of them, known as The Pretzel. 

This instrument was built without using hand tools, other that a Sear electric drill and a drill press. 

It was housed in the New York City Museum of Art and Design, the later moved to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  

Turner Model T

The other guitar is the Turner Model T. The design was based on the shape of vintage Kay Kraft guitars from the 1920's, and a Double Horseshoe magnetic pickup based on Rickenbacker guitars of the 1930's,  In addition to the horseshoe pickup, the electronics include an "all controls bypass switch, which provides a direct load-free signal to the output jack.

Click on the links below the pictures for sources. Click on links in text for further information.

©UniqueGuitar Publications  2022 (text only)

Ukrainian Guitar Builders

Russian Bombing of Kiev

We are all concerned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the senseless harm that has incurred to all of the innocent citizens of this peaceful nation. I certainly hope the entire world recognizes the devastation and steps in to stop Vladimir Putin's spilling of blood by his unrighteous invasion and destruction. 

Russian Bombing of Maternity Hospital 

One tragedy of every war is that freedom of speech is totally obliterated. The press is controlled by government propaganda as is the media and social media.  Once this is accomplished, the arts are eliminated. 

After all Arts and Music are a method of expression. This was exemplified in yesterday's cruel and needless bombing of a theater that had been turned into a bomb shelter.  Someone had even painted the word CHILDREN on the roof. Despite this, the theater was bombed, destroyed by heartless soldiers. Many women and children were killed.  

As this is a guitar blog, my thoughts turned to the amazing guitar builders and luthiers that make their home in the Ukraine. In researching these builders I was struck with the fact that most of them have connections to Russia, either through training, mentoring, or from living in Russia. However these builders all live and make their living in the Ukraine. I pray that all are well and safe.

Alexander Momot

Alexander Momot was born at 22 of January 1971 in Kharkov in the Ukraine. In 1993, he graduated from the Kharkov Higher Military Engineering School of the Strategic Missile  Forces. He worked on telemetry station of a Russian commodore "Plesetsk", is a reserve officer in 1992, at the end of study in military university, 

Guitars by Alexander Momot

At that time he met a "world of guitar makers" in the Ukrainian city of Kharkov city. Prior to the current war he was still working in Kharkov.

 

Oleg Stefanyuk

Another guitar master builder is Oleg Stefanyuk. There is not much information about this excellent classical and flamenco luthier. However he certainly builds some excellent instruments. 

Berezhnoy Igor Vasilyevich

Guitar master luthier Berezhnoy Igor Vasilyevich worked in  Kharkov. prior to the war.  Vasilyevich was born on October 3, 1962 in the city of Kungur in the Perm Region, He grew up in the family of a serviceman. 

Until the age of 16, he grew up and studied in a closed military camp, where he built his first guitar  

In 1982 he came to live in his historical homeland in Kharkov, where he met the leading masters of the city, He became friendly and kept up communications with other Ukrainian builder which helped to improve his skills and experience. 

In addition to making acoustic guitars, he also makes folk instruments, such as kobza, and also carry out maintenance and overhaul of other stringed musical instruments.  In 2004 in the city of Odessa he became a laureate of the international competition of guitar masters with a classical guitar made of Indian rosewood.  

Evgeny Labunsky

Evgeny Labunsky, was born in Odessa in 1955. He graduated from high school, and then went to a polytechnic institute and worked as an engineer before the start of perestroika. 

At the same time in his youthful years, he became fond of playing guitar for tourists. He realized that it was impossible to play a guitar bought in a department store for 13 Soviet rubles without repairing it.  Therefore, while still a schoolboy he worked on carrying out "after-sales" preparation of several guitars. 

Guitars by Evgeny Labunsky

By 1980 chance meeting brought him together with the team of the section of guitar masters of the Odessa Club of Guitar Lovers. The section annually held competitions of guitar masters and participated in almost all competitions. 

By 2000 I became the chairman of our section. 

More Guitars by Labunsky

His first mentor in guitar production was Alexander Nikolaev. In future years he was consulted by masters from Kharkov Oleg Stefanyuk, Oleg Gints, Vladimir Alekseevich Oleinichenko, master from Chernigov Nikolai Ivanovich Yeshchenko and others. So far Labunsky says that he has built over fifty instruments.

His preference is to make instruments of traditional classical shape and sizes for nylon strings.  And he also uses traditional materials. Sides and backs in rosewood and maple, with the tops in spruce or Canadian cedar. 

About Lanbunsky's Guitars

He often make instruments for “bards” that sing, play and tell stories  For these instruments, he says that he uses fine wood veneer plywood for the body to avoid warping during outdoor performances. 

On rosewood instruments I install soundboards from Canadian cedar, on maple. For plywood instruments he builds the tops from Russian spruce. 

For his standard premium instruments he uses a traditional classical  scale of 650mm, 

He states that he also makes a "quarter size instrument with a scale of 555mm. He prefers using Rosewood, Canadian cedar on the bodies and sides, and ebony on the fingerboards He gets much of his wood, fretboards, and machine heads from Germany from the finest music stores.  At the request of the customer he will embellish his guitars with mother-of-pearl.

Viktor Alekseevich Syrovatskii

Viktor Alekseevich Syrovatskii was born in 1960 in Sumy. Here he graduated from the Polytechnic Institute and worked for many years worked as an engineer at a factory. 

Syrovatskii writes poems and songs and periodically go on stage with them, and often goes on various creative trips. 

Once, at a the festivals, fate brought me together with Kharkov guitar master Vladimir Oleinichenko. His guitar needed repair, and he took it to his shop in Kharkov.

Once in the workshop, he realized that he wanted to do this craft, and immediately asked for it as an apprentice. At that time his father was still alive, and he blessed me by allowing him to quit the factory job to study with maestro Oleinichenko.. Since then is has been making musical instruments for many years. 

Syrovatskii at work

Syrovatskii only builds guitars because he is a concert author and the head of his studio. However he also repairs and restores various instruments - violins, cellos, domras, balalaikas, mandolins, kobzas, banduras. But most of all he loves building new guitars.

Dmittry Yeremeyev

Dmitry Yeremeyev is the only Ukrainian luthier that builds electric guitars, and his Mera brand instruments are amazing.

In his own rather esoteric words, "Everything in the Universe is a trinity of Matter, an Information(eidolon) and a Measure(MERA in Russian). A MATTER is TRANSFORMING according to a MEASURE. The measure of a guitar (MERAGUITARS) is the SOUND, the ERGONOMY, the RELIABILITY, and the LOOK. These four criteria forms a conceptual Measure(MERA) of a guitar. 

Mera Guitars

MERA incorporates all the component measures, required for transformation of a MATTER.

 TRANSFORMING a MATTER according to the matrix of MERA (considering all the partial measures ) one can get an exclusive innovatory instrument that have an unusual awesome characteristics improved a lot grades up. 

This fact makes a musician to feel delight as much as a listener and also opens a totally new possibilities in Creation and Creativity." Check out his amazing creations.

I hope and I pray that this unjust war comes to a swift end and does not escalate.

Click on the links below the pictures for sources. Click on the links in the text for further information.

©UniqueGuitar Publications 2022 (text only)

I am including this video by one of my favorite cover bands, Leonid and Friends. The lead singer is Serge Tiagniryadno. While most of the band is made up of Russian citizens, Serge is from Kiev, Ukraine.