The Holy Grail!

[Russ Gannicott]

As the head of the ancient order of Masonite Templars of Neptune......I am pleased to report that I have just found the holy grail. It has disguised itself as a 1966 Silvertone 1451 short scale single pick-up Hornet and comes complete with 3 watt valve 'amp in case' hard case....all in excellent working order! I have it confirmed the ebay vendor has despatched it....all I need now is for it to turn up undamaged!!

I'll keep all you guitar junkies posted!!
Russ

[GORDON]

Hi Russ.

These are great little guitars, I should know, I had one. It was a gift from Midge Ure. It is now on permanent loan to Paul White who uses it for slide playing and as a recording tool. Those original 60's lipstick pickups are very special and probably different in tonality to the modern retro ones in my opinion.

Keep us posted boss.

G.

[Russ Gannicott]

Well, it turned up and has exceeded all expectations! The guitar itself is amazing despite having a very weird short scale neck. There is no change in depth to the neck from end to end, which actually makes it feel chunkier near the nut and slimmer up at the heal! The pick-up is amazing and sounds like new, with a bright sparkly yet powerful sound. The amp in case is something else!! The three valve amp (pre, power and rectifier) delivers a whopping great 2 watts of very clean sound into a 5" Jensen speaker. Flat out you can push it into overdrive by playing hard, but this isn't really what it was designed for. The combination of guitar and amp put in me in mind of those classic Byrds and CCR recordings of the late 60's. This is one of those valve amps that sound as if you have a touch of reverb when they are actually dry.......lovely. Technically, the amp is hard wired onto three tags and in true American style the negetive is esentially the ground. With no real earth and exposed red hot valves it does need to be treated with respect and I'm rather glad that the AC/AC converter I had to buy to step it down to 117 volts effectively isolates it from our potentially fatal mains power. All in all a great piece of guitar history and one which sounds and plays far better than you would imagine.

Oh yes Gordon.....I am hoping to have it in the back of the car on Saturday