Unknown slim vintage electric guitar

[zimzum]

Hello,

Here is my last barn sale find.
It's a slim guitar with absolutely no inscription on it, not even béhind the pickup.

During a concert, I noticed a guitar which looked quite close in the materials and build quality. The guitarist told me it was a Kay or Rex Guitar made by Gretsch. Maybe this is one too?
Maybe it's just a non professional built, but I would like to know the period when it was built.

Any idea?
Thanks!

[VintAxe]

I don't know zimzum, I've never seen anything like it. The body looks homemade to me. I just don't see a manufacturer taking the time to cut a scrollie body for a budget guitar. Looks more like the vision of a proficient woodworker to me. It's possible the neck was obtained from a commercially produced guitar but I don't recognize the headstock profile. Maybe someone else will

[zimzum]

Is it a known pickup? Maybe this can give an idea of the year?

[Phizix]

I would guess the era to be something like 1958-1964 , the tuners, bridge and tailpiece all look very similar to hardware on some Kay/Silvertone/Airline/Harmony guitars of that era. The pickup isn't immediately recognizable to me but it does have a distinct look with the *'s in the pole pieces that someone might recognize.

The tuners look similar though not identical to these on a Harmony Stratotone from 1958
http://www.vintaxe.com/cgi-bin/vintaxe_ ... h47_tuners


The bridge and tailpiece hardware also looks similar to the setup on this 1960 Harmony Stratotone
http://www.vintaxe.com/cgi-bin/vintaxe_ ... e_h45_body

[B B]

I think it's a Hoyer from germany. Google Hoyer

[BluesHawk]

[BluesHawk]

P.S.

This guitar makes for a great little detective story. And we have lots of queries like these on this Forum. It just crossed my mind, a win-win strategy we might consider...

Vintage Guitar Magazine functions as sort of a switchboard for the network of vintage nuts like us, from hobbyists to international dealers.

I wonder if the editors would appreciate us sending queries like this to them once in a while. They publish articles about the discovery of esoteric old axes and might enjoy and even use some of our finds. And they might be able to help us out by filling in some details hobbyists like us would never discover on our own.

Just a thought...

[zimzum]

Thanks all!
I think we're close to the truth here.
Now I neet to see what doesn't work in it as it doesn't make any sound... How do I know if the pickup is ok or not?

[simonm]

I have seen Hofner-branded pickups with polepieces like this -

[BluesHawk]

[zimzum]

Some news.
I met a huge vintage guitar collector from whom I bought the Framus, he told me that this guitar seems to be an early Hoyer solid body model as mentionned previously in this topic.
He added that the pickup is a Schaller from end of 50s, beginning of 60s like the ones mounted on other german guitars of this period like Hoyer, Hoefner, Framus, Klira, Hopf, etc...

[BluesHawk]

Good progress, Zim. Hey, I don't want to push, but just a prompt...

email your photos and what you've learned so far to Vintage Guitar Magazine. They may publish a photo and what they learn for you....every month they do two or three like this.