Tonemaster (Valco? / Zero Sette???????) History

[erikferguson]

Here goes:

I recently acquired a guitar that is the first instrument I have ever bought for looks alone. Now that I have gotten around to tracking down the history, I've run into some oddities that I'm hoping someone out there might be able to help me iron out. Here are some shots:



Detail of pickguard and beautiful sparkle finish:


Back (note glued-on neck)


Detail of beautiful pearloid finish on back:


The most obvious marking on the instrument is the "Tonemaster" logo on the headstock:



My copy of the Blue Book of Electric Guitars (which is a few years old) identifies Tonemaster as a house brand manufactured either by Harmony or by Valco. My inclination would be that this one is made by Valco, because, other than a few quirks, the construction quality is better than what I've seen Harmony produce (but I'll be glad to be corrected on this point).

However, mine is not nearly as tricked-out as these beautiful examples posted by Elderly and identified as built by Valco for a company called English Electronics:





Anyway, note that the English Electrics models have their own plate that incorporates the Tonemaster logo, but gives the specifics concerning for whom the instruments were built. This gets me to the most confusing oddity about my instrument. Note the "Zero Sette" logo also present on the headstock (but NOT incorporated into one plate with the Tonemaster logo):




There are a couple of strange points about this detail. Firstly, the only company that I've been able to track down called Zero Sette is an Italian ACCORDION manufacturer that, while it does have a considerable history, I cannot find anything that would indicate that they ever got into marketing guitars anywhere -- let alone in the US.

Secondly, the logo is not glued onto the surface of the headstock, as the Tonemaster logo is. Someone (possibly after-market?? but if so, WHY???) bored into the headstock and either inserted the logo and covered it up (sloppily) with a clear lamination, or otherwise, the logo itself might have been encased in clear plastic to begin with -- then was glued into the bore hole.

Does anyone know anything about another company called Zero Sette for whom this might have been made? Otherwise, any idea about this sucker being produced by Valco for sure? I leave a final couple of clues that might help, concerning construction oddities. First, look at the headstock again and notice the disappointing lack of a string tree or any other way of making up for tension issues. Secondly, the tremolo construction is interesting but poorly thought-out, as it would require the tremolo arm to be inserted between strings 3 and 4:




Thanks!
-Erik

[frankpaush]

http://www.fetishguitars.com/index.html

will lead you next to it most probably, looks much like an italian construction.
a close relative for sure is
http://www.fetishguitars.com/index/welson.html
and surprise surprise


I had a Bartolini (which I bought for the same reason ) that had some similarities. (traded it for a rare Hopf Jupiter 63, because I prefer playable instruments )
see
http://www.guitars.greenbuddha.de/index ... ni&lang=en
and
http://www.guitars.greenbuddha.de/model ... hp?lang=en

BTW: the same trem-unit is used by one of my Hopf guitars
http://www.guitars.greenbuddha.de/model ... hp?lang=en

if you found a factory named zero sette it is close enough to believe they were selling this guitar, it was quite common behavior adding some electrics to the set when the market exploded during the sixties.

[erikferguson]

Thank you!!

That is very helpful -- though now that I know it's Italian, this turns out to be the wrong forum in which to have started this thread!

After reviewing the details on that site, this guitar seems to possess a hybrid of characteristics of several different makers (and ironically, the characteristics of true Zero Settes seem to be the furthest away from this instrument!! So I still have a bit of research to do... Nonetheless, I really appreciate the guidance!

By the way, did you notice on:

that Bartolini did some manufacturing for Hopf? Probably the reason for the same tremolo system.

Anyway, once again, this has become the wrong forum to drag this thread out further!

Thanks again.
-Erik

[frankpaush]

...maybe the admin can just move it to the European section (which is combined with Canadian and Australian for strange American reasons )

[erikferguson]

What can I say? That's the way American history goes. Our heritages are derived from the rest of the world, so it's fair game

The logic I DON'T understand is why it's so difficult to find Stravinsky in a Russian record store...

[frankpaush]

...maybe it is because most things are hard to find there (if you mean a store IN Russia )


offtopic EDIt: just found out Israel is part of Europe as well
(VinAxe sorts Gittler to European guitars in the catalog section )

[VintAxe]

Ok, Ok, I know my organizational scheme isn't perfect, but trying to place all guitar manufactures into three possible categories is folly at best. The main motivation behind three categories was that I didn't want more than three columns on the main catalog menu page.

After that decision, the nightmare begins. What do you do with companies that began in the US and then moved to Asia? I chose to classify according to country of origin, so you'll see a company like Epiphone listed as American although they haven't built a guitar here in years.

As for Canada and Australia, I placed them in European manufactures for a couple of reasons. First, I thought European builders largely inspired their "guitar making tradition". From a practical stand point, The European builder list was shortest and seemed a good place to put these two difficult to classify countries. I'm sure if I put Canadian companies with American builders and Australian companies with Asian builders based of regional proximity, both my Canadian and Australian visitors would cry foul.

Now, what do you do with a company that builds guitars in Israel or South Africa? I'm afraid there are simply not enough builders in these regions to justify Middle Eastern or African categories. So reverting back to my previous logic, into that European melting pot they go.

So, the bottom line is that I should have never attempted to classify guitar manufactures at all. Unfortunately, I'm a compulsive organizer so that choice really wasn't an option.

All I can ask is that you cheerfully tolerate my flawed, but now embedded system.

sb

[frankpaush]

... Canadians seem quite ok to me, especially the French part has a lot of European appeal, .Aussies are Britsh anyway (that is what House M.D. is teaching us, just because they have a Queen on their money ... ) one world is enough

The bad thing is: your way of groupimg the world has a lot of similiarities to what European people think is American geographical konwledge concerning the rest of the world

[VintAxe]

Yeah Frank, anytime you lump things you run into problems.

Erik, thought you might like to see this unmarked "Tonemaster" that appeared in a 1965 Bennett Brothers catalog. It has some characteristics similar to yours although the controls are completely different.

[erikferguson]

Very cool! Yeah, that pickguard + control layout looks very Crucianelli-esque. But the controls on mine are very Welson-minded. So. Hm......

And Frank, trust me, most Americans DON'T know anything about geography, so it probably only makes sense that the site would be organized in a way that we can understand!

But really, as for the larger question of grouping things, in my mind, most of the Japanese models from that era really must be separated from others, for reasons of design and construction quality. So if one were to start dividing things there, then of course it's difficult to be consistent in further delineation. You probably have to start somewhere, and if you do, you have to stop somewhere too.

In the end, I don't mind a little bit of national and regional overlap. Globalization has its good points: I've never had the chance to go to Italy, but I found one of the best cappuccinos I've ever had, at the airport in Frankfurt.

[frankpaush]

...unfortunately it is still hard, near to impossible to get good Hamburgers in Hamburg

$265 for an Italian guitar is very expensive, in a time when Germans had to pay 1100 Deutsch Marks for a Fender Stratocaster and 4 Marks for 1$ .... if my calculation is correct Americans had to pay about the same for the Supreme as Germans for the Strat, strange ....

[erikferguson]

That brings up a subject about which I've been wondering: might the plastic-molding processes have been more expensive/labor-intensive at the time? Especially when making guitars in a factory originally geared up to produce accordions?

And what about frankfurters in Frankfurt? I've never had one of those.

[frankpaush]

...doesn't seem to be the skin that made it expensive in US, because in Europe the more expensive instruments didn't have a plastic skin.
In addition the skinned instruments all have wood you normally use to make fish transporting cases (...and maybe would have to fight fishermen revolting because of low wood quality ... )

Upper row contains at least 3 plastic skinned models, all cheaper ones (Lindberg Catalog " Triumph der Instrumente"**) page 24, around 1965):






I didn't check Frankfurters there, yet.
But you will be confronted with problems asking for "Berliner" in Berlin, because they call them "Pfannkuchen", which will result being provided with a pancake in the rest of Germany

And as far as I know you can't even buy an "Amerikaner" in the states ...
http://www.marions-kochbuch.de/rezept/0475d.htm

**) quite a strange title for a catalog, telling us much about the school the public relation section of Lindberg had been visiting ... "Triumph des Willens" came to my mind at once, the 1935 film by Leni Riefenstahl ...

[erikferguson]

Aha, I see the point. But I'm still under the impression that the specific types of sparkle and pearloid textures found in the Italian accordion-manufacturing factories would be a different story than a more plain plastic skin over wood. (I'm sorry that I can't tell if finishes like this are included in the descriptions of some of the less-expensive guitars that you point out. I'll be glad to be corrected if I'm wrong).

And as far as I know, you're right about the Amerikaner. But (bringing up Russia again) they do look a bit like "pastries" that I used to get all the time in St. Petersburg. I'll have to try this recipe out for myself. Maybe it will be the first American Amerikaner...

[frankpaush]

... would be a fantastic side effect of this forum

To the different coating materials: as far as I am informed all skins are fitted by a combination of heat and lamination techinques, no matter which consistence they have.

Maybe the feitshguitar publisher knows more acurate stuff about it.