Hello not new member ,but first time post , So let me get everyone some :donut :donut2 :donut2 :donut2 :donut2 :donut2 , I need some help on this late 60s hollow body archtop I picked up at a garage sale last weekend , I was able to Id the guitar as a Danelectro / Coral Guitar it seems to be a Vincent Bell Combo Model , but it has no Electrics ???? ,but everything I found said this guitar came as accoustic /electric hence the name COMBO , any how it is in very nice condition has a very nice archtop sound (tone) Do you guys think it would be wise to add electrics and if so should I just go buy way of pickgaurd with intergraded electrics as not to strart drilling or should I go with more of theginal electrics, Thank you I will try to post pictures
I think it's time to learn everything you can on this model. Online, books, forums etc.
And drill no holes until you are sure you want to destroy the vintage quality of this guitar. I'll check my books, if I can find them. I just moved again
I'm sure others will join in. Pix would be real nice. The headstock on these was called the refrigerator stock, I think.
LOL No drilling promise from what I have found so far it does have some Value and it does sound very nice as is (No electric) / archtop body was built by the Kawai piano company of Japan /solid sruce top with Maple back and sides/ coral / danelectro full scale neckwith neck tilt adjustment /Brazilian rosewood fingerboard & headstock / nickel closed back Klusion tuners. 1 3/4 brass nut .
Very nice garage sale find. Kawai made really nice pianos back in the day. (maybe still do?)
Anyway, Welcome to the forum! Please post some pics and I am certain you will find some helpful information here...
It may just have come with electronics mounted on the guard.Kawai made all sorts og guitars back in the day.
Quote from: jrainman on October 16, 2017, 05:01:56 PM
LOL No drilling promise from what I have found so far it does have some Value and it does sound very nice as is (No electric) / archtop body was built by the Kawai piano company of Japan /solid sruce top with Maple back and sides/ coral / danelectro full scale neckwith neck tilt adjustment /Brazilian rosewood fingerboard & headstock / nickel closed back Klusion tuners. 1 3/4 brass nut .
Man, we gotta have pix. Garage sale find of the year. The brass nut tells me it is at least early 70's.
It seems my pictures are over the allowed size. I will have to find another way to load pictures here . from my reaserch Danelectro was sold to MCA in 1967 MCA started the coral line of guitars as there professional series they stoped production and closed there doors in Neptune NJ in 1969. In the course of just trying to find out what model this guitar was I stumbled on to the reason why MCA closed the Danelectro factory apparently MCA was one of the companies in that erra that was in the crosshares of attorney general Robert Kennedy as being a Monopoly .
Quote from: jrainman on October 16, 2017, 09:33:14 PM
It seems my pictures are over the allowed size. I will have to find another way to load pictures here . from my reaserch Danelectro was sold to MCA in 1967 MCA started the coral line of guitars as there professional series they stoped production and closed there doors in Neptune NJ in 1969. In the course of just trying to find out what model this guitar was I stumbled on to the reason why MCA closed the Danelectro factory apparently MCA was one of the companies in that erra that was in the crosshares of attorney general Robert Kennedy as being a Monopoly .
One way I have resized my pix, is to email them to myself. Download them, then upload to the forum. Email resizes them.
Quote from: Danny on October 16, 2017, 09:45:51 PM
One way I have resized my pix, is to email them to myself. Download them, then upload to the forum. Email resizes them.
Another way is to use Microsoft Paint which has easy resizing abilities.
Quote from: JOYCEfromNS on October 17, 2017, 07:10:04 AM
Another way is to use Microsoft Paint which has easy resizing abilities.
Paint used to be my only way to resize. It does work well.
Microsoft Paint to be killed off after 32 years
Long-standing basic graphics editing program, used throughout childhoods since the 1980s, has been marked for death.
Microsoft's next Windows 10 update, called the Autumn (or Fall in the US) Creators Update, will bring a variety of new features. But one long-standing stalwart of the Windows experience has been put on the chopping block: Microsoft Paint.
source (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/24/microsoft-paint-kill-off-after-32-years-graphics-editing-program)
I use Windows Photo Gallery, which is a free download application that is part of the Windows Essentials package that came out around 2012 or so. The download is free, you do Not have to download the entire Essentials package, and resizing, cropping, and enhancing photos is very simple to do...
Ok Here ya go pictures
more pictures
Wow! :nice guitar:
Awesome find! Congrats! :nice guitar:
After seeing the pics, a couple questions:
It looks like there's an open spot at the end of the fingerboard where a pickup was installed? Are there screw holes in either side of the fingerboard where a pickup was mounted (might only be on one side)?
Was there a pickguard also mounted to the top - could have been attached to the pickup/end of fingerboard? Check the side of the body for a screw hole where it might have been mounted - Les Paul or other jazz guitar style.
Answering those questions (and finding some online pics of an original, unmolested guitar) will help you determine what kind of electronics it used to have.
Quote from: Mikeymac on October 17, 2017, 01:45:35 PM
It looks like there's an open spot at the end of the fingerboard where a pickup was installed? Are there screw holes in either side of the fingerboard where a pickup was mounted (might only be on one side)?
Was there a pickguard also mounted to the top - could have been attached to the pickup/end of fingerboard? Check the side of the body for a screw hole where it might have been mounted - Les Paul or other jazz guitar style.
Yeah, that open rosette is mighty suspicious. I did some quick googling and learned about the McCarty Style pickup. It's for exactly your situation, a P-90 pickup installed in an arch top pickguard with volume and tone.
http://www.lollarguitars.com/blog/2009/09/lollar-mccarty-style-pickup-for-archtop-guitar/
Don't think Lollar makes them anymore, or anyone else, but it's a doable home project if you've got some basic tools and soldering know-how.
Cool guitar! I once had a Gibson archtop that was similar. Passing on a tip, be sure to measure where your bridge is to make sure your intonation is correct. It should be the same distance to the 12 fret as the 12th fret is to the nut. Took me years to figure that out. . .
:nana_guitar :beer
Way Cool!!!!
Howard Roberts Gibson copy sort of.His had a mini humbucker mounted at the end of the fingerboard.
Here are a few pictures of 2 that were recently forsale
Yours looks like it never had any holes drilled in the body even if it did have a pickup. I'm with Danny in that I wouldn't drill any holes in if you want to preserve it's value (as much as $2500.00 by my references). My guess is it did have a pickup and the controls and jack were somehow incorporated in the pickguard or maybe on the pickup itself? On your last pictures showing 2 other models, both of them have the controls and knobs installed in the body. That seems to contradict your guitar's design. I even checked the photos of your guitar to see if maybe some body holes had been plugged and refinished.
Since you probably won't be able to find all the pieces to restore it completely, and make it sound like it was intended to, I wouldn't try to restore it in that way. If you want to "electrify" it, I would suggest to just snap in one of several good sound-hole pickups in it. That said, if you are creative, you could probably install a pickup at the end of the neck and have it's controls and jack incorporated into a pickguard that you create. I can't envision how you could do this without having the pickguard hovering way too high above the top of the guitar. In any case, I wouldn't do any drilling or routing in the body except for the installation of an output jack right at the bottom of the guitar.
All this assumes the guitar plays well and sounds good acoustically in the first place.
Are there any signs that a 1/4" jack was/is installed on the lower side bout? The jack on the others was on the top.
No sign at all there was any holes made in any part of the body , other then the 2 indetations where the neck meets the body and the missing sound hole motif in that same area. so this body was made to except the LIP Stick tube style Pickups that Danelectro invented and as seen in the picture I have found of this model . either this guitar walked out of the factory unfinished or being the history and how MCA just closed the door on the Danelectro /Coral company, I also found out that all the stock from the Danelectro / Coral was bought by Daniel Armstrog This is the guy who built the Plexi see through Guitar . So maybe a lot of these NOS parts became avalible at some point and time to the public and this is just a Parts guitar that was put together by someone , I say this because of the Guitars Model Name (Vincent Bell COMBO , the word Combo has me to believe that its one or the other Parts guitar or walked off the assmbly line when the factory closed as is incompleted. I could be wrong but thats what I am sumizing due to the info I have found. It plays Nice and Sounds like a quality built archtop , Tone is oustanding and the resnence of the guitar is outstanding . thanks for all the advise on what to due ,I am in no rush to do anything as far as installing anything , I still am resarching and I am really not a a collector I just play and only have a few guitars.so I just may flip it and let somone else deal with it
From what I've seen and read this appears to be an acoustic guitar.
It never made it to the electronic mods. Frankly I like it.
Plus it seems to be intriguingly unique.