(Slightly) off topic anyone know what model guitar this is?

[keyboardguy]

A friend wants me to somehow restore this. Neck is broken

Any idea what brand this may have been? Not familiar with the body style.

Thanks in advance
Mike

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Looks like some version of the Vinnie Bell / Coral electric sitar. And a lefty to boot!

Coral Electric Sitar | Vintage Guitar® magazine

 

[rmmottola]

I'm with Matt on the ID. Here's a little teaser for you: They may have only made one custom lefty version of this instrument - for Jimi Hendrix.
The original printing of the book Guitars from Neptune by Bechtolat and Tulloch (great book about Danelectro, unfortunately out of print) featured a photo of Hendrix with a lefty guitar like this one. The photo was used without permission and was pulled from later printings of the book. I have it somewhere around here but can't easily locate it.

 

[lidl e]

A friend wants me to somehow restore this. Neck is broken

Any idea what brand this may have been? Not familiar with the body style.

Thanks in advance
Mike
View attachment 4881347

aw man, if you had all the bits for this, you'd have something really special.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

That’s an interesting fretboard. It looks like it might be all there. Could you make a new headstock and graft it on? Does it have an adjustable truss rod or nonadjustable steel bars in the neck?

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Interesting and rare, definitely. The odd thing is that it doesn't look like it was ever drilled for the bridge hardware. Like it was never completed and assembled.

 

[keyboardguy]

Thank you T.Ber's for the very helpful information.

This guitar is part of about 40 guitars my girlfriends son had. He has passed away.
He was a hardcore guitar collector. He has a signed Elvis electric, a Van Halen electric, and knew Bob Marley
and sold guitars to him.

This wouldn't surprise me that he acquired it. No paperwork found yet.
I will see the guitar (plus more parts she's found) on Thanksgiving.

BTW. IF this guitar body was sold, what could it fetch? No documentation, but Danelectro founder said they only built ONE lefty.... any guesses?

""
DANELECTRO CORAL SITAR

Right Handed Re-Issue of the Jimi Hendrix Custom Built Danelectro Sitar
Company founder Nat Daniel confirmed in a mid 1980's interview with Jim Washburn that the Danelectro company built only one left handed instrument in its entire production, a Coral Electric Sitar for guitarist Jimi Hendrix.


Danoelectro have a reissue of that classic Coral Sitar used by Jimi Hendrix, however they have only made them in right handed, unlike the original built for Jimi.""

Will report back in a few days,,
Mike

 

[Max Bogosity]

As Bruce says, it doesn't look like it ever had the hardware installed, plus some of the edge routing looks a little wonky. I wonder if it's somebody's half-finished replica of the Hendrix lefty.

 

[keyboardguy]

As Bruce says, it doesn't look like it ever had the hardware installed, plus some of the edge routing looks a little wonky. I wonder if it's somebody's half-finished replica of the Hendrix lefty.

Good Eyes Bruce and Max. Looking forward to seeing it Thursday.

 

[keyboardguy]

Well, you all hit it on the head. It's a feeble attempt at a left handed Coral Sitar.
The finish wasn't too bad, but the top was 1/8 veneer with sloppy routing. The neck joint had thin metal and only 3 screws (sticking out too)

Here's some pix and thanks again for your input...

 

[Beej]

Honestly, it looks authentic to me. The originals were also feeble attempts at functional guitars. The neck plate was a very thin piece, the cavities were hackjobs covered by trim pieces. I don't know if that's actually a fake. It looks like the real thing and a rare beast. To be clear, I'm not an expert in these though. The steel bars visible at the neck heel are a giveaway to the Dano origins.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Yeah, that could be an actual Dano / Coral neck. They usually had nonadjustable steel truss rods and the neck plate was often a triangular shape like that.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

I agree with Beej and Matt, it looks like a real one to me. I had a Coral here in my shop two years ago for some minor work, and it was very crude woodworking, like this one. Because this one has no drilled holes in it, it was probably a custom order, never completed.

 

[keyboardguy]

So the top was 1/8" veneer? And they had amateurish routing?

The mystery deepens....