Friday, July 22, 2016

Excellent one of a kind Tom Holmes guitar

This is a terrific one of a kind strat style guitar built by Tom Holmes. Tom Holmes had been chief repairman at George Gruhn’s shop in Nashville and was building THC – ‘Tom Holmes Company’ custom instruments and were sold through the Ax-In-Hand guitar shop in Dekalb, Illinois. Part of the reason for building these guitars was to showcase a pickup design by Holmes, which featured three coils. This is a professional instrument made for Harold Bradley in 1980. Holmes told me that the pickups are hand wound  7-8000 turns and 7k.  Thiis is a solid mahogany body with beautiful clear finish and a 3 piece neck. It is road used and road worn - not shop worn. Very excellent instrument!

Tom Holmes built guitars for Bo Diddley, Lenny Breau, Billy Gibbons, Albert King and many others. For the last twenty years he has become a legend for jewel-like PAF-style humbucking pickups, which he builds in his shop in Joelton, TN. Bradley is a Nashville guitarist, Columbia recording artist, who first played with Ernest Tubb played with the who's who of Nashville artists. He was inducted into the Country Music hall of Fame in 2006 and a recipient of the Trustee's Award at the
52nd Grammy Awards..
Asking $3500 For more information contact barry@lobueguitars.com

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Very Early 1972 Series 1 Alembic Guitar

Series I Title (From the Alembic site)

 In production continuously since 1972, Series I guitars are the classic Alembic guitar. We've refined them slightly over the years, but the essentials remain the same. We start with great single coil pickup sound with no hum thanks to our external "dummy" humcancelling pickup. The signal passes through our stereo electronics with each pickup using its own filter frequency and 3-position Q switch for crazy amounts of tone shaping. Our woodworking is second to none. There are no shortcuts, no compromises, just good, solid craftsmanship. There's no secret to great woodworking, but you actually have to do it, and we deliver just that every day, every time. The wood itself has a huge part to play in shaping the tone. Our wood selection is exhaustive, and we evaluate new varieties as they come to market. Nearly 40 years of careful listening to the wood's impact on the tone lets us guide you in selecting the right woods to give your guitar's natural tone something that you won't have to fight - it will be made to suit your needs.

This is an early (Alembic founder Rick Turner says first 20 likely) and Mica at Alembic indicated had to be first 30.  This is an amazing extremely early Series I Alembic 6 string guitar. Featuring the early light brown pickups, hand worked brass cover plate, a beautiful inlaid headstock logo and some of the most incredible abalone inlay that I have seen, this guitar was decked out to the max with intense birdseye maple top and back. Rick Turner indicated to me that this was one of the first 20 instruments based on the logo, pickups, tail and his recollection of this heavy birdseye concentration.
Discussions with other Alembic players and luthiers indicates that it may partially be due to it's hand rubbed finish.








It is certainly a pleasure to play compared to similar instruments. Action is excellent and setup remains right on without any fuss. This guitar of course includes an Alembic power supply and pin cord. I believe that this guitar is not only a fine player but an extremely rare part of Alembic history. It looks and sounds amazing.
 Alembic's current price list:
Model              6-string        12-string
------------------------------------------------------------
Orion              6400            7900
Skylark            6800            8300

Further Stage      8500           10000
Tribute Stage      9000           10500

Little Darling     8300            9500
Spectrum           8000            9200

Further           12800           14500
Tribute           17600           19100

Series I          18500           20000
Series II         23500           25000

This guitar is available for SOLD Contact me at barry@lobueguitar.com with questions or more information.

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

LoBue Koa Jazz Bass - Fretless

This is the only bass guitar built by Charles LoBue that has been for sale to my knowledge in about 10 years. LoBue built bass guitars for Alphonso Johnson, the great jazz fusion bass player as well as Gene Simmons of Kiss. This bass has been wired like Johnson's first bass which gives it single coil control and humbucker functions. LoBue didn't build his own pickups, rather typically repaired and rewound Guild and Gibson PAF's to his own liking. This bass features the unique plex compartment cover so that you can see the beautiful wiring job done on the guitar as well as being the only Koa bass even know to have been made by LoBue. It appears to have a mahogany neck and ebony fretboard with Wenge overlay and rosewood trim. It also features a handmade ebony bridge and hand made tail.  The action is super and the fretboard is nearly untouched.



This guitar is available for SOLD  Contact me at barry@lobueguitar.com with questions or more information.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Early LoBue Guitar single pickup model

This is one of the earliest known guitars built by Charles LoBue at his Guitar Lab on 7th Avenue. During this time he was partnered with Carl Thompson and had apprentices Steve Blucher, Larry DiMarzio and Bob Sindorf among others. LoBue didn't build his own pickups, rather typically repaired and rewound Guild and Gibson PAF's to his own liking. This guitar features an adjustable pole pickup and original Hawk electronics along  with fuzz controls and an unusual FUZZ switch. It has what looks to be an original paint job over a mahogany body and an ebony fretboard. The action is super and the fretboard is nearly untouched. Terrific guitar and super piece of history, being of the same family of the first guitars built for Kiss, Good Rats and Rick Derringer among others.

This guitar is SOLD US

Contact me at barry@lobueguitar.com with questions or more information.

Check out the cracking in the original finish
Dig the wooden pickup cover