Tag: features

In the early days of the American electric guitar/amplifier industry, Standel was known for building high-quality amplifiers used by the likes of Merle Travis and Joe Maphis. In fact, a true classic now prized among amp aficionados was Standel’s 25L15, which had a J.B. Lansing D-130 speaker.

But one of the more curious/convoluted tales of the ’60s guitar boom involves Standel and its efforts to market guitars carrying its brand. After the inspiration struck in the early ’60s, company founder Bob Crooks approached builders in his home area of Bakersfield, California. Mosrite built a small number of instruments bearing the name prior to Semie Moseley’s affiliation with the Ventures. Then, former Mosrite employee Joe Hall’s Hallmark company built Standel guitars and basses in the mid ’60s. The relationship between Standel and the Bakersfield-area builders was never particularly stable, a fact exemplified by the number of guitars in the vintage market that bear both the Hallmark logo and the Standel “snake S” emblem.

By ’67, a third builder from the area was making Standel instruments. But Crooks, seeking classier guitars and basses to bear the name, hooked up with a builder from across the country – New Jersey’s Harptone, where luthier Sam Koontz was head designer. Harptone acoustic instruments had a headstock profile vaguely reminiscent of a D’Angelico, and a unique arched back. Koontz applied the same features to his designs for Standel.

The ’67 Standel catalog cover had a vibrant orange-and-yellow pattern over a line drawing of a band wearing matching outfits, playing Standel instruments. The text said, “Standel has carefully categorized its Electric Hollow Body Instruments into three basic lines, the Deluxe Artist Line, Deluxe Line, and Standard Line.”

The lineup ran from an 18″ (wide), 31/4″ (deep) archtop jazzbox with a floating pickup and block markers, to the simpler (but still classy) Standard series. Pickups on Harptone-made Standels were DeArmond Dynasonics (which were discontinued by Gretsch a decade earlier). The entire New Jersey-made Standel line had set-neck construction.

The sole bass in the four-page catalog was the model 400, a member of the Standard series. Available in a Sunburst (400S) or Cherry finish (400C), it had the same double-cutaway body dimensions (16″ wide, 13/4″ deep) as the 420 guitar. The semi-hollow body has all-maple construction on the outside (including the aforementioned arched back), and an internal block, a la the Gibson EB-2 it resembles. The neck is one-piece mahogany.

While Standel’s Standard Line was the only series that had pearl-dot position markers (on a rosewood fingerboard), the plethora of cosmetic appointments on the company’s lowest-priced series is still commendable – note the bound headstock, f-holes, and neck, the decorative inlay on the headstock, three-ply binding on the body. Moreover, the headstock shape and body silhouette of Standel thinline electric/acoustic instruments, with slightly-slimmer, rounded double-cutaway horns that flared out a bit more than their Gibson/Epiphone competitors, gave the Harptone-made guitars and basses a distinctive aesthetic.

The Standel 400’s scale was 301/2″ and the 19-fret fingerboard joined the body at the 16th fret. Its zero fret was typical of Standel instruments made by at least two Bakersfield builders.

Of particular note on this bass is its neck profile, which is unique. The owner describes its feel as “hard U/soft V.” Indeed, the sides of the neck are at almost a right angle with the fretboard, but taper to an angle with a slight V feel.

Controls consisted of a Volume and Tone control, and the catalog noted the instrument’s hardware, including its “adjustable compensated roller muted bridge” and “enclosed chrome individual metal machines.”

Koontz estimated that Harptone built only a few hundred Standel-branded instruments. While the line may have been short-lived and the quantities made were miniscule, there were variations from the catalog. For example, the pickup on this 400S is closer to the neck than the DynaSonic on the 400C shown in the catalog, and this one also has a juxtaposed finger-rest and its thumb rest is in different locations.

Crooks, who passed away in 1999, was interviewed by Vintage Guitar in ’94 – the only time it is believed he was interviewed by a guitar magazine. During the discussion, he pulled out his Harptone-made Standel 910S jazzbox and praised its quality and workmanship.

For bass players and collectors, the Standel 400 represents a unique, well-crafted turn on a EB-2-style/short-scale, semi-hollow instrument.

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Special thanks to Steve “The Surfin’ Librarian” Soest.

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This article originally appeared in VG‘s November 2009 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Every once in awhile, someone in Gibson R&D gets a brainstorm like, “I know! Why don’t we make a bolt-neck guitar!” So they do. And the result is almost always interesting – and almost always a commercial flop. Call it “Les Paul syndrome.”

Guitar aficionados are the beneficiaries of both sides of this coin. Not only do we get to nab a fabulous guitar, but we’re also not likely to pay as much as it might really be worth! A case in point is this nifty 1978 Gibson Marauder Custom.

The ’70s were tough on American guitar companies. Actually, the grief began just following the corporate feeding frenzy that gripped the musical instrument industry in the mid ’60s. By mid-decade, guitar companies could sell any guitar they could get their hands on. This led to a lot of expansion by domestic factories as well as an explosion in imports, first from Europe and then from Japan. However, according to reports in The Music Trades, guitar sales experienced a contraction in ’67, with a further reduction in ’68. Besides all the corporate takeovers, Valco and Kay merged in ’67, then closed down in ’68. Many other American ’60s guitar stalwarts bit the dust by the end of the decade.

Entering the ’70s, the guitar landscape had solidified into primarily the major guitar American companies facing off a growing challenge by a host of improving Japanese manufacturers building their brand identities. At the same time, American guitarmakers were having identity problems. Part of this came from the competition, but a good deal of it came from the corporate cultures that owned them. Often, the managers in charge knew about commodity businesses but not so much about the subtleties of the music business, which is a bit of a different animal. Eventually, this would lead to a big sell-off in the early ’80s, but that’s getting ahead of our story.

Gibson had departed from its Les Paul guitars in 1961, switching to the SG, then returning to its venerable mainstay in ’68. Yet the company felt it needed something new. The result was a number of new guitars, including several bolt-neck models like the Marauder, technically introduced in ’74 but really entering production in ’75.

Conventional wisdom has Gibson desiring to compete on Fender’s turf with bolt-necks and “single-coil” pickups. This may be, however, except that beyond its bolt-on neck, there’s not much Fender-like about the Marauder. There’s not even a single-coil pickup, but rather a narrow humbucker at the bridge, giving this guitar something of the illusion of a Telecaster arrangement.

In fact, Gibson recruited pickup maven Bill Lawrence to give this guitar its horsepower. Born Willi Lorenz Stich in Cologne, Germany, he was a talented jazz guitarist who began working with pickups in the late ’40s. He hooked up with German guitarmaker Framus as an endorser and performed under the name of Billy Lorento, which may have been actually owned by Fred Wilfer of Framus. Indeed, Framus built a Billy Lorento signature model. Seeing opportunity, Lawrence relocated to the U.S. and began designing pickups. Reportedly, he worked on pickups for Micro-Frets. And he definitely worked on the pickups used by Dan Armstrong in his “see-through” guitars Ampeg introduced in ’69. Typical of many Armstrong pickups is the epoxy potting, used to reduce feedback. When Armstrong split with Ampeg and moved to England, Lawrence took over his shop in New York.

This is when Gibson enters the picture. Looking for something new and hip, Gibson hired Lawrence to come up with new pickups. His first assignment resulted in the L-6S guitar designed in 1972 and introduced the following year, a plain-looking but neat guitar. The second collaboration between Gibson and Lawrence was the Marauder.

Physically, the Marauder was a Les-Paul-shaped solidbody made of alder, maple, or mahogany. The body had a contour along the upper edge – no binding, no arch. The bolt-on laminated maple neck had a Flying-V-style tapered headstock. Fingerboards were rosewood or maple with pearl-dot inlays, though some may have had trapezoids.

But the real news was the pickup system. First, the Marauder had Lawrence humbuckers with his trademark epoxy potting. At the neck was a conventional-looking humbucker, and at the bridge was a slanted twin-blade small humbucker with cool green-wire insulation. The earliest Marauders came with a three-way select on the cutaway horn. Boring. In late 1976, the three-way was changed out for a blender that allowed you to blend your mix of bridge and neck sounds on a continuum – a very cool concept!

Shortly after their introduction, the mostly alder Marauders became the M-1 and a tobacco sunburst Marauder Custom was introduced. Circa ’78, a maple fingerboard was introduced and the blender was given a chicken-head knob and moved between the Volume and Tone control, as seen here. Generally, enthusiasts describe these as having a more “Fender” sound, but really the pickups boosted high frequencies, unlike the more bassy Gibson humbucker. The sound was more delicate and subtle, especially with the blender function. This one has a black lacquered finish on the neck, making it especially playable.

Marauders were endorsed by Ace Frehley and Paul Stanley of Kiss. They did moderately well, but were not best-sellers. A little over 1,368 – maybe a few more – were made (in a wine red finish) between ’75 and ’79, with only 148 shipped in ’78. The model was cancelled in ’79, but a few more were made until ’81 or ’82. Not rare, but pretty interesting and very nice-playing, with a Bill Lawrence pedigree. You just have to get over the bolt-neck on a Gibson name!

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This article originally appeared in VG November 2009 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

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