out with the old, in with the new - a Stormbird arrives
andrew_s
DC59, a Yamaha SGV800 , a Variax 300, a Yamaha SBV500 and a variety
of pedals. In came a Gould Stormbird. Ebay is a marvelous thing. So
what's a Stormbird? This is an interesting guitar (I think). It's a
copy of a Gibson non-Reverse Firebird. Tobacco sunburst, gold
hardware, 3 x P90 pickups, a three way p/u selector, two volume
controls and a tone control. It's nicely finished with no visible
joins in the wood on the top or back. Maybe it was made from one
piece of wood, or at least the top and back were. It's got a set neck,
the unusual body shape and a very Fender-esque headstock. 24.5" scale
length. It's quite a big guitar, there's a lot of wood in it although
it does just fit my Gibson triangular gig bag.
It's got a neat feature of having an independent vol control for the
middle pickup. The 3 way selector works like a regular Gibson
selector, and the middle p/u vol control lets it be added into the
mix. So you can get the strat 2 and 4 positions by turning up the
vol of the middle p/u. Neat. It doesn't really sound like a Strat,
although there are some similarities. If you turn up the middle p/u
vol and turn down the other vol, then the pickup select switch is
more or less bypassed and it's a single P90 sound.
When I got the 'bird it desperately needed TLC and a set up. Although
the strings were dire all the original plastic covers were still on
the scratchplate, p/u, truss rod cover etc. Other than ancient
strings it really was in A1 condition with not a mark on it. Last
night I gave it a service - restring, fret polish, p/u height
adjustment, truss rod tweak to improve the action (it was perfect for
slide, although you could almost have put the slide between the
strings and the neck - OK I exaggerate slightly...) and it's now a
really interesting sounding guitar. The neck p/u on it's own is almost
mellow enough for jazz. Dial in middle p/u and you get something
between a Strat and a humbucker. Select the middle position and leave
the middle vol up and you get all three p/us on. At the bridge
position you can have either the bridge P90 solo or again dial in the
middle p/u which seems to be rw/rp and you get a Strat 4 or a sort of
humbucker. Cool indeed. I'll stick some photos up on flickr
shortly.
If anyone has any more info about Gould or the Stormbird I'd be
interested to hear from you. There's not much out there in interweb-
land.
so, all in all, a fairly large de-gas and then a small scale re-gas.
Happy Days!
slainte!
Andrew_S
Nick Brown
> If anyone has any more info about Gould or the Stormbird I'd be
> interested to hear from you. There's not much out there in interweb-
> land.
>
> so, all in all, a fairly large de-gas and then a small scale re-gas.
> Happy Days!
>
I've often looked at this particular guitar (they've been available via eBay
for a couple of years) and wondered if it was related to/came out of the
same factory as this guitar http://www.myrareguitars.com/stormbird.html
I think Eastwood source guitars made in Japan, Korea & China but are a bit
cagey about which model comes from where....I bought an Eastwood Classic 6
from Mike (great guy) a couple of years ago for my eldest son when he was
going through his first 'George in 1964' phase
http://www.myrareguitars.com/classic.html. Good guitar - but the weakness of
� against the $ plus duty has knacked things slightly....
Hope this helps;
Nick Brown
andrew_s
> I've often looked at this particular guitar (they've been available via eBay
> for a couple of years) and wondered if it was related to/came out of the
> same factory as this guitarhttp://www.myrareguitars.com/stormbird.html
Thanks Nick, mine is same Sunburst colour as the one on the webpage
linked to above but mine's got 3 x creme coloured P90s and three
controls, rather than the four controls on the Eastwood guitars. The
headstock on mine is much more rounded and definitely very Fender-
ish. There are enough similarities though to make it more than
likely that the Gould and Eastwood ranges are related.
cheers
Andrew_S
Steve Robinson
news:58e888ed-ab5f-4343...@t19g2000vbc.googlegroups.com...
> The last week has seen a bout of degassing chez moi. Out went a Dano
> DC59, a Yamaha SGV800 ,
Wow - you practically gave away the Yamaha.
> If anyone has any more info about Gould or the Stormbird I'd be
> interested to hear from you. There's not much out there in interweb-
> land.
Not come across the Stormbird except haveing seen them at guitar shows.
Steve
andrew_s
<stephen.p.robinson.dropt...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> "andrew_s" <carr...@googlemail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:58e888ed-ab5f-4343...@t19g2000vbc.googlegroups.com...
>
> > The last week has seen a bout of degassing chez moi. Out went a Dano
> > DC59, a Yamaha SGV800 ,
>
> Wow - you practically gave away the Yamaha.
>
I forgot to set a reserve :-( Yes I could have pulled the auction
- but, and it's a big but, although it may be worth much more, it's
only really worth what someone will pay for it and no-one was bidding
much higher. So would I have been able to sell it if I'd had a high
reserve? I don't know. <shrug> I didn't lose much on it..........
and I enjoyed owning it for a while. I didn't by the Clapton Strat
we discussed. The Stormbird caught my eye, it was in Edinburgh and I
was on a 4 out 1 in deal with SWMBO....... oh yes, it was also what I
felt was a good price £125.00
cheers
andrew_s
JNugent
I think you were unlucky.
I have bought two SGV800s (both metallic red) at good prices but they tend to
be in demand on eBay. But perhaps not in current market conditions.
Steve Dix
Ohhh... and it's available left-hand too....
Not to mention this, which is a bit of a holy grail for German guitar
collectors :
http://www.myrareguitars.com/saturn.html
--
http://www.cdbaby.com/sinistrals http://sinistrals.stevedix.de/
http://www.stevedix.de/blog http://www.snorty.net/
<st...@stevedix.de>
JNugent
> On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:24:19 -0000, "Nick Brown"
> <nick...@btinternet.com> wrote:
>
>>> If anyone has any more info about Gould or the Stormbird I'd be
>>> interested to hear from you. There's not much out there in interweb-
>>> land.
>>>
>>> so, all in all, a fairly large de-gas and then a small scale re-gas.
>>> Happy Days!
>>>
>> I've often looked at this particular guitar (they've been available via eBay
>> for a couple of years) and wondered if it was related to/came out of the
>> same factory as this guitar http://www.myrareguitars.com/stormbird.html
>>
>> I think Eastwood source guitars made in Japan, Korea & China but are a bit
>> cagey about which model comes from where....I bought an Eastwood Classic 6
>>from Mike (great guy) a couple of years ago for my eldest son when he was
>> going through his first 'George in 1964' phase
>> http://www.myrareguitars.com/classic.html. Good guitar - but the weakness of
>> � against the $ plus duty has knacked things slightly....
>>
>> Hope this helps;
>>
>> Nick Brown
>
>
> Ohhh... and it's available left-hand too....
>
> Not to mention this, which is a bit of a holy grail for German guitar
> collectors :
>
> http://www.myrareguitars.com/saturn.html
I saw Bill Nelson perform with one of those (the Eastwood version) in
September. He sounded remarkably similar whether using a 335, the Saturn or
that "Campbell American" signature model of his.