Seriously exquisite craftsmanship on Bozo guitar......

davismanLV

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Just stumbled on this BoZo (wish I knew how to put the thing above the Z on his name, Bow-zho) guitar and the exquisite detail just knocked me out!! 40th Anniversary edition. Check out the details, I'm in awe!! Wowza!!

HERE!!
 

ruedi

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Bozo, made to be looked at? This is a beauty for sure, but I would' dare to go even anywhere near it...
 

beecee

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Love the detail on that heel cap.
 

Bernie

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Very good photos Tom. Congratulations...
I had never heard of Bozo before, but now I'll remember.
But how do they sound ?
 

Brad Little

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An old friend knew BoŽo, had him work on his vintage Martins. He asked him about the bling on some of his guitars, and the response was that he put more decoration on guitars that sounded better.
BTW, alt0142 give you Ž, alt0158 ž.
 

walrus

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Am I the only one who thought this was going to be a guitar with some sort of Bozo the Clown connection? Huh. Probably...

It's very cool, but like Sandy, I'm not a bling guy...

walrus
 

chazmo

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Agreed on the exquisite detail, Tom. Quite amazing. This guitar must've been quite a showpiece for him.

I've think I've heard good things about Bozo's 12-strings, but I'm not sure, and if I recall they were much older than this 1996 (if that's correct) example.
 

wileypickett

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Bozo's have been around since the '70s. He licensed his design ideas to a maker in Japan for a while. I had one of ths Japanese made Bozos -- pretty good 12-string, but I didn't keep it.
 

wileypickett

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VEER:

BTW Chaz, that crazy Arturo Valdez 12-string I sent you pics of last year -- only eight were made (mine is #3) and all were custom jobs. I knew that Roger McGuinn and Al Stewart had had ones made, and a Swedish prog-rocker named Lalla Hansson.

But I've never been able to find pics of any of them with their Valdez 12s. (Hansson appears in many pics with his Guild F512.)

Till now! I just found an interview with McGuinn from the '80s that shows him with his Valdez 12-string. He says (at the time anyway) it's the only guitar he's ever custom ordered.

Guild connection: the late Arturo Valdez was luthier to many of California's Hollywood area music community, and did work for everyone, including John Denver (whose Guild F612 he repaired several times, including replacing the top) and Bonnie Raitt (he replaced the top on her F50). (He's also responsible for making Gene Simmon's "Battleaxe" bass, in case you wanted to know who to blame.)

There's a chapter on him in Frank Green's book, *D'Angelico, Master Guitar Builder*.

Interestingly, when Valdez began making his own custom 12-string acoustics, he copied the dimensions (though nothing else!) of the Guild F-612.

I knew none of ths when I bought mine on eBay, back when they first started. Then, if you plugged in "12 string guitar," you got about 80 hits.
 

wileypickett

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Thanks for posting that article Tom -- from 2012. I tried reaching Valdez years ago and got a note from a family member, but no info about my guitar. I know Valdez is retired now and the store closed, but so far as I can tell, he's still living.

Some of his flamenco guitars occasionally turn up for sale, but of his 12-strings, mine is the only one I've ever seen offered.
 
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Nuuska

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Leo Kottke and Peter Lang both played Bozo 12-strings at one time. (Theirs weren't nearly as over-the-top as this one!)

I'm told John Fahey had one too, but I'm not sure if was a six- or 12-.


Peter Lang showed me his Bozo - it was 12-string with extra long fingerboard - so the sounhole could no more be between fretboard and bridge - therefore there were two soundholes - one on each side of the x-brace.
 
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wileypickett

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Great to meet another Peter Lang fan!

I've known Peter for years. I've visited him in Minneapolis a number of times, most recently just last year. Jack Rose and I stayed at his place in 2004 / 5 when we toured out there (he cooked us an amazing meal!) and he stayed with me when he played Boston some years before that.

I've shared at least a half dozen bills with him, on the East and West coasts and everywhere in between. We were both close to John Fahey, who issued Peter's first album on Takoma. In fact we first met in Oregon at John Fahey's funeral in 2001.

Peter is a sweetheart, one of the loveliest people I know, and a great storyteller.

The Bozo he had with him when we played in Berkeley, CA, in 2002, belonged to his late brother Mark, also a superb guitarist. (He issued only one record, on the Symposium label, the same label that put out Leo Kottke's *Circle Round the Sun.*) It had the conventional single soundhole, but very ornate appointments.

When did you meet him?

Glenn Jones
 

Nuuska

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Must have been the early winter 1981 after my Trans-Siberian spring-trip to Japan for summer and then in Fall to Minneapolis, where I stayed until January 1982.

Peter had a small ad in Minneapolis Star & tribune - he was advertising guitar lessons. So I had some - less than ten - I think. We were sitting facing each other and he would show me his songs step by step. He was nice and friendly fellow. Next time you meet him say hello.
 
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