Weird Benedetto Refit on a '57 Guild M-75 Blues Bird

[Rich Cohen]

Here's something out of the twilight zone:

https://reverb.com/item/33795993-one-of-a-kind-guild-benedetto-aristocrat-m-75-blues-bird-1957-sunburst

 

[GGJaguar]

That just adds to the 2020 apocalypse.

 

[Rich Cohen]

Jag, you're right on that one! I almost cried.

 

[DThomasC]

I'm normally not as sensitive to modified guitars as some of you, but it's hard for me to support that.

 

[Rich Cohen]

I'm normally not as sensitive to modified guitars as some of you, but it's hard for me to support that.

I agree. Almost criminal, even though, apparently Bob Benedetto was involved. I'm actually surprised he accepted to do it. At least the original neck is offered.

 

[GAD]

It looks like someone had a beautiful M75 and really wished that they had a Setzer Bluesbird instead.

I'd love to have the pile of original parts, though! At least whoever did it was smart enough to leave the covers on the pickups.

 

[walrus]

I agree. Almost criminal, even though, apparently Bob Benedetto was involved. I'm actually surprised he accepted to do it. At least the original neck is offered.

I, too, find it hard to believe he would do that. Without any evidence, I would tend to take that statement with a large grain of salt...

walrus

 

[kakerlak]

The re-neck is screwy. I wonder how different it is in profile over the original. You could make some cover-up bezels and put the Franz pickups back in, then put a nicer, passive Strat pickup in the middle and maybe have something sonically interesting. And maybe you could take the old neck and reneck a NS Aristocrat, lol.

But the price is zany!

 

[AcornHouse]

Nothing about that says Benedetto. For example, they claim that the neck has a Fratello model headstock shape. A wuick check of the Benedetto website shows this as the Fratello headstock.

Close, but no cigar!

The amateurish Installation of the pickups screams not-Benedetto to me. He(they) pride themselves on craftsmanship. This would never be allowed to be seen if it came from them.

Not buying it, so I won’t buy it!

 

[kakerlak]

Nothing about that says Benedetto. For example, they claim that the neck has a Fratello model headstock shape. A wuick check of the Benedetto website shows this as the Fratello headstock.

Close, but no cigar!

The amateurish Installation of the pickups screams not-Benedetto to me. He(they) pride themselves on craftsmanship. This would never be allowed to be seen if it came from them.

Not buying it, so I won’t buy it!

I think we need to be comparing to early, small shop Benedetto stuff. I don't think I'd expect it to have the sort of high end laser precision look of modern era Benedetto stuff like the pic you found. This is the only early one I found on reverb and it looks a lot closer: https://reverb.com/item/32264585-benedetto-artist-15-archtop-blonde

There are some (not great) pics on the Benedetto site of '80s stuff, including a matching headstock shape on some Fratello models

Honestly, I buy the story, though it would not surprise me if the pickups were done at another date by somebody more amateur. To be fair, the seller only claims Benedetto renecked it and installed a new bridge. Even if that new neck is really nice (and really Benedetto), I can't see the work done to this guitar helping its value. Gotta be like a $1500 instrument, if that. It's seen a lot of smoky clubs.

 

[GAD]

I think we need to be comparing to early, small shop Benedetto stuff. I don't think I'd expect it to have the sort of high end laser precision look of modern era Benedetto stuff like the pic you found. This is the only early one I found on reverb and it looks a lot closer: https://reverb.com/item/32264585-benedetto-artist-15-archtop-blonde

There are some (not great) pics on the Benedetto site of '80s stuff, including a matching headstock shape on some Fratello models

Honestly, I buy the story, though it would not surprise me if the pickups were done at another date by somebody more amateur. To be fair, the seller only claims Benedetto renecked it and installed a new bridge. Even if that new neck is really nice (and really Benedetto), I can't see the work done to this guitar helping its value. Gotta be like a $1500 instrument, if that. It's seen a lot of smoky clubs.

Honestly I might pay $500, keep the pile of parts, then put the guitar on ebay with a 0.01 starting bid.

 

[Opsimath]

I think the seller wants more than $500 (like over 10 times more). Good luck, should you decide to make an offer!

 

[SFIV1967]

Unbelievable...no words...

 

[guitarlover]

Why oh why oh why

 

[ruedi]

Unbelievable...no words...

Frankenguild?

 

[kakerlak]

It looks like someone had a beautiful M75 and really wished that they had a Setzer Bluesbird instead.

I'd love to have the pile of original parts, though! At least whoever did it was smart enough to leave the covers on the pickups.

If I was the seller, I'd go ahead and claim I'd shown it to Brian in the eighties and that it was the basis for that model.

 

[SBrem]

Did it catch fire after BB worked on it? This is rather grotesque, not worth anything at all to me, but that's just me.

Steve

 

[DThomasC]

Weird that there's more photos of the leftover parts than there are of the guitar itself. No close up shots of the front of the instrument showing how the pickups are mounted. No photos at all of the neck joint where the new neck was grafted on. No photos of the back of the neck.. The few photos that are there suggest that the thing is a beat up POS. But plenty of detailed shots of the original pickups and tuners!

 

[kakerlak]

Looking at the outer two pickups makes me think this was cut for humbuckers at some point. Makes those bezels make a lot better sense and it would probably look a lot better visually.

 

[Guildadelphia]

Well.....it used to be a nice guitar.