GPOTD 9.18.14

Kerouac

Kerouac

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STANDEL 520 S 1968

STANDEL

Model 520-S

“MODIFIED AND TRANSFORMED”

YOM: 1968 REVITALIZATION: 2003

SN: 1009M

Another fantastic STANDEL guitar by SAM KOONTZ from my collection. As I have repeatedly said: “Standel guitars are among the most underrated and undervalued guitars in the vintage marketplace.” But, this is not a regular STANDEL. It is an incredible transformation.



ABOUT THIS GUITAR.



Standard Features:

NUT WIDTH: 1 11/16”

LOWER BOUT WIDTH: 16’

BODY DEPTH AT SIDE: 1 5/8”

WOOD: Laminated Maple.

NECK: Mahogany (very slim-fast player)

FRETBOARD: Indian Rosewood



Super Modified High Performance Features and Enhancements of This Guitar:

I bought this guitar as a “wreck”. The structural features of it were still intact and strong with the neck straight but the finish was a mess and the pickups were just dull. I handed it over to a local luthier who is known more of a guitar “hot-rodder” than a “repair guy”. If you want a guitar “fixed”, take it somewhere else, but if you want a “resurrection event”, give him free reign.

For this one, I took the bridle off and let him have at it.

This is what he did:

1. Completely stripped the body down to the base blonde flamed maple. Neck was stripped as well.

2. Mixed “analine dyes” to reproduce a “true Nitrocellulose base finish” with “many many hand rubbed nitro clear coats on top”. Note: The “analine dyes were not applied directly to the body but rather were mixed with the lacquer, then layered on to achieve the “burst” and then top coated repeatedly over a six month period to create the incredible depth that you see on the guitar now.

3. Installed a matched set of 1980’s GIBSON LES PAUL MINI-HUMBUCKERS that brought life to this “TONE GIANT” while not affecting the structure of the guitar in any way through the use of custom cut and fitted pickup rings.

4. To get the maximum sound out of the pickups, a vintage GIBSON 60’s “switch craft 3 way” was used with original GIBSON 60’s braided wire. New 500K pots were used.

5. There is a MASTER VOLUME up at the treble bout.

6. Knobs came off a vintage FENDER Tele Custom.

7. Installed one of my favorite Tremolo systems, a 1960’s BIGSBY B-3 that is solid and true and works incredibly well on this guitar.

8. For the bridge, it took a bit of thinking and trying but finally a GRETSCH adjustable ROLLER BRIDGE was attached to a floating arch top base. This was a perfect match to the BIGSBY Tremolo and keeps the guitar in excellent tune.

9. From the backroom of his shop came a set of NOS late 60’s GROVER TUNERS that were a perfect match for the existing screw holes in the headstock.

10. And just to make it a real “show off”, an “ES 335” style pickguard, pickup rings, and truss cover were cut from multi-layer high quality “Pearloid”. The original fretboard inlays were cleaned and kept.



And this is what I got: Absolutely one of the best playing and sounding ES double cut guitars that I have ever known. It is just incredible. I would call it a “SONIC RUSH” coming from the GIBSON Mini HB’s resonating from the well-tempered body (age meets youth). I would call this more of a player guitar than a collector piece. It has the “creed” of a master built KOONTZ guitar but has been “hot-rodded” for the stage road.
 
THE STANDEL GUITAR STORY. (Gathered from online and other reference sources).

“STANDEL” is still most widely known for its amplifiers. Robert “Bob” Crooks stared his company, Standard Electronics (soon to be shortened to “STANDEL”) in 1953 in Temple City, California. During his career, Bob and STANDEL were associated with several guitar builders including Paul Bigsby (MAGNATONE), Semie Mosely (MOSRITE), and Sam Koontz.

The Moseley/STANDEL guitar was short lived with the most popular model being the solid body with the “Fender XII paddle head stock”. After that initial attempt, Bob met up with Sam. As in Sam Koontz.

“Prior to setting up his own shop in Linden, N.J. (1970) Sam worked as a shop foreman for the Framus line importer; later he designed guitars for the Framus factory while working for Philadelphia Music Co. Design work was also done for Martin Co. during this tenure. “

“Sam, was commissioned by HARPTONE GUITARS COMPANY to design and develop a ‘new’ STANDEL electric guitars including the manufacturing procedures. In some cases he even designed the machinery which was used to manufacture the instruments.”

Based on his early background in designing and building hollow body (acoustic/semi-acoustic) guitars, Sam came up with a line of STANDEL branded guitars that were styled after then popular guitars from Gibson (ES-335), Gretsch, Guild, etc. but were not only comparable to these popular brands but exceeded them in quality and workmanship. If nothing else, it can be said that Sam Koontz started the first “custom guitar shop” while at HARPTONE and the STANDEL guitars were his hand built masterpieces. As noted before, Sam developed much of the “custom” machinery to build the “custom” STANDEL guitars so they could easily be classed as some of the first “boutique” guitars, i.e., taking an existing popular guitar design and making it much better. Among the STANDEL models were single and double cutaways, full body acoustics, and semi-acoustic “thinlines”. One design feature of the KOONTZ STANDEL guitar that was unique was the headstock featuring a center “valley” with inlay.

All of the KOONTZ STANDEL guitars feature a MAHOGANY BODY, MAPLE LAMINATED TOP, MAHOGANY NECK, INDIAN ROSEWOOD FRETBOARD, KLUSON/GROVER TUNERS, and D’ARMOND pickups.

As before, STANDEL once again did not succeed in the guitar business and the KOONTZ STANDEL line ended but some of the guitars continued to be sold by HARPTONE after being rebranded “HARPTONE” (these are rarer than the STANDEL branded pieces).

I own all of the comparable guitars (Gibson, Guild, Gretsch, etc.) in my collection and can fairly and openly say that the KOONTZ STANDEL guitars sound better acoustically, are higher quality in terms of materials and construction, and play a whole lot better.

And of course this was only the beginning of the fame that SAM KOONTZ justly earned as a guitar builder. Each and every remaining “KOONTZ” branded guitar carries an extremely high price simply due to the creative genius and craftsmanship of SAM KOONTZ. For that reason alone, a KOONTZ STANDEL is considered to be highly collectible and playable.
 
I find the "author's" over usage of "quotation marks" a bit "annoying"...

Nice guitar, though...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tig
It would be cool if you had it re-done to the specs you wanted, but what he has done to it really kills the resale value of it, imo.

Kind of like customizing a motorcycle like you want it.....it's yours at that point, and you are never going to get out of it what you put into it.

Pretty cool as a $800 guitar, but I doubt he's willing to go that low.

What's he asking for it, out of curiosity?
 
I like it. I don't generally like 60's guitars like this, but somehow this is an exception.
 
Cool guitar and I like what the luthier did to resurrect it. Way overhyped in the copy though.....

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