Plastic Maccaferri Bodies - lap steel?

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 27 Oct 2004 9:50 am

Back in the 50's, Mario Maccaferri, the visionary italian luthier who worked with Selmer on gypsy jazz guitars briefly made these cool plastic guitars to capitalize on the uke craze that was going on. I played one in a store once and it sounded surpsisingly good. I've always regretted not forking over the $90 they wanted for it. Elderly has a number of these bodies (only) for $15. Seems like a way to get a cheap body, attach a neck and get a cool experimental lap steel. I suppose you could fill it with something for extra weight? http://www.elderly.com/vintage/items/20U-8740.htm

Jackie Anderson · Post by **Jackie Anderson** » 27 Oct 2004 5:16 pm

Do you know what those bodies are actually made of? It looks like polystyrene - not widely known for its sonic properties, perhaps. Did the one you played, ah, resinate well?

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 27 Oct 2004 5:39 pm

About 15-20 years ago Elderly was selling both archtop (f hole)and flat-top (round hole) plastic bodied Maccaferri's. They sounded suprisingly good for molded plastic. They had a bunch of these. Apparently they found a warehouse that was full of them.

I'm with Andy, I'm kicking myself for not buying one for the $75 they were charging back then.

The plastic bodied "Islander" ukes were also made by Maccaferri. These sound great as well. There are literally tons of these floating around. You can identify them by the zero-fret. Most plastic ukes don't have this feature.

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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'

Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website

[This message was edited by Gerald Ross on 28 October 2004 at 05:57 AM.]

Loni Specter · Post by **Loni Specter** » 27 Oct 2004 8:16 pm

Hi Andy,
I've been seeing these pop up on Ebay and asked one seller what the scale length was. He never responded. Does anyone know what it is? I was thinking of sticking one of my RedNecks on it, but my necks are set up for 25.5" Fender scale.
Who knows the set up on these bodies?

Gary Anwyl · Post by **Gary Anwyl** » 27 Oct 2004 9:52 pm

FYI, here's a pretty good article about Maccaferri. It goes into some detail about the plastic instruments he built (and other things such as clothespins!): http://www.vintageguitar.com/brands/details.asp?ID=59

The Elderly bodies are the G30 model. The original neck actually extends all the way through the body. The bridge is molded into the top. It has a tailpiece but it is just for decoration. The G40 has a wooden bridge and functional tailpiece.

Here's a picture of a complete G30: http://www.guitarcrazy.com.au/W&WMac1950s.htm

I was seriously thinking about buying a body from Elderly at one time but changed my mind when I found out that there's a $15 or $20 shipping charge on top of the $15.
[This message was edited by Gary Anwyl on 27 October 2004 at 10:58 PM.]

Michael Devito · Post by **Michael Devito** » 28 Oct 2004 5:31 am

A friend of mine has one of the plastic guitars. Very tough to tune with those banjo pegs. Seems more like a toy than an instrument. Can't get used to the plastic. Then again, Charlie Parker was known to use a plastic sax at times. Maybe I'm just not good enough to appreciate a plastic guitar.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 28 Oct 2004 5:44 am

Well, a Rickenbacher Bakelite is a plastic guitar and so is a Steinberger bass - two great sounding instruments. To my way of thinking, this indicates that you can't rule out plastic as a valid material for musical instruments. My memory of these guitars is that they were surprisingly full and warm sounding. Would putting a RedNeck and a pickup on one of these be worth the effort? Beats me.[This message was edited by Andy Volk on 28 October 2004 at 03:04 PM.]

Loni Specter · Post by **Loni Specter** » 28 Oct 2004 8:40 am

I opted to purchase two of these bodies from Elderly. After I recieved my email confirmation from them showing the shipping as $15.00 per body, I emailed them back and suggested they could do better on that shipping total. Just a moment ago I recieved a note from Kirk Reynolds at Elderly stateing that the two bodies would fit in one carton and the total shipping for both will be only $15.00. Hurray!
I have a vission of how to mount a Strat type neck onto these, by spliceing some maple on to an existing neck and extending it at least to that mid point circle in the body and securing it with the two neck screws and a third at that point. It's the Floyd Rose I'm worried about

Mike D · Post by **Mike D** » 28 Oct 2004 1:59 pm

My bandmate Mike and I just scored another 2 of them guys, better hurry

I'm making mine into a Ceese-O-Caster™ electric slider (bottneck most likely) I think my old De-Armond soundhole p/u should be perfect for it.

Andy, thanks for the tip, you da man!

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Half-assed bottleneck and lap slide player. Full-assed Builder of resonator instruments.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 28 Oct 2004 2:11 pm

Cool, guys! I wish I had inherited 20% of my Dad's ability to make or kluge practically anything but unfortunately, I'm a danger to myself and others in the shop otherwise I'd definitely go for it too. I'll bet that with with the right neck set up and pick up you could get a unique tone out of one of these things.

Travis Bernhardt · Post by **Travis Bernhardt** » 28 Oct 2004 6:21 pm

If you want to hear one, Bob Brozman plays bottleneck on a plastic Maccaferri archtop on his album with Jeff Lang. Of course, no matter what he plays it's going to sound "Brozmany," so it might not be the best indicator of the guitar's tone--but it's one possible sound you can get, anyways. The song is called "Wipe it Off," apparently by Lonnie Johnson. As you might expect from the title it's filled with innuendo, and Brozman gives it a jokey, ragtimey feel--so the "plastic" sound works perfectly.

-Travis

Mark Durante · Post by **Mark Durante** » 29 Oct 2004 2:19 pm

I own a number of Maccaferri plastic instruments, I have used them for many recordings and I think they sound wonderful. I imagine the sound is a matter of taste like anything else though. The scale length on the full size guitars is 24.5 inches.

Roger Miller · Post by **Roger Miller** » 2 Nov 2004 6:27 pm

I just sent the money in today hoping the y have at least one more with my name on it. I'm sure this is redundant, but how to get the neck is a question. Any takers there?

Roger Miller · Post by **Roger Miller** » 7 Nov 2004 4:21 pm

They are out of the bodies, guess I will have to wait till a later date to get the guitar. I ain't dead yet.

Keith Cordell · Post by **Keith Cordell** » 30 Mar 2006 3:24 am

You might try Subway Guitars in Berkeley CA. They have tons of guitar parts from decades back including disassembled Italian and japanese guitars and LOTS of Danelectros. http://www.fatdawg.com/