Almost Amazing: Soviet-Era Guitar Looks So Good, But...
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- Опубликовано: 26 мар 2021
- It's so close to being a desirable guitar, but...
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be good,
Tim 
Хобби
Tim I get an ad every 3 mins. I don't know if it's intentional or not but it seems a little excessive
it's horrible. Some videos get plagued by them, others not so bad. I can turn some of them off but then the algorithm doesn't work as hard to get the views, then I suffer. The reason I've been pushing www.patreon.com/timsway so hard is I'm trying to get to a point where I can turn all the ads off always, but currently I do rely on the dirty and out-of-my-hands ad revenue to offset the time and expense of making these videos. You'll notice I don't do ad reads for f-cking mattresses or video games in the middle of my stuff. That revenue makes it easier for some channels to slow the placed ad rolls. I don't do that (except for a very select few companies where I'm friends with and on a first name basis with the owners).
@@timsway that's nice from you.. when i encounter some videos with plenty of ads i simply turn it off .. i do not bother ..
@@ecalzo It's tough to find the balance. I've been doing this for more than 8 years and continue to struggle to find my place in it. Of course I want people to see my work, but they simply won't with the ads turned off, like the first 4 years. I also do not need to get rich doing this, but it is a huge amount of time taken away from my business, so I need to earn that time or go out of business. I have a few companies I'm friendly with that would pay me for more sponsored content, but then I'm shoehorning what I want to do in to their product placement needs and the audience smells that... When I have ideas that I think will work mutually for us I pitch those nowadays, but that's about it.
@@timsway yes you're absolutely right.. i prefer some ads spoken by the voice of the narrator.. like you recommending us some wax or tool instead of the annoying automated ads
@@timsway possibly it is the RATM that pranged the ad-monster bots.
That guitar looks like when animators who haven't ever played a guitar have to design a guitar for a show or movie
i think this is actually more or less how this went into production, haha
on an annual soviet party gathering they decided that, if americans have an electric guitar - soviet people must have one as well!
so the best military engineers and furniture factory workers got down to business...
The Homer of guitars.
yes, it looks like a guitar played by the Way-Outs
@@m5chk1 in the 80s when they tried to boost consumer production after neglecting it from the mid 60s, Formanta literally switched over from industrial electronics to instruments. Their synths are incredible but this is just weird. It's funny to see that the switches are literally just polivoks switches.
Honestly, those old Soviet guitars and the weirder Harmony/Teisco stuff out of Japan are some of my favourite guitars of all time, looks wise.
absolutely
The original headstock was one of the best features of the guitar IMHO. It had the look of a mandolin about it.
agreed
I think he could've just made a new neck and kept the original
Agreed! The neck profile tho... But the head was amazingly authentic, the looks and the idea of an fx chain built in are key in a guitar like this today, aside from collector's value
i think it coulda been cool if the tuners were more proportionally layed out, but the size compared to the tuner spacing looked a bit awkward imo
@@romanthegambler6966 the profile is just shit 🤣 I've played in an acoustic with a profile extremely similar to one of these, the head is very cool IMO, but the FX just isn't a good idea, a guitar is what it is, I get the innovation and the practicality but it's just too much for whoever would use it
This guitar (with effects built-in and working) is a noisecore monster. Shame you cut off the headstock
6:21 Fitting that you're listening to Rage and working on a Soviet guitar LOL
Haha!
Your whole moding of this guitar is such a "Soviet" thing in itself.
Did he change the guitars mode?
@@krashd I guess he doesn't like mixolydian.
Instead of a symmetrical 'Gibson-style' headstock a bit of offset angle on the headstock would match better with the body style.
Oh man. You should do a collab with Look Mum No Computer where you guys both get some guitar with built in effects and mod them to do different things.
not familiar with the channel. I'll check it out. thanks!
YESSS:::: SUper Tim Sway and SAM from Lookmumnocomputer will be Awesome ,...
Excellent suggestion
Simon The Magpie could also be a cool person to talk to. He makes all sorts of weird experimental modifications to instruments.
@@aniquinstark4347 yes!!!!
I used to own one back in the 80s. It looked so modern and cool so I bought it. The price was 245r or 275r a rough equivalent to 300usd back then. The guitar was a souless piece of junk even compared to other guitars made in USSR. Possibly the worst guitar ever. Good memories though )
About that 9 volt battery compartment: The industry standards for battery sizes are amazingly loose. I will assume the Soviet designers only had access to the cheap batteries and those tend to be on the small end of industry standard. Higher quality cells tend to be larger, so I'm not surprised that yours did not fit. How do I know? I design battery compartments for handheld scientific instruments. I have designed instruments that use AA, C, and several different Li-ion cells, and I have found that there is a huge tolerance allowed for variation in size. Our marketing department wants our instruments to as small as possible but they also want the largest battery packaged inside it. I
under communism everything was cheap and substandard. even militaries often suffered so dont expect the average consumer or producer got much choice or any say in what they could use. yes they used the CHEAPEST batteries available. welcome to communism, if you didnt know.
Also older batteries were a bit smaller especially the 9 volt. Modern 90 V won't fit in some of the older guitar pedals either
Yeah I've had that when Duracells won't fit
i have the same problem with my bass. some battteries are smaller and i use a piece of paper to make them stable.
If it was a keyboard, that switch right under the strings that's impossible not to hit would be the DEMO button. Maybe you could mod it to play a recording of stairway to heaven when you hit it? I feel like the original creators of this guitar just didn't think of it or it would have been an original feature.
If I had this guitar I'd spend more time to chose a tone than actually playing
In Soviet Russia, you don't play guitar, guitar plays you!
Same tbh
just like my ex
that's how EVERYONE plays guitar.
I can't believe this showed up in my recommendations! The lead guitar in my band bought one of these recently and we r waiting for it from a guitar shop
the algorithm knows that.
In the Soviet Union, the instructions read «after assembly, process with a file» 😁
Did it actually?
@@thomas.thomas No, it's just a common joke.
Брехня
И обрабатывали. Потому-что наши советские люди были мастера на все руки.
Как гитара она не очень но в рукопашном бою незаменима ). А вообще играли на подобных и радовались.
Количество музыкантов не зависит от количества хороших инструментов. В умелых руках и хрен балалайка
In Russia, guitar plays you...
лол
@@walterkersting6238 true(
Нууу. Востановив четыре советских гитары, могу сказать, если её допилить, это вполне винтажный инструмент. Звук у них как минимум не плох.
Great video. What's crazy is that guitar was made in my hometown Borisov (Belarus) and the model is even named after the city (Borisov Solo II). I remember vividly that my father used to have one in cherry red color.
WOW, once you’re doing a Google image search for "Borisov Solo II" you'll get others like the "Formanta" as well, which looks even more amazing (besides its "cone head"-headstock).
Man thanks for doing this, this is why I learned to work on guitars. Had an old Silvertone as a kid my local guitar store wouldn't fix because it "wasn't worth the time to fix it" and if I wanted it repaired I should "learn to do it myself"
Fell in love with Tonika guitars later and here we are 🤷♂️
My brother has an old Silvertone that we got by trading a Marshal Solid state amp for. The guitar is not bad, but he needs to get better pickups for the guitar.
I recently bought a guitar Tonica. These guitars are considered trash and the price is ridiculous. But it can be resurrected and made more comfortable.
Selfishly I would like to see how you swap out the effects haha
In my humble opinion, you should definitely strip out those old effects circuits and put in some new ones.
A phaser is cool and all, but a reverb would be a better and more versatile effect. A fuzz cicuit is always a good choice.
Man, that guitar does look unique. I love the vibe too. Awesome score.
but keep the green pickguard
@@phrenetik yes, for sure... Maybe find a similar acrylic green and make a new one. Rearrange the switch placement while your at it. The color scheme is what makes this so cool.
It might sound good, but reverb and other time based effects, run down batteries in no time.
Reverb in the guitar would be before anything else in the signal chain and might be strange
Make this guitar like real hippie psyhodelic rock guitar with crazy water purple-blue-yellow painting and crazy effects
It seems like a lot of those Soviet guitar makers never left the late 60s in terms of design. It reminds me of a Mosrite or Supro from that time. The wiring looks really crazy too I’m sure some neat mods could be done to make it better, definitely a cool guitar!
Just like communism
@@hellenicgyp5966 wat?
@@varolov communism is outdated and shit
I am not sure that the original electronics would ever work as intended... It might be that every guitar was unique.
At the beginning of the ninties I had swapped some resistors in my brother's guitar until he was pleased with the sound of it...
I had ended reshaping the neck too, so your video brought back some good memories. 🙂
Greetings from Romania!
Oh, I played on the same guitar (but its bass version) in school band. Made in Belarusian SSR, in city Borisov. It was called "BASS-I VC 253-BL".
Neck is uncomfortable, with rounded square shape profile. Absolute log, but, what the memories)
Yep. I got a shirt with that mix of colours.
A gift from my best friend, Loli.
It's a cool, cool wear.
And it has a lot of buttons, too.
The music selection on the backgroung was absolutely spot on ... RATM .. what else...!! and i loved the process of remodeniztion/renovation of the guitar .. well done Tim ..
lol. That's just what I was listening to :)
Always appreciate some "Driver 8".
It's one of the few riffs I know :)
@@timsway I'd argue that it's one of the greatest.
Oh I thought you meant the band driver 8
Didn't know there was such a band, but a band name wouldn't be quoted; that's the convention for denoting the title of a short-form work, like a song or an article.
REMski
i remember a very simillar piece at my school back then. It was in somewhat gnarly shape as generations of school bands were abusing it, but that variant had buttons instead of switches, not sure originally or someone has modded it. Our music teacher was beatlomaniac and sometimes he used that guitar to play - i guess only at those moments it was tuned and sounded pleasant. School band usually didn't last long enough to properly tame this instrument, but punk-rock was always possible to hammer-out :) I remember that neck too, it was painful to play.
This guitar is Borisov Solo-2/Formanta guitar if anyone curious!
"THE COLOR OF FUZZ, You have to use that
yes! absolutely do your thing with the guitar effects! i mean, you already cut the headstock and shaped the neck, you might as well go all out imho
Naw i see that I was scarried to do with my mom's guitar, I was played on in 1995. Thank you for doing this video, glad to see haw old USSR program works through the time and distanse, indeed!
You could probably locate a Russian Cyrillic OCR app to convert the text on the schematic.
Sweet guitar. I like what you did with it. Such a tough decision about whether to try to repair the effects and make them work or to go with your own stuff inside... Hmmm... Can't wait for the next video!
It's nice to see different projects. Thank you!
Definitely a cool looking guitar! No shame in modding that guitar! I'm sure it's an improvement! Thanks for sharing!!
Cut the headstock... NNNNOOOOOOOO!!!
That headstock was so cool before.
Yeah key word...WAS.
🔵 I feel-yuh Brother!
Totally unnecessary threw the proportions off.. not an improvement. I would have spent more time getting the electronics working properly. It's his guitar but that's my opinion
@@johnpittscom classic design for the headstock from that era.
I always see old Soviet guitars pop up on eBay and Reverb and always wondered what they were all about.
I love your skill, enthusiasm and optimism, that's a very unusual but fascinating instrument, I like what you have done to it, I can certainly understand your interest in everything guitars, well done!😊
3:30 this plate on the bridge made it hard for Soviet guitar players to play with palm mute - this way the government prevented hard rock and metal music spread in the country.
I really enjoy and respect your approach and appreciation to guitars. 🎸👊
Cool project! Cruddy sounding fx. There are so many diy circuits available online to solder up that you might consider making your own. Heck, I've got a bunch of half-finished projects soldered up, I'd be happy to throw some your way.
very kind of you. I may take you up on that :)
This guitar touches on an idea I have been mulling over for the last few weeks. I have learned through playing that I prefer the strat neck, the tele body, the less Paul pickup switch location and playing comfort (not a lot of important controls to hit when I strum), the bigsby style tremolo, and the option of having a humbucker or single coil (split coil) like many other guitars today offer. I think I want to try and build it, but I'm debating over how to wire it. HSS is the way I want to do the pickups, but if I split coil, I don't think the standard 5 position switch from the strat would work. Maybe if I went with the Soviet style 3 on off switches for each pickup. Anyways, I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Keep up the great work on this channel. It's fast becoming a favorite of mine.
The design of the pickups is reminiscent of the AT-AT combat walker from Star Wars Empire Strikes Back
Some old Jolana guitars (czechoslovakia) have the same type of bridge.. And even the neck is shaped like that on Galaxis model for example
It's cool that you found a Solo with that pickguard,usually there's different colored boxes around the dials. Also yeah the baseball bat neck is interesting 😂
One vote for fix the original electronics...with updated switches. Or not, because it now has a kill switch it seems. Holy cow, I've never seen that much electronics in one guitar. It's like they were trying to smuggle electronics and wire out of the country hidden in guitars. You did excellent work on that thing! Great video, super cool guitar, thank you:)
The electronic board was probably designed for the Soyutz 11! The previous ones were with thermionic tubes and did not fit in them also due to the size of the Transformer and the weight. :) :) :)
The whole video I was like wow this bridge is so creative, it brings so much ideas as a instrument maker, then you go “dont get me wrong, this bridge is a piece of garbage” lol
The first 3 notes sound like the intro of let’s get it on by Marvin Gaye XD
Yeah, lol
Next project: copy the body shape and pick guard shape. Put a fender neck on it. Install modern 3 pickups and electronics. Get a better bridge and tailpiece solution, placed appropriately for the correct scale (25.5”?). And work out a better neck to body solution. What if the sides of the body weren’t so blocky, but instead were nicely radiused like the Ibanez Joe Satriani models? What if it used the fender Jazzmaster/Jaguar whammy solution? Just dreaming here.
Definitely an interesting style! I love the weird switches and the color of the pick guard. Inspiration for the future.
yay! It's this series again!.
Love the weirdness of these things.
I think make the switches to buttons keep the same pickguard layout abs and replace the effects with the same effects but with ones that work
I need one. That's perfect for the band I play guitar in given that my main getup for that one is gonna involve a mask with a Soviet themed paint job and stuff. It honestly seems like a sorta modern guitar that'd be made today
Cool, I, for one, hope you continue to document what you do with this guitar. Very interesting guitar. Personally, I'd've taken the lazy way out and placed the adapter inside the guitar body, permanently plugged in, with the quarter inch becoming the new visible jack.
The switches look like they might be the same size as a rocker switch. If so, you could keep them as switches, but not have to worry about accidentally flipping them.
Awesome guitar Tim and nice product placement! 👍🏼
:)
Never did I think I’d find a video where someone works on an Post soviet union guitar interesting, lol. I guess this was suggested after my old bass electronics stopped working and was considering working on it myself. Great interesting video, the guitar was definitely unique.
I once had a guitar like that. Thank you very much for the kind words about Soviet guitars (although they were not very good), and for your video.
Loving these old Soviet era guitars!
Get the original effects working. I would love to hear how they sound!
i have one, they sound shit!
Just make a second pickguard without the effects that you can swap out whenever you want.
The green on black looks awesome. Add whatever effects you like so long as the pickguard stays.
Благодаря этому человеку, я наконец-то разобрался в схеме этой гитары
Since the guitar has been physically altered already it seems like getting the guitar to work properly would be the best route. Restoring a clunker to its original design seems like it would be a wasted effort. If I ever bought something like this, and because of my limited skills at fixing guitars, it would likely go on a wall as a conversation piece.
You should try to get a hold of the Orpheus 12 string, they're not that expensive or rare either in europe. They do have that weird output jack but man those are cool looking!
I have had my eye on a few :)
Like Teisco, you must rebuild all the electronics. But nice designs, nice colours, nice shape. I love this guitar, like Teiscos too.
Something about RatM and a beat up Soviet guitar restoration just feels right
I'd love to see Tom play a Jolana, Ural or a similar guitar.
All the weird designs, crazy hardware configurations and just the overall trashiness would fit his frantic, experimental playing style so well.
If the guitar should have effects on board, then i would take the self amplified guitar
ElectroPhonic Model One.
It's more modern and extra amp is optional.
You should work with Milos Popovich, he makes some great FX's and he's in Serbia (I have a few of his handmade stomp boxes)
Very cool one ...
About the battery , soviet area batteries was a little smaller , so for a soviet 9v battery it would just fit right .
Western batteries is a little longer and wont fit without modification , but thats an easy one .
I agree that the neck is way too thick and for me it's one of the first modifications i do to almost any
guitar I have owned in my life .
Simply make it feel better .
About the electronics , it' very common that capasitors is failing with time and all of them need to be replaced
to get it back working .
Also some semiconductors may become unstable and need replacement too , but most should be ok .
Look for solderings that wasn't done properly and redo those too .
Check for wires that have become bad with time and replace with good ones ( it was common to
use very cheap wires and those may fail with time too )
As for the bridge , it's really not bad , actually quite good but as with a floyd rose it can be tricky to get it just right .
Im looking foreward to see the finished result .
Im subscribing to your channel , keep up this interesting work .
edit -
Ps - The placement of the buttons , it was common for guitar players to flip positions of those so they switch
opposite , that can explain the ' weird ' last button turn bridge pickup ect .
I lways wonder why , but only the individual guitar player who did it can explain , but I guess its more
about taste than practical use .
pps ...
The use of a 5 pin din was common and you can actually get a little box where you connect with a
5 pin din from the guitar but have normal jack exit to go to the amplifier .
This box has a belt mount and you could simply just put it on your belt and inside you could add aditional
batteries so you wont run out of battery on the stage .
( a little similary to the belt box usd with wireless guitar / microphones ect )
Thanks for all the amazing insight!
@@timsway You welcome ,
Im just happy to give away a little knowledge : )
When you whipped out the wood chisel, I said "yeah".
I like the awkward look. Maybe because I like weird things. Looks fun. I'm going to get into building more guitars to sell and I'll be watching more of your videos. I'm highly interested in the routing machines you have used. Doing it by hand is nerve racking. Especially without templates 🤣
Routing without a template or guide is project suicide. I use a cnc by AvidCNC.com that is awesome. It's a whole new ballgame of learning but I've enjoyed the adventure.
@@timsway thank you. I'm going to need the best info. You have a great channel.👍
It’ll be interesting to see what you end up doing with the built-in effects.
That guitar has all the little Soviet gimmicks. The back strap pin should double as a ricin syringe and the tuning pegs should be sodium cyanide capsules.
this guitar looks wicked!! normally videos don’t do a guitar’s neck profile justice but goodness that neck’s Heavy D shape is preposterous
I used to think that sound engineers had the best job in the world, and then luthiers entered the chat.
I'd say keep the idea, but do it your way. It's not that these effects are the holy grail of tone - so I'd buy some great sounding pedals and put that in the guitar to maintain the spirit of having a small FX-loop inside. This will even give you the freedom to move all knobs and switches to places you prefer.
Playing a little “Rage” in the background. Awesome!!
You don't know how lucky you are boy too be back back in the USSR..real nice axe keep rocking in the new world Ty for sharing
Keep the effects and pickgaurd color, ditch the switches for buttons. Even pedal foot switch buttons would be better than turning the effects off accidentally while playing.
Man if I was local to you I'd take a crack at those electronics, you should see who's in your area doing vintage electronics (maybe you already know someone) we electronics tecs love weirdness like that lol. Also on the switch something I've done on many guitars is to just chop em short, that thing is in a bad spot. Also also thanks now I'm looking for a reason to buy a bass version of this. 😁
all excellent input. thank you.
Ditto, I love finding weird projects like that. Maybe those effects could just end up in stomp boxes?
Mean Machine Bro ,love that fully adjustable bridge great idea ...
Cut a new pick Guard (same shape) from clear acrylic and paint it on the back the same color, Move the switches to a more favorable location, Get some cheap mini pedals in the same effects to install in lieu of the original effects, Just my thoughts on this
Man imagine saying you own a Soviet Era guitar. Most badass thing.
i want one so bad
@@KaitlinGaspar here in russia they're very easy to obtain, many people sell them for really cheap prices for other people to fix them up and play. but the guitars are garbage if you ask me, they do have their charm and they are funny in a nice way, but it's not like i would record on one or play it frequently. these guitars are mostly pretty uncomfortable to play (the Ural one has even become a meme in russian guitar community) and sound terrible (if you aren't playing some mac demarco stuff lol). but yeah. they are fun
@@nowheretocollapsethelung heheheh thank you for this :D most of the instruments i have here already are kids toys or ones i found in the garbage so I’m definitely used to having instruments that don’t sound so great!! 🥳
@@KaitlinGaspar scout some sites like Avito and other marketplaces, i'm pretty sure you can probably find a seller that is welling to ship the guitar for you. i mean, if funny little unique guitars are your thing (mine too, a little bit) then sure get one, they're nice
I'm all for whatever solution is weirder.
yes :)
If luthiers were guitars, the way you present your thoughts and highlight aspects of craftsmanship would be the coolest guitar in my studio. I just finished building my first frankenstrat based off of Rivers Cuomo, Eddie Van Halen, and Trevor Rabin’s strats, and I already know that I want my next build to be from scratch based off of the Jazzmaster, and something like your Soviet guitar. There’s something really pretty in the ugliness of it, like some of Jack White’s guitars. It’s like a cross between a Gibson Jr. and a Fender Jaguar. I think this weekend I’ll go look for a nice slab of wood. Now that I have a router, it feels like the sky’s the limit. Thank you for making these videos!
The body/style is rad and I like the concept but the placement of the switches and the over complicated wiring is unnecessary on this thing. I started making my own a few years ago and so far I’ve made an alder strat and tele, and an ash jazz bass. I haven’t made my own necks yet though. Wood is getting so expensive I’m starting to eyeball the oak and yellow pine out back and wondering which would make a better tone wood. The pine I guess 😅
Cool video and guitar. Love the color combo. Another Sehat collab? Mahalo for sharing! 🙂🐒
I have another treat from him in a box...
YEEEzES!!!
I've been waiting for this one
Do your thing with the efects!
It'll be awesome
P I C K S
The Russian version of Teisco...
Like to seen what van Halen would of done with it.
Mod the design of the switches and get them to do something else! Excellent work once again!
I love the look of the guitar. I'd like you to build one with a similar look ... from scratch. I think , unless it's a copy right thing, would have a cool sell-able guitar line.
Definitely replace the electronics with preset levels. How about cutting down the ‘flip’ switches so they’re still easily useable but low enough to miss hitting them? Simple fix and keeps the aesthetics.
great idea
Была такая гитара у меня,фигня полная...хорошо,что сейчас,можно купить дешевле намного и лучше!!!
It looks sooo cool, but plays so bad...
@@timsway And the cost was absolutely unbearable for the Soviet people.
It has been decades since I have seen one of those old metal-can (TO-5?) ICs in a metal can.
Oh man I've been looking at getting one of those super funky looking ural basses. It's good to know that you can just swap the 5 pin with a normal jack. I might finally pull the trigger on one finally
Зачем заморачиваться с переделкой головы грифа? Нормальная же форма была!
А вообще, если хотите настоящий хардкор, то советую обратить внимание на гитару "Элгава Уника - 2"
Русские, вы где?)
Сейчас набегут и начнут орать что он испортил гитару. Лучше не зови их)
There was a great discussion on these instruments in another video I did. Lots of amazing stories from people who grew up in the USSR: ruclips.net/video/F2n010R8e4w/видео.html
У советских гитар был оригинальный дизайн, формы гитар очень интересные и привлекательные. Но вот качество сборки повергает в депрессию.
@@bdfych Подтверждаю. Советские электрогитары выглядели неплохо, а некоторые модели так и вообще шикарно, но ровно до того момента, как возьмёшь их в руки.
I confirm. Soviet electric guitars looked good, and some models were generally gorgeous, but exactly until you pick them up.
@@gorod-kha я заполучил пощупать советскую гитару Стелла. Выглядит круто и она стерео! Думаю записать видос с ней ... Но выхлоп с датчиков такой маленький...
That song you were playing during fret work and after Rage was wicked industrial!
That is a non standard 9v battery connector. Traditionally they were just a chunk of cardboard with some plastic so lot thinner unless you splurge for the fancy plastic ones.