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).
@@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
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...
@@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.
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
@@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
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.
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.
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 )
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
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.
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).
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.
@@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.
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.
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 ..
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!
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
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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)
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.
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!😊
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.
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
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. :) :) :)
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 😂
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.
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!
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
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:)
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!
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.
I used to have an Electra brand guitar that looked very similar to this. I love all the switches! Very cool! I also have an old 60’s Welson guitar from Italy that has a bunch of crazy switches. But half of them don’t work.. It kinda looks like a Fender Jaguar. It’s called a Welson Primate.
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.
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 😅
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.
I love how it has a neck pickup, bridge pickup, and then like SUPERBRIDGE pickup, that one is sooo jangly. I always tend towards the bridge pickup but I'd have to blend this one I think.
@@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'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.
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. 😁
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.
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.
The guitar player in my band from High School had a Sears LP style guitar that had different effects on it slide switches , like Brian May s guitar Always Cool Stuff you do
My grandpa owned one and I found years ago and now started to really get into it because its so interesting. I'd like to fix it because it's in a terrible state. Could you please share the manual you've got with us? While researching in the internet I couldn't find that much. I'm trying to collect as much information about this guitar as possible. Thanks a lot!
also when/if you pull out the effects, be sure to take lots of detailed pictures. they could potentially be unique circuits ripe to be recreated as pedals
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
@@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...
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"
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
6:21 Fitting that you're listening to Rage and working on a Soviet guitar LOL
Haha!
Instead of a symmetrical 'Gibson-style' headstock a bit of offset angle on the headstock would match better with the body style.
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.
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.
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.
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!!!!
This guitar (with effects built-in and working) is a noisecore monster. Shame you cut off the headstock
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 )
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.
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.
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).
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
Selfishly I would like to see how you swap out the effects haha
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.
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 :)
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
Make this guitar like real hippie psyhodelic rock guitar with crazy water purple-blue-yellow painting and crazy effects
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.
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 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!
You could probably locate a Russian Cyrillic OCR app to convert the text on the schematic.
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.
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!
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.
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
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)
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 :)
When you whipped out the wood chisel, I said "yeah".
I always see old Soviet guitars pop up on eBay and Reverb and always wondered what they were all about.
It's nice to see different projects. Thank you!
I really enjoy and respect your approach and appreciation to guitars. 🎸👊
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.
Definitely a cool looking guitar! No shame in modding that guitar! I'm sure it's an improvement! Thanks for sharing!!
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!😊
yay! It's this series again!.
Love the weirdness of these things.
2:10 I had similar problems with an old USSR pocket radio. I guess back then 9v batteries were slightly smaller
"THE COLOR OF FUZZ, You have to use that
The green on black looks awesome. Add whatever effects you like so long as the pickguard stays.
Some old Jolana guitars (czechoslovakia) have the same type of bridge.. And even the neck is shaped like that on Galaxis model for example
9:20 caption on scheme is "Borisov Solo two". Borisov is actually the last name. "Solo two" is guitar model.
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.
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
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
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. :) :) :)
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 😂
This guitar is Borisov Solo-2/Formanta guitar if anyone curious!
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!
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.
The first 3 notes sound like the intro of let’s get it on by Marvin Gaye XD
Yeah, lol
"soviet guitar looks so good, that's why I'm going to change every single thing about it's look"
Awesome guitar Tim and nice product placement! 👍🏼
:)
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
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 :)
It's got a cool Type O Negative vibe with that green pickguard.
And Pete was known to speak a little Russian
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
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:)
It’ll be interesting to see what you end up doing with the built-in effects.
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!
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.
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.
Just make a second pickguard without the effects that you can swap out whenever you want.
Mod the design of the switches and get them to do something else! Excellent work once again!
I used to think that sound engineers had the best job in the world, and then luthiers entered the chat.
I used to have an Electra brand guitar that looked very similar to this. I love all the switches! Very cool! I also have an old 60’s Welson guitar from Italy that has a bunch of crazy switches. But half of them don’t work.. It kinda looks like a Fender Jaguar. It’s called a Welson Primate.
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.
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 😅
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)
That song you were playing during fret work and after Rage was wicked industrial!
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.👍
I love how it has a neck pickup, bridge pickup, and then like SUPERBRIDGE pickup, that one is sooo jangly. I always tend towards the bridge pickup but I'd have to blend this one I think.
no shortage of treble out of that one.
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
Playing a little “Rage” in the background. Awesome!!
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.
After the headstock cut the first image that came to mind was Axel Rose with a head band..
lol! Not my finest moment. it reminds me of a brill creamed hairdo in a barbershop quartet
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.
Never played anything with one of those covers over the bridge. But I've always imagined them making palm muting a bit of a struggle.
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?
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.
YEEEzES!!!
I've been waiting for this one
Do your thing with the efects!
It'll be awesome
P I C K S
Definitely an interesting style! I love the weird switches and the color of the pick guard. Inspiration for the future.
I'm all for whatever solution is weirder.
yes :)
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
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
The guitar player in my band from High School had a Sears LP style guitar that had different effects on it slide switches , like Brian May s guitar
Always Cool Stuff you do
The Russian version of Teisco...
Like to seen what van Halen would of done with it.
My grandpa owned one and I found years ago and now started to really get into it because its so interesting. I'd like to fix it because it's in a terrible state.
Could you please share the manual you've got with us? While researching in the internet I couldn't find that much.
I'm trying to collect as much information about this guitar as possible.
Thanks a lot!
I believe it is linked somewhere in the comments
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.
The design of the pickups is reminiscent of the AT-AT combat walker from Star Wars Empire Strikes Back
Никогда не слышал чтоб эти эфекты работали в этих говно гитарах. Это ужас из прошлого.
also when/if you pull out the effects, be sure to take lots of detailed pictures. they could potentially be unique circuits ripe to be recreated as pedals
unique does not always mean good
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...
Nice video :) I have a Soviet Aelita 2 guitar with old Japanese style pick-ups.
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"
The body style with the pickguard is fantastic.