I think it's fair to say that I have one of the largest collections of 1/6 scale guitars there are in the world. Read on to find out why.
1/6 scale bass guitars are like the hardest thing to find. And here I have... ten! I accidentally ended up with two Gene Simmons Axe basses. I'm not sure if I need them both. A voice inside my head says that I could sell one, but another voice says that they will look amazing in that music store diorama I'm planning. Maybe after setting it up I'm able to sell one.
The white precision bass and the sunburst jazz bass on the left are plastic basses by SD Toys and in perfect scale for my dolls. The other, wooden basses are slightly too small, like the scale of regular guitars. (Bass guitars are long and big-headed.) But I don't mind.
The left-handed bass on the far right is Höfner 500/1 violin bass, which has been made famous by Paul McCartney. Most of these are Fender bass miniatures, but I'm unsure about the light brown one in the middle. What bass is that, anyone?
See the size difference between bass guitars and regular electric guitars? This is my Fender miniatures collection by SD Toys/Dark Horse Comics. I bought them cheap from a closing comic book store seller a few years ago. I still consider this my best eBay find ever. I've since bought doubles of every guitar and four of the Telecaster. But um, never mind about that.
These are from the left: precision bass, jazz bass, Stratocaster and Telecaster. I hear the Strat is the rarest one. And I've noticed that the Tele is the easiest one to find. Hence I have multiples of that one. But I'm stopping at four, honestly! I can't buy a fifth one, because I have OCD that makes me do some things in fours. So didn't buy the one that was available on eBay at the time I took these photos.
This butterscotch Tele is of course Elliot's main electric guitar, since Jeff Buckley had it, too - even though his was a borrowed one.
Fender Telecasters are my favorites. I should get some more of them! The one in the middle is the SD Toys Tele that belongs to my Elliot. I bought the other butterscotch Tele on the left as a back-up when I only had this one SD Toys Tele. And I wanted to see if it would be closer to Jeff's Tele. It isn't, because Jeff's Tele had a blonde neck. The color of the guitar's body would work better, though.
The third butterscotch Tele on the right is a recent find. It would be a better Jeff Buckley Tele replica than these first two. But I'm still keeping that plastic Tele for Elliot. The other guitars are wooden and slightly bigger - and heavier. Elliot's Tele is more detailed and lighter, so it's easier to use in the story.
Here are my Fender Stratocasters, all wooden but the plastic black SD Toys Strat that is again slightly smaller than the rest. I'm surprised to only find six Strats. I thought I had more... But I've been eyeing at least one more on eBay. The red Strat belongs to Elliot, but he hasn't used it since the beginning of the story. I think I may have given him too many guitars for him to enjoy them all.
The sunburst with SRV on it belongs to Victoria. You may have seen her play it... Or was that her guitarist Gunnar? Victoria probably concentrated on singing and looking good on stage instead. Nah! She actually did play it once. But that was only because she didn't have a bassist at that gig and had to make Gunnar play the bass. Victoria was not at all happy.
Now, can you guess what is odd about one of these Stratocasters?
It's the one on the far right; it's made for a left-handed guitar player. How nice to be able to find one guitar like that.
Next up are Gibson Les Pauls. The wooden black Les Paul belongs to Elliot, but you have never seen him play it. You may have seen him hold it briefly when Sybil threw it at him and told him to use it as a weapon against her. He of course didn't do that. But Jeff Buckley had a black Les Paul, so Elliot had to have one, even if he has little use for it.
The three guitars in the middle are plastic and made by a company called Resaurus, some 20 years ago. The other two have a custom Alpine white finish and a standard Cherry Sunburst finish, and the one in the middle is an artist edition made to look like Ace Frehley's guitar. So I have two KISS guitars, and I don't even like KISS. But I like guitars. I broke the Alpine white guitar's neck right when I removed it from its package! But thanks to superglue, it's now as good as new. I like superglue.
The yellow Les Paul is wooden with a plastic neck. I have no idea whose guitar it's supposed to look like if anyone's. I bought it because it looked nice and I wanted another Les Paul.
Here are my Rickenbackers! These are wooden and from different eBay sellers. The one on the left is like a deep blood red in color. I may have called it brown in the past, but it looks more red. Jeff Buckley had a red burst Rickenbacker, so I needed to get Elliot one. Jeff's guitar had a neck like the sunburst one in the middle, though. So I bought that one to check if it would suit Elliot better. But he's keeping the red one especially because he has played it at his gigs.
The black one that I found super cheap. It was just a little dusty, but in great condition. It must have cost something like 5 euros, and I got it within Europe... That was awesome! John Lennon and George Harrison from the Beatles played a black Rickenbacker. I've got quite a few "celebrity guitars" in my small collection.
These are Gibson guitars. I believe that the first four from the left are Gibson ES-335 guitars. They are wooden, and I ended up with two black ones as I got one as a gift. The other one belongs to Elliot, but um, they are so similar that I can't recall which one.
The Gibson on the far right is again a plastic guitar by Resaurus. It's a little different from Gibson ES-335 by its design, as it was made to look like B.B. King's Lucille in ebony finish. The most noticeable difference is the lack of the F-holes on the body.
These are the odd ones out, in other words guitars that I have only one of or guitars that I haven't identified.
The guitar on the left looks like a Gibson Les Paul, so it would have been better off in the Les Paul picture. But it's missing a knob on top left and has a convex front and back and a different bottom, so I'm still looking for its exact name. The red Hagstrom Viking II on the far right belongs to the Comeback Elvis doll by Mattel. I wish I could find a wooden, more realistic version of that guitar to replace the cheap looking plastic one. I'd also love a replica of Scotty Moore's Gibson Super 400 that Elvis played during his jams sessions of the '68 Comeback Special. I bought the Gibson on the left because it looked like it, but it's not quite the same.
The second guitar from the left is Brian May's Red Special, and the one next to it is Gibson SG Standard sitting with a double necked version of it, which was used by Jimmy Page from Elliot's favorite band Led Zeppelin.
Then there's a Flying V, again by Gibson, and a B.C. Rich Mockingbird in transparent butterscotch, as used by Slash from Guns N' Roses. The Mockingbird replica is made by Resaurus.
I have no idea what the IT Jem guitars are supposed to be. Perhaps someone could tell me? I have some doubles of them. I will probably end up customizing the extras and putting them in the music store diorama I'm planning to set up one day.
Here are my miniature acoustic guitars... All 17 of them! Most of them are wooden, but there are a couple of plastic Resaurus guitars on the left and a Generation Girl Chelsie guitar lying on the right, which is of course Elliot's Lissie.
These four are my favorite acoustic guitars! I bought them on eBay from a musician and music teacher called Joan Maute. She told me that the profits were going for charity, so I was on! And she sent me two (human size) kazoos and four guitar picks in the package! The only downsize I can think about these guitars is that only their sound hole is hollow, and they are otherwise solid wood. It doesn't really take much away from their realisticity, but it makes them quite heavy, so I have to be careful not to let my dolls drop them. Otherwise they are my most realistic miniature acoustic guitars. The Resaurus guitars can compete with these when it comes to looks, but they are plastic, which makes them not feel so nice in hand. I much prefer wooden guitars. And the finish on these is so perfect that it actually feels like holding a real instrument... only in miniature. I really like touching them!
Here are my miniature guitars still in package... I'm a bit crazy about guitars, as you can probably see! That Joan Jett Barbie was on my to-buy list for years until I finally decided to get her in 2015 and went to eBay... I was shocked by her going rates! But I was still able to find one for $45 among all those expensive ones. That was a deal I couldn't pass up. She's currently still NRFB, but she's going to come out of there one of these days.
Here's a redone group picture that includes also my smallest guitar, the Blue Hawaii Elvis doll ukulele (if you can call that a guitar), and my biggest guitar, my real-size Yamaha - the only one of my 70+ guitars that can actually be played.
Aaand last but certainly not least: my guitar with its mini-me! I may have bought one or two miniature guitars since these pictures, but I'm not going to take more group pictures until I have several more guitars. I don't actively collect them anymore, because I have one for every possible scene. My next goal is to set up the music store diorama that I've been dreaming about for years. I certainly have enough musical instruments for it by now.
