Anyone recognise this guitar?

robinbowes

A friend sent me a link to this. Anyone recognise it and know what it is?

Nitefly

Sorry, no idea what it is - I can't even decide whether I like it or not!

But I think I'd like to see it "in the flesh" so to speak.

prlgmnr

I'm not sure but I think it's cursed.

JerkMoans

prlgmnr said:

I'm not sure but I think it's cursed.

Play a tritone on it thrice at midnight, see what happens...

Gizmo

Its by Skylark guitars,my uncle had one about 5-6 years ago,Chinese made imported into the UK i think it was about £200 and it was built like a battle ship,ok once it was dressed and had a new nut and bridge.

robinbowes

Gizmo said:

Its by Skylark guitars,my uncle had one about 5-6 years ago,Chinese made imported into the UK i think it was about £200 and it was built like a battle ship,ok once it was dressed and had a new nut and bridge.

Thanks - I've found a couple of others and some more information thanks to your positive ID.

R.

DiscoStu

Skylark DCEA1.
Some info on this old Gumtree as:
https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/unusual-electroacoustic-guitar-skylark-funnel-neck-steel-string-/1126973000

ChrisGriff

Sorry to be Newbie digging up an old thread but I thought others might be interested in a bit of funnelneck history.

This is indeed a Skylark funnelneck guitar, a Chinese manufactured licensed copy of the original, patented funnelneck guitars of the late Peter Gottschall, a very talented German luthier.

The design has no sound hole in the top and has a close fitting internal extra wooden sound plate, fixed beneath the top edge of the upper bout and extending down at a bisecting angle almost to the bridge (looking from the side of the guitar imagine a sort of squashed, reversed Z). Gottschall’s patent referred to this internal plate as being a resonator and, being only fixed at the upper edge it certainly adds a pleasant springy reverb presence to the guitar’s overall sound.  More importantly, and not mentioned in the patent description, is that the angled plate produces a double folded horn, with the box’s internal sound finally emitting from large openings on either side of the neck (imagine a double cutaway with no wood between top and back at the cutaway). The internal folded horn gives this OM sized guitar an effective body length of about 30 inches - and boy does it ever sound like it!

I bought my Skylark funnel new for around £300 and, for a decently made acoustic guitar, of unique construction, with a piezo pickup and EQ pre-amp, I still consider it was a steal. Nevertheless, although it is quite well made and a hell of a canon, it is indeed built like a brick door, which I don’t think the originals are.

Skylark (now dissolved) was a musical instrument importer and distributor owned by Steve and Marian Alden and based near Shrewsbury. From what I know, Steve bought in better quality, low priced instruments, mostly from China, and the Skylark Funnelneck was actually made by Jisheng Musical Instruments Manufacturing Ltd, as were several other Skylark branded guitars. 

Here’s a YT clip of a genuine Gottschall funnelneck giving it’s magic all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjQ9-0n6Rfs

Two German luthiers, Berrick Guitars, have recently started to reproduce authentic copies of the original Gottschall instruments - their website is here: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://www.berrick-guitars.com/&prev=search

Cheers, Chris