Here it is. The most popular Shaftesbury of them all

Rose Morris has a long history with Rickenbacker that has been covered in past blogs, so here’s a little recap. WE brought Rickenbacker to the UK. Most of the iconic images you see of Pete Townshend, John Lennon, etc. are Ricky’s from our stock, so naturally we started commissioning our own version.

This is a fine example from our private stock in all her glory. Three-tone sunburst, check. Matching headstock, check. Shaftesbury logo behind the bridge, check. Stunning vintage tone, check. 

These EKO-made collectables are quite hard to come by and gain value every year. Reissue material? Let us know.

Whether it be guitar repair or customisation of Shaftesbury, Taylor, ESP and PRS guitars, this is where the magic happens!  Presenting, the Rose Morris Workshop.

This long-necked Italian beauty is an absolute pleasure to lay your hands on. Like the 3265, she was manufactured by EKO in the early 70’s for Rose Morris and has a distinct cosmetic elegance that transcends all mockery of the obvious tele inspiration.

The neck is very long and thin as most electric basses were throughout the sixties and early 70’s. This feature coaxes a specific walking style out of the player, as it is very easy to cram more notes into a phrase. There is a definite “less is more” aesthetic to this instrument and features just one pickup, volume and tone control just like a Rock n’ Roll machine should.

Set it and forget it.

Plundering our vintage vault is a favorite activity of ours and today we present to you the spiritual predecessors to our new 34 series.

These electrics played a pivotal role back in the 60’s and 70’s introducing players of all types to a professional level axe without breaking the bank much like we do today.

Here you get the full spec on these bygone beauties that inspired past and future generations.

This is one of the craziest guitars in our Shaftesbury collection and gets more inquiries than just about any guitar in the shop.

This is a seventies Shaftesbury Del Vecchio replica based on the Brazilian Dinâmico model resonator guitar manufactered in Sao Paulo in the 1930’s.

This bizzare beast is the only resonator ever to be strung with nylon strings. Chet Adkins was an early user of the Dinâmico after hearing it’s beautifully bizzare tones on the single “Maria Elena” by Brazilian brothers Los Indios Tabajares.

Spiritual descendant and fellow finger-picker extroadinare Doyle Dykes reportedly owns the Shaftesbury version and loves the wild tones he gets from it.

This early-seventies thinline style Shaftesbury is a favorite of our guys in the shop. She was manufactured in Italy by the legendary EKO factory who was at one time the biggest guitar manufacturer in Europe.

They were known for their excellent build quality, playability and artistic style and this Shaftesbury is no exception. This semi-hollow bodied beauty is light as a feather and plays like absolute butter. Though she was inspired by the Telecaster Thinline she is far more elegant than her brown, brutish, bluesy American cousin.

With great sounding low-output Dearmond style pickups that smoke from an ashtray bridge cover and classy f-hole in the body she is truly the beautiful little sister in the Shaftesbury family who has to be seen and heard to believe.

In tandem with our previous Shaftesbury Rickenbacker post, we submit the full profile straight from the vintage 1970 catalogue.

This classy trio of Ricky inspired Italian guitars represent the most sought after of the vintage Shaftesbury due to their style, playability and rarity.

Back then they could be yours for a whopping 65 pounds!!

Saddle up partner. Let’s see if you got the gumption to get up on the stage and bring the barn-burner!

Back in the 70’s we brought you the Western series of Shaftesbury acoustics. These fine guitars were a cordial collaboration of spruce, mahogany and rosewood just like they are today. If a six-shooter was not enough you had a whole different kind of Rodeo with the 3168 12-string.

The 3190 and 3191 Jumbo models came with a plush-lined case and were the top market of the Westerns.

These are still kicking around vintage shops and auctions to this day and still sound great after all those years of blood sweat and tears.

Sometimes you can’t rely on a vintage collection or catalogues to achieve a complete scope on a brand like Shaftesbury. Just like today, we have been a forward-thinking brand with an all-encompassing ethos. We have always catered to all styles of musician and sometimes one-offs or a special line of guitars is commissioned to suite the needs of a specific audience. This has yielded some of the most collectable and rare Shaftesbury instruments out there such as the Ned Callan or Del Vecchio.

In this case a gentleman by the name of Nick Clyne submitted a query about a rare Shaftesbury (model 1020) he purchased in Chalk Farm in 1972. The dealer told him it was one of six prototypes of it’s kind and never made it into full production. This is great news for us as we are absolutely thrilled to add a new Shafty to our dossier of defunct diamonds in the rough.

This is an amazingly handsome gypsy-jazz gentlemen’s instrument with a distinct Django feel to it. Sporting an ebony fretboard, spruce top, rosewood back and sides, trademark Shaftesbury ‘S’ that slithers in to the oval sound-hole and a bridge that is as dark, straight and distinguished as the Rheinhartian mustache itself, this is truly one of the rarest Shaftesbury guitars we have ever encountered. If someone has one of the other six prototypes, we would love to hear your story.

Here is the very first limited edition Shaftesbury 3414 doing exactly what it was made to do. Fletcher Stewart of London’s dark-wave trio Strange Tales putting her through the paces at The Enterprise in Camden.