Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

[crusty philtrum]

Not expecting many responses, but I'd love to know more about them. I have owned (still do) and played headless guitars, but i want to know what others have thought about how the Erlewine Lazer feels and sounds. It's the guitar that Johnny Winter has played since the 80s, although I believe he changed the pickups. Any input about the cheaper Hondo version would be great to hear too.

Anyone ?

 

[Jeffrec]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

Love your Avatar! Rory was an original.


Anyway, to answer your question: I do remember playing one a ways back. It was nice, but I think it would take a little bit to get use to in terms of the feel. I've heard good things about the Lazer. Leslie West was using one when I saw him a few years back.

 

[Laughing Kookaburra]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

I know that I've mentioned this before, but I've played the Hondo version at a few blues rock jam sessions. It felt pretty decent in my hands (well balanced, decent action), and it sounded ok too. I didn't really play it enough to say if I would have swapped out the pups (1 hb and 1 sc, I think).

I really liked the portability. I also received a few WTF? looks!

 

[Laughing Kookaburra]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

Not an Erlwine or a Hondo, but I remember in the late 70s/early80s a local gtr shop in Green Bay had what we all called the "2x4" gtr. Not a brand name, don't know who made it. It was a real POS, and the subject of much derision. Not at all like the models up for discussion in this thread.

 

[dr. ad]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

word on the street is that hoyer foldaxe has several in his personal collection...

 

[tigergagan]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

I've owned a Hondo Lazer since about 1994. I got it at a pawnshop for $100. I bought it for the portability and it certainly fills that role--it's easy to carry on a plane or just have in the car for whatever. It's a little awkward to play, but for me that's probably exacerbated by the fact that I'm left-handed playing a right-handed model flipped over. The original fretwork was about the worst I'd ever seen. I re-fretted it myself when I was learning to do fretwork. It was my first re-fret; since the frets were so awful I figured there was no way I could screw it up. I also got rid of the zero fret and installed a nut. I don't think the pickup on mine is original. It's some sort of DiMarzio, making my Lazer a testament to the theory that a good pickup is all an electric guitar needs to sound good. As you can imagine, acoustically a Lazer is just about the sound of the strings and not much else, but I've always loved the sound of mine amplified. I have gotten compliments from players, too, except those stodgy curmudgeons who can't get past the look of it and tell me to get a Telecaster.

My Lazer was a victim of the flooding that happened here in Nashville at the beginning of May. I took it all apart to dry it out, but when I put it together the Badass-esque bridge-tailpiece wouldn't stay upright. The wood underneath had gone all soft and could no longer handle the string tension. I took it to Glaser Instruments here in Nashville and they fixed it right up, including centering the bridge/tailpiece properly, and a fret dress using the amazing Plek machine. Now my Lazer is as good as or better than I remember it ever being.

Long story short: a Hondo Lazer is handy and fun for certain situations, but a shoddy piece of work.

 

[Bass_Medic_05]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

No not Erlewine but a steinberg once.....was ok

 

[beandip]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

Never played a Laser, but I've had my hands on some Erlewine guitars (we're speaking of Dan's Cousin, right?) It's all top notch stuff, so quality is something you'll never ever ever have to worry about.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

I love my headless guitars, but never played or seen an Erlewine in person.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

I used to have a Hondo Lazer back in the 80's. I had forgotten about that guitar until this thread. It was a nice novelty but nothing substantial. I knew a guy who had a black one at the same time I owned mine. He had routed the body and installed another humbucker in his. In fact, he installed a pair of gold covered 59's. He played in his church and needed the compact portability on the small stage. This was in the days before 30,000 member mega churches...

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

I'd forgotten about this thread and didn't notice there'd been a few more contributions to it. Thanks for all the interestiing contributions.

After I posted, i did some research and found that the actual Erlewine ones are still made, and it looks like they're not a cheap item ... i don't think there was a price on the website, but somewhere i saw someone alluding to a price like $3000 ! So i get the feeling that the genuine Erlewine ones would be real serious quality items.

 

[mwhouston]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

Guys I happen to have an original black Lazer headless which I bought when it was just a few years old and hardly used. I'd had lots of other guitars over the years so decided to trick it up a bit. Firstly I replaced the crappy $2 pickup with an original Seymour Duncan Invader (cost as much as the guitar) one of the heaviest pick-ups I have ever seen. I wired it for a selection of turbo (coil pushing coil (in phase) for a big output), humbuck (coils out of phase) and coils paralleled (sweet). I understand there are a number of other configuration which can be wired with the original Invader.

I then modded the volume to work as a contour control (lifts the mids) for 75% of its range then to return to a volume control. Tone control is untouched and when pulled out cuts one coil for a Telecaster sound.

Then I passed the guitar to Merv Cargill (senior) who worked the frets, neck and harmonics. He loved the guitar. Now I want to sell it. It has never left the house, is in very good condition and keeps tune. I have the original hard case also in excellent condition. I live on the Mornington Peninsula one hour from Melbourne.

Any idea what it is worth. I have the original pickup too.

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

No idea what it's worth but Merv does great work. Any guitar work I've had done since the late 60's has been by Merv or his son in recent years.

Hi! to another Aussie member. [ As this is your first post ]

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

Guys I happen to have an original black Lazer headless which I bought when it was just a few years old and hardly used. .....
Then I passed the guitar to Merv Cargill (senior) who worked the frets, neck and harmonics. He loved the guitar. Now I want to sell it. It has never left the house, is in very good condition and keeps tune. I have the original hard case also in excellent condition. I live on the Mornington Peninsula one hour from Melbourne.

Any idea what it is worth. I have the original pickup too.

Thank you for posting, and welcome to the forum. I've sent you a Private Message about this guitar. (If you look at the top right corner of the page, you'll see 'welcome, mwhouston' when you're signed in, and below that, 'Your Notifications'. Click on that and then click on 'Unread Pirvate Messages', that will take you to the message).

cheers.

 

[mwhouston]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

I took a few photos of the Lazer.

 

[Lionel McGlue]

Re: Anyone Ever Played An Erlewine Lazer (headless) Guitar ?

Hello All out there,

well just a few words to the Erlewine Lazer.

I bought one at Mark Erlewine's last October - Mahagony finish - and what should I say? It's the best guitar I ever played in more than 40 years as a professionell.
I played lots of wellknown brands and guitars like Strats, Teles, Paulas, SG, and also instruments by Ibanez and Epiphone and so on.

1985 I bought the first Firebird, which I just still own and play nowadays and 2006 I bought a Hohner G3T (by the way, great guitar too). Over the years I gave all the others away.

First of all a important reasons became the "neck-through" feature.

This feature has - in my opinion and for my demands as a guitarist - so many advantages.

And as I got the Lazer last year, it was like opening a new universe. To say, this guitar sounds like a strat and feels like a Gibson is just too less.

The Lazer - for me - is like a stradivari among violines. It has so many possibilities not to be found with other instruments.

So first: Many thanks to Mark Erlewine. And thanks to Johnny Winter, without him I would know nothing about the existance of this guitar.

And second: if someone out there perhaps wants to know more, please contact me.

Have a good time and lots of success.

Lionel