Left-Handed Guitars

Antoria Rockstar, year unknown

Status: SOLD

Picture


This is another fine example of the old Antoria brand, this time a copy of a Gibson ES335. The guitar had some wiring problems resulting from some poor repair work when I bought it - one of the control pots had been wired in the opposite way round from the other three, meaning that it needed to be rotated in the opposite direction from the others to cut the highs. Also, all the pots were a little on the noisey side. In addition to this, when I tried to adjust the height of the bridge pickup its mounting ring cracked, presumably because it was brittle with age.

So, I decided to buy new pickup rings and a full set of 500k linear pots with capacitors and to rewire the guitar from scratch. Not for the light-hearted with a 335-style guitar. Anyway, everything went according to plan and now the pickups sit very nicely in their cream mounting rings and the electronics are perfect. They're done 50's-style, with independent volume controls for each pickup, so each can be blended in or out with the toggle in the middle position, giving access to some interesting effects.

The guitar has an excellent tone range and there is no unwanted noise from the pots. The glued-in neck is straight, the action is low and the physical condition is just about excellent.

Don't know how old this Rockstar is, but the label inside says it was produced and crafted for JL Music Ltd, indicating that it's one of the older models.