A NEW community of interest takes shape, here, today, in the vast internet universe. It's the ColTone Club.Membership costs nothing and it promises a bit of fun for owners of a guitar of a rare brand, the ColTone.
The club has two foundation members - Craig Skinner of Canberra and me (John Rumney of Redland City, Qld).
Craig read my post about my ColTone and emailed me, so I asked him for some pics of his axe and a few words:
"As promised, please find below a couple of pictures of my Coltone MJ-1L in all it's glory.
This was an eBay purchase from a chap who said it originally came from Townsville but he didn't have much more of a history than that.
It was in original unloved condition when I got it. I think that even the strings were original because the high E string had broken and been tied back together!
The tuners were also rusted and jammed, but after they were replaced with replicas and a nice set of flat wound strings, she tuned up nicely and sounds like the vintage songstress she should be.
All the electrics etc work just fine and the original pickup even still has plenty of drive, which my neighbour across the road has commented on (but in a nice way).
This one would have been just above bottom of the range back in the day, with only single pickup and tremolo, but I'm hopingthat will just make her all the more rare now.
From what research I've done, it's most likely a '63 model rebadged Teisco, based on body shape, pick guard style, and head shape, which means she's already over the half century.
Also from my research, it seems that these still aren't worth a lot, but have a bit of a cult following. I must say that it does feel pretty special to own something quite this rare and quite this cool."
Thanks, Craig. And so the ColTone Club is under way. I am really proud to give a space where guitar owners can express such lovely sentiments and add to the body of knowledge about this rare brand.
