Roo hops and swings into guitar mission

BRISBANE musician Roo Friend has been hopping into an interesting project, customising baritone guitars.
Roo has produced prototypes that are fretless under the 5th and 6th and tuned to C, F, Bb, Eb, G and C.
He says the guitars are "very thrilling to use once you get the knack, great for bass-less gigs".
His youtube post at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_tLsjfAx3c proves that thrill.
Roo has a long and deep involvement with music as you can see in a quick google. He says he based his playing style on some Joe Pass theory.
The picture shows a Yamaha Pacifica that is "prototype 3".
While talking about JP: The late Brisbane jazz legend Sid Bromley, who hosted many great players for their Brisbane visits had a close friendship with Joe and told me about it in the 1980s, when I visited his St Lucia home. I have documented this only in recent years on a post on my other site but repeat it here to save readers opening another page:
"Entering Sid's house – 1950s bungalow style – was like a trip into a bebop party room. He had an upright piano and a drum kit set up ready to go.
He took me on a tour of his record collection – wall to wall and so heavy he said he needed to have the foundations underpinned.
We loosened up with a few bottles of XXXX Light, his brew of choice, then he sat at the piano and played some of the most discordant music I have heard, without any clear melody or beat.
After about 10 minutes, Sid broke the welcome silence with a simple statement: "Tea for Two, isn't it great? It virtually plays itself." Sid, a then retired Customs officer, had a long-established routine of a trip to the Big Apple every year to keep up to date with the state of the art, and I guess he was in a neo-bop interpretative mood.
I ASKED who had been in the party room and he said Ella had sat in my chair and Louis had sat 'over there'. Sid's favourite acclamation was "Out of nowhere", which he would use where others would say "gee" or "wow". A few hours later I was saying "out of nowhere" when he showed me a letter from one of my jazz heroes, Joe Pass, dated in the 1960s, carrying Joe's stamped letterhead and thanking Sid for what he had done for him.
SID had read or heard that Joe was out of the scene because of medical reasons (aficionados will know what I am saying here) and had written to him while he was in an institution, appealing to him to get his act together and return to performing. Joe's letter said Sid's expression had been the turning point that had made him realise that if someone in a far away place like Australia cared about him he should indeed lift himself from his low. Joe said he had asked his wife to investigate moving to Australia but all she could get was tourism oriented. Sid said he had met Joe several times since that interchange, which had occurred almost two decades previously. So that's it: Sid Bromley's great gift to jazz has been put into print. I finally have got it off my chest."
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The 'Joh. Mitt' guitar: A long story

YOU are looking at a very old guitar, probably one of the rarest of its brand, which drifted into obscurity after World War I.
I have owned it for just 30 years since I bought it from a secondhand shop in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.
Thanks to the web I have been able to get an insight into its history. It carries a brand plate on the back of the headstock, and when the internet came on stream in the late 1990s I searched for clues but found none.
The penetration of the internet into the cultural crevices improved. It was just two years ago that I tried again and found references to some who could help - the Estonian jazz musician Joh Mitt, and his email address. Here is the story as it unfolded.

My email to Mr Mitt:

"INQUIRY FROM AUSTRALIA:
For about 30 years I have had a seven-string guitar  with a brand plate saying:
JOH. MITT
MUUSIKARIISTAD & NOODID
TALLINN
TEL. 26-64
It seems to be very old as the phone  number has only four digits. I  am wondering if you are
related to this Joh. Mitt and if you may be able to say when  the guitar was  made, or tell me anything about it or the maker. "

HOPE had all but faded when ...
"Dear Mr Rumney,
 I received your very interesting inquiry about the old guitar you own. My apologies for not being able to reply sooner.
 I am a retired musician, trumpet player, music arranger, conductor from Tartu, Estonia. The Joh. Mitt you mention is indeed a relative from my father's side of the family but I have never met him. In 1940 (I was born in 1948), when the communists took power, any trace of him was lost, probably to Siberia.
To my knowledge, he traded musical instruments, mainly selling wind instruments (I have played a trumpet originating from him), pianos, other keyboard instruments as well as musical scores, and, as it now turns out, guitars as well - this is a very interesting find since I wasn't previously aware that he dealt in guitars as well.
He started his business already before the First World War in Imperial Russia, in Tallinn, Estonia, ordering instruments from all over the world and reselling them.
As a quality assurance, he marked the instruments with Joh. Mitt (which is also my signature, I was named Johannes in his memory).
I think the instrument might be up to 100 years old. It probably came to Australia with an Estonian refugee or migrant.
 You might also find a signature of the instrument maker somewhere inside the guitar. I presume that the instrument was probably ordered from Russia and sold in Estonia.
 I also read about you from your blog profile with great interest, since I’m a devoted fan and interpreter of jazz music myself. I have been playing jazz from an early age, beginning with dixieland, followed by swing, cool jazz, and, at the present I also play funky style. We also have an orchestra called 'Swing' together with other retired music professionals.
 Johannes Mitt ."

My post script to Mr Mitt:
"Dear Mr Mitt,
"Thank  you very much for your detailed response. I searched the internet several tiimes since the late 1990s for references to the brand as the guitar has been a much cherished possession, even in its current damaged form.
About 1986, just as I was coming to terms with the seven-string design I hid it in a basement when I went on holidays from Sydney. It rained for all the four weeks and, when I came back, the basement had been flooded.
I don't think the water actually reached the guitar but the glue softened in the extreme humidity, verging on steamy, and dampness. When I picked it up, the soundbox fell into pieces. It broke my heart.
Although I attempt some guitar repairs this one was too big for me but in the 1990s a luthier friend [Kent of Kent Guitars, Maroochydore, Queensland] glued the soundboard, back and sides together for me to get it playable again.
Delighted, I sat down to string it - but when I brought just two strings to concert pitch, the bridge broke off. The second heartbreak was just as agonising.
 Since then I have simply hung the guitar as a display piece on my wall, stopping from time to time to enjoy the experience of its heritage as I always knew it must be very old. I do value it very much and now I have the motivation to knuckle down and restore it.
I have a long and deep love of guitars and have managed to repair quite a few over the years, although I have no trade qualification.
The 'Joh Mitt' has a nice timber inlay as a small feature at the centre of the soundboard below the bridge (which has now been kept inside the guitar, where I put it almost 20 years ago!). The mother-of-pearl and more timber inlay around the soundhole is also very nice.
A very interesting feature of the guitar is  the adjustable action. The neck is hinged inside the body and adjustable with a key-type screw mechanism that is similar to the old wind-up clocks so it can be tightened or loosened. I would presume this design allows the adjustment of the intonation, rather than just a set-up to suit the player's preference for higher or lower action. But I did not get the chance to use this possibly unique feature. I have not seen another guitar with anything like it.

Several years ago I found one of your records listed on a South African jazz club's website and several other references to you in other languages but this was the first time I was able to track down your address. Or maybe have the courage to jump the language barrier. Perhaps the translation program in the search engine works better now ...
 Just dreaming now: When I get this guitar in action, I should get across there and have a play with you ...  It is so delightful to make contact with you like this and I hope to meet you one day. "

So that's the story behind my Joh Mitt guitar, still awaiting that restoration. :)

Status strat draws attention

THE reference to a Status Silhouette in an earlier post drew the attention of a guitarophile called Paul from Leichhardt, Sydney. Here is the record of our correspondence.

PAUL: I read this story of yours with interest: http://adayinthelifeofaguitar.blogspot.com.au/2007/01/now-more-dirty-pictures-guitari sts-are.html I found this email address for you online, and hope you don't mind me contacting you using it rather than posting a comment that requires obtaining a Google account, which I'd prefer not to have to do (the blog does not allow anonymous comments as you probably recall). 
I was drawn to the story because I have been offered a Status Silhouette in good condition for free, but it's quite a bit of travel and inconvenience for me to collect it and so I'm tossing up whether to go for it or not. I'd be looking at using the body to assemble a 'partscaster' from other bits and pieces I already have - decent neck, bridge, pickups and electrics. But I don't want to go to all the trouble of collecting the guitar if the body is cheap old ply. 
Basswood I can cope with, anything better than that is a bonus! Your $5 'sick guitar' bargain with the mutilated neck...do you recall anything about the construction of the body? Wood type, size/body thickness and bridge holes compared to a 'standard' Strat (either a MIM or US, for example). 
Info I am afraid I cannot get from the current owner of the guitar... Any help you can give me would be much appreciated!
If not, no problem. though it worth the time for this one email to potentially save me a fair bit of wasted time. 
Thanks, Paul 
P.S. Great work with your own luthering, btw! 

ME: No worries about the email - feedback is welcome. I should put a bit of effort into the blog as I have been doing this and that with my guitar passion and have some great stories, yet to be told. 
 The Status body has been kicking around the garage all that time. I was thinking about using it in something but it's ply and I haven't put any effort into it. Just had a look - and the grain in the top lamination is really nice; this one has a red burst intruding from solid on the sides into the top. 
The layer appears to be quite thick, at least a couple of mm, so it could be worth fiddlling with as the body weight and feel are good, medium to lightish, and with a solid, as far as I go, it's a bit of an academic argument whether solid timber would make a better guitar than a ply construction. 
 The neck I got with this one is fabulous, thin-ish and really comfortable. The bloke who had it really loved it as there was considerable thumb wear and the low action had worn grooves into the frets all the way up to about the 10th - it was really played a lot and I don't know what whoever was on when they drilled through the fretboard to bolt the neck on when they only needed to fill the screwholes and redrill. 
Oh well, I guess they call 'em bolt-on necks but ... I would get the guitar for the neck but yours could be worth loving for itself ... I have seen a couple go through gumtree over the years and been tempted. 
From memory they were about $100... They are not all that common .. seem to get a bit of respect ... google entries indicate they are Uk-made, or I think one post said Korea ... but all the ones I clicked had been sold, which could be a good sign. 
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/maida-vale/guitars-amps/bargain-status-silhouette-strat- 83/1075081204. 
 I think the compnents were pretty good, not those soft screws that take only one slip with the screwdriver, and the pickups are good for me in their new home. Cheers, John 
 PS. Looking at the body again in better light... the top lamination is actually pretty thin.