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Headway Riverhead Headless Guitar

PunkKitty

By PunkKitty
in Electric Guitars

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PunkKitty Newbie

PunkKitty

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A friend of mine asked me to help her out a bit. She picked this up in a pawn shop for ~ $150. All it really needed was a good cleaning and a string replacement. But it's unusual enough that I thought you all might find it interesting.

 

I haven't been able to find much info on it. It's MIJ with a maple neck and an alder body. The pickups are custom to the guitar. The rings are part of the pickup. The pickups are sealed in epoxy. It's very well balanced. It sounds great and plays very nicely. It uses standard strings with the ball end at the headstock. The locking tuners are custom and very easy to use.

 

Why can't I seem to find pawnshop sleepers like this???

 

DSCF0247.jpg

 

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soundcreation Newbie

soundcreation

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Headway is a brand under the Deviser company. They currently are probably most famous for Bacchus, and Momose guitars. Everything I've come across recently show that Headway is their acoustic line. But it could be old and you never know if headway was bought out at some point earlier in it's life.

 

Regardless it's pretty rare to me and I follow MIJ guitars fairly closely. Hopefully Zenbu will pop in soon. He knows much more about MIJ than I do and he may have come across those riverhead guitars.

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headless Newbie

headless

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Thanks for making me aware of these guitars. I'll keep an eye out on craigslist.

 

Here's a couple of things I found (which you may already be aware of):

 

http://www.handen.us/riverhead/index5.html

 

http://www.handen.us/riverhead/pictures.html

 

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://blogimg.goo.ne.jp/user_image/31/bd/d188c84863585bac7c23c202ead40173.jpg&imgrefurl=http://blog.goo.ne.jp/span_21/m/200802/2&usg=__bmfnsakeancevc9y63h6htKy7p4=&h=523&w=800&sz=137&hl=en&start=91&tbnid=59zr4w9zWcdbiM:&tbnh=168&tbnw=253&prev=/images%3Fq%3Driverhead%2Bunicorn%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D651%26tbs%3Disch:10,3506&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=368&ei=fk9XTObaOIWmsQOw-NDaAg&page=7&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:91&tx=158&ty=108&biw=1024&bih=651

 

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/span_21/e/3fe19159ea397224980b211baad4e217

 

 

 

I gather that your guitar is the, "Unicorn" model.

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PunkKitty Newbie

PunkKitty

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Thanks for making me aware of these guitars. I'll keep an eye out on craigslist.


Here's a couple of things I found (which you may already be aware of):












I gather that your guitar is the, "Unicorn" model.

I wish it was mine. It belongs to my friend. I just helped her out.

 

Yes, it is a Unicorn model. If I find one for ~$150 I'm buying it.

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BryanMichael Newbie

BryanMichael

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It's interesting. I keep thinking that washburn or westone had a headless model like that at some point...but I can't remember. I do have a soft spot for headless guitars and I picked up a Steinberger spirit recently in MINT condition for $119 at my local Music Go Round. I couldn't believe it.

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PunkKitty Newbie

PunkKitty

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It's interesting. I keep thinking that washburn or westone had a headless model like that at some point...but I can't remember. I do have a soft spot for headless guitars and I picked up a Steinberger spirit recently in MINT condition for $119 at my local Music Go Round. I couldn't believe it.

That is a great deal. I would have bought it at that price.

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deanmass Newbie

deanmass

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I own three Steinbergers now. Love them, but some people can't get used to them , and they do tend to reset your positioning. My Zt3 came Thursday. Looking forward to the Trans trem. Never even heard of the Riverhead things. Very interesting. Are the tuners Steinbergers or knock offs or???

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zenbu Newbie

zenbu

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I`ve got old Japanese magazines with ads from Riverhead as early as 1982, the brand was around well before the Deviser group, same people as far as I know but they just grew I guess and started other brands under their umbrella...same goes for their Brian brand...I have pics of one model being offered in a raffle from the early`80s...I`ve seen MIK Brians but I don`t know if they were MIJ or MIK at that time This is one from the early/mid `80s, obviously cashing in on the Steinberger fad. In terms of quality, I used to see Riverheads that were identical to Bacchus models around at the same time only the Riverheads sold for less. Riverhead models show up on line now and then here in Japan, they changed models a lot over the years...some were precise clones of F/USA models,others, like this one, were not and they also made some original designs. Probably never sell for as much as Bacchus models but who knows, I would have never thought Bacchus models would catch on like they have either, I used to finf those for next to nothing but not anymore.

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