Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I can't make out the logo on George's Futurama/Grazioso from the photos I have. Was it one of the Selmer imports with a "Futurama, Foreign" logo or an earlier Grazioso with "Resonet" or similar. Larry, anyone ?

Hello Tim and All, George's Graziozo Resonet was
definitely an early one. The Futurama, Foreign
logo came after George's. George's says Resonet on the upper-bout of the pickgaurd(body). I don't believe his guitar ever said Graziozo on the headstock like some did. I have one just like Harrison's and it never had the Graziozo decal on the headstock either. Music Ground has one for sale on Ebay right now and it looks really
clean. It is not the exact Harrison guitar because it has the side mounted in-put jack instead of the Strat-style front mounted jack. But the biggest difference is it does not have a maple fretboard like George's, it has a rosewood
fretboard. This guitar would be the exact Gerry
Marsden model, as he used one in the early days.
You can see great photos of it when he auditioned
with his group for the Larry Parnes audition at the Blue Angel in Liverpool. He even personalized
his Futurama with rhinestones on the headstock. The guitar Music Ground has for sale is not exact,
but very close and very rare. The Graziozo I have is a great sounding and easy playing guitar.
I bought it from Music Ground, and I'm very pleased with it. The 3, 2-way switches could be
the only drawback as they are very 'touchy' but once in place do a great job of varying tones. Just listen to Cry For A Shadow and you'll know
these guitars sound great.

Thanks Larry - great info !

I spoke to someone in England this week who has a Futurama for sale "just like George Harrison's." For those of you that just have to have one, please contact me and I will put you in touch with the vendor.

My friend Steve Russell has now added a section on Futurama guitars to his vintage Hofner website.

http://www.steverussell.freeserve.co.uk/hofner/futurama/fut.html

I'm sure you'll enjoy it, and may be able to help out with pictures or further information.

One of Steve Russell's correspondents sent him the address of a website about Czech Resonet guitars : unfortunately it was all in Czech language, but we've now contrived a translation which adds somewhat to the store of knowledge on the origins of George's Grazioso. Here is a precis of the contents.

The company who made the guitars was Resonet (not Neoton as I had been told), based in Blatna. They were a state-owned company, part of a group called Drevokov who made - believe it or not - "hall racks and coat stands" ! The diversification into guitars was inspired by a musically-inclined director who joined the company in 1953, and their first product was a Hawaiian lap-steel (probably inspired by Rickenbacker's frying-pan) in 1954. In 1955 they made an updated version called an Arioso, and also somehow managed to obtain a US Fender Stratocaster which obviously inspired their next model, the Grazioso which George had, probably introduced in 1956 or 1957.

In Central Europe it is customary to refer to model name then manufacturer, so whereas we would call it a Resonet Grazioso, they say Grazioso-Resonet. Some guitars (like George's) reached the UK branded Grazioso-Resonet before Selmer became the UK importer and changed the brand-name to Futurama, easier on Western ears.

By 1959/60 production was transferred to a new company CSHN (Czechoslovak Musical Instruments) based at Hradec Kralove and Krnov : they also made hollow-body Cutaway 1 and Cutaway II guitars, and 3 solid guitars branded Star I, II and III in Europe and Futurama I, II and III by Selmer in the UK : a new range of thin-line semis branded Neoton (later Jolana), a Basso IV bass, and they claim the distinction of the world's first 6-string bass, the Pedro VI, in 1960.

Production of these and other models continued into the mid-60's, although Selmer sourced their Futurama guitars elsewhere by then. The demise of the company is not mentioned, but it seems likely that it fell victim to Far-Eastern competition in the late 60's. There are some marvellous side tales : the change to glued necks was caused not by the desire for better tone, but because they ran out of screws !!

The Czech-language website is at http://home.worldonline.cz/~cz376062/kniha.html . If anyone wants the full text translation then e-mail me at tim.fletcher@virgin.net .

I searched and couldn't find anything, so hopefully this is something new. Jolana Guitars has an updated version of the Grazioso/Futurama.

http://jolanaguitars.com/en/models/graz ... to/#models