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Those who are familiar with my Internet writings from the past will have read the extensive website Vintage Washburn which is no longer up. In this site was the result of my research on the brief but fruitful production of the Washburn Steve Stevens signature guitars. This produced without help from SS was the culmination of a love affair I have had with these incredible extremely rare guitars produced in a limited time frame in 1993. This time was a busy one for Steve with the release and touring surrounding the album Exposed by the Vince Neil Band. Having left Hamer guitars which produced the first Steve Stevens signature guitars, the set neck SS1 and SS2 followed by the bolt on neck SS3.
A period of time from 1989 to 1993 Steve had no affiliation with any manufacturer. I'm sure readers are familiar with my feature on the JCF concerning the world class Charvel Strat head Dinky #4730 Glow guitar. This seminal guitar was responsible for the Hamer SS3 and then the Washburn SS80, SS100 and to a lesser extent the import SS40. In particular the neck profile was Steve's favorite part of the Glow Dinky, the handiwork of the great Mike Shannon.
Steve asked Washburn to replicate the Charvel Glow's features which included the neck profile and the reverse angled pickups, in the case of the Washburn two angled humbuckers and top mount Floyd.
The nature of my post here is to present two of the most rare Washburn's, the Jim O'Connor painted SS80 Barbarella and the first production hand painted SS100 Frankenstein graphic glow finish #1.
I am happily representing these guitars, yes they are for sale, but I am placing them here as they require a long explanation not suitable for the for sale section, if that is ok with the moderators.
First up is the Barbarella SS80 which is a one off specified by SS but he left Washburn before taking delivery.
Here is an excerpt from my extinct Washburn site describing this guitar:
SS 80 Barbarella
This is perhaps the most legendary SS 80 produced, which I read about it being built in 1993 in the magazine article interviews with SS and he described this unique Barbarella graphic painted guitar, with internal ray gun circuitry designed by Steve. He was quite looking forward to this guitar, this being the successor if you will to Steve’s amazing black metalflake SS-2 Live Aid guitar, which was featured live during the Live Aid broadcast on MTV. Steve was performing the Beatles tune “Revolution” with the Thompson Twins, whom he recorded th track on their album. Joined by Nile Rodgers on stage, this guitar had various colored pickup covers at various times, it had pink covers to match the pink push button switches and black knobs. The Hamer logo and SS signature was in dayglo pink, plus on the upper part of the body was a huge Steve Stevens signature graphic.
This guitar had built in ray gun circuitry, so Steve didn’t have to break out one of his vintage toy ray guns, which he usually actuated over the pickups, to produce his trademark sound.
Late on he duplicated this with Lexicon PCM-41’s and other outboard gear, but the ray gun has always been an SS staple of his live act, even up until the 1993 VNB tour.
So at some point after Steve had left Washburn the Barbarella guitar was produced.
I received pictures from Jon at Funky Munky Music, after I enquired about if this guitar ever did really exist. It certainly did, so I was so excited and after being offered to make an offer myself for it’s purchase, at that time it also was in Rudy Schlager’s private collection/Washburn museum, or mausoleum, as I would like to refer to it as, these magnificent guitars, basically hung on a wall on display for 16 years, instead of being played, ect.
I happened to post the pics on the Gear Page and it stirred up a lot of interest.
In fact , Steve himself had no idea all these years that the guitar was ever produced.
I have been in frequent contact with the great Jim O’Connor, the famous graphic artist form the eighties and early nineties, who has painted many a famous Hamer, Jackson/Charvel and had painted several Hamer’s for Steve, while he was with them and also painted the Famous Monsters SS 80 upon the suggestion of Steve himself. I have an upcoming interview with Jim who now lives in Maui and hope to tell some more great stories about those golden years.
Jim has painted Steve Lukather’s famous Valley Arts Robot guitar and guitars for many a rock star, including EVH.
Jim was as surprised as everyone else that SS never took delivery of the guitar. The body was sent to him to produce his incredible reproduction of the poster from the famous Sci-Fi movie starring the equally infamous Jane Fonda.
Jim sent the finished body back to Washburn thinking it would go to his friend Steve, whom Jim is a great fan of.
Neither party was aware that Washburn continued with the plans to produce the guitar.
Steve has made this public knowledge when asked on the HRI forum this past year. I have kept in confidence anything I discussed with SS, whom I was fortunate enough to communicate a few times, which was very exciting to a long time mega-fan such as myself.
As I discussed at the beginning of this piece, once I learned of these sorts of activities going on at Washburn in those days, I decided that it was better to leave the bodies buried as they say in Las Vegas.
I can say that SS has no interest in ever owning this guitar, which he designed and commissioned, but some things are pre-destined not to be.
To Washburn at the time, if they were selling off SS 80’s, relabeling them as X-80’s, removing
Steve’s logos, then building these specialty guitars, with Steve’s name still attached to them is inherently wrong in many regards.
Some may argue if an artist leaves a company, then it is only proper that they respect the former artist, no matter what the circumstances of the split, this is my personal opinion.
So enough about all this, the guitar exists, was for sale and was recently sold.
I would also like to state here that SS himself is a person I regard as of the highest integrity.
Steve is a perfectionist, both with his equipment and his tone, this is what makes him a great artist, with such longevity and the continued success and relevance, he enjoys, continuing to inspire today’s guitarists.
Back to this SS 80, the guitar has extra control covers on the backside and extra controls on the front, including an extra knob behind the tremolo.
It also has a series of LED’s that light up in relation to the speed of the ray gun effect.
This guitar has the conventional hex adjustment truss rod and black hardware.
Jim cleverly integrated all aspects of the poster, incorporating these features into the complete, graphic, which I feel is a work of art in itself, not just a copy of the poster…
Judge for yourselves, but what ever karma is associated with this guitar, be it good, bad or indifferent, it is incredibly beautiful…
Here is the album of pictures:
Next is the SS100 Frankenstein graphic glow in the dark finish. This is production #1 painted by Steve Driscoll by airbrush, later examples used stencils:
SS 100 Frankenstein
From it’s inception the SS 100 Frankenstein graphic guitar, had an even stranger history than the SS 80. Announced the same time as the SS 80, and with Steve’s interest in sci-fi movies and monster films, hence the Famous Monsters logos and the association with the universally (pun intended) known Boris Karloff version of the most recognized monster in the movies, based on Mary Shelly’s novel.
Again the Washburn literature shows Steve holding the prototype SS 100, the only Washburn that I am aware that he still owns. This was an airbrushed graphic version, with the graphic based on the original movie poster. This has a white painted headstock face, and many of the Frankenstein guitars had the legendary glow in the dark, luminescent paint.
I am not sure if Steve’s original is that way, but I would guess it would be knowing him!
This particular guitar has the Washburn script logo, with Handmade in Chicago, below the Washburn logo, with a star and the USA lettering to the right.
Recently the production spec #1 Frankenstein SS 100 from the Private collection/Museum came up for sale, this was a glow in the dark paint job with the airbrushed graphic by the artist Steve Driscoll, whom I spoke to via e-mail and he told me he painted a certain quantity for Washburn.
I learned from Jon Kluiter that the first quantity
Produced were airbrushed and after that a stencil system of painting was utilized.
These following pictures are of the #1 production SS 100 from the Washburn museum, recently offered for sale, with the glow in the dark finish.
Here is Steve pictured in 1993 with his SS 100, unfortunately the important details of which are covered by the clever, artsy, graphics. The guitar does have the black hardware though:
This show the incredible condition of the examples for sale by Funky Munky and Steve Driscoll, which were slow to sell.
As I remarked earlier, these guitars were legendary for years and in the past year, more came up for sale than in the last 12-15 years!!
Still the market(for what they know?) considered these mega-rare guitars somewhat overpriced frankly…I don’t know what to say, one day the prices on these guitars will take off..
Most of the SS 100’s came with gold hardware.
I contacted Steve Driscoll, the original artist contracted to paint the SS 100 Frankenstein series, his reply to me was:
“I was the artist that painted ALL the SS 100’s. I think I ended up painting about 50-60 of them in 1994ish. They were cool because the base was done in a glow-in-the-dark base and I airbrushed the graphics, so some of the base showed through. I did them until Washburn moved from Chicago.”
Steve Gill again,
“ He did paint a lot of guitars, unfortunately, Washburn didn’t get permission to use the graphic….there are fewer of these guitars than one would think.”
“I happen to have the last known SS 100 to leave the building, I haven’t yet received the guitar, but once it arrives, I will get some better photos.
I have two SS 100’s and the Koa topped SS 80.”
Steve Gill would unfortunately end up selling both his SS100’s and the Koa wood re-topped SS 80.
Also a little known fact is that the proper licensing apparently was never obtained by Washburn from Universal Pictures, who own the rights to the Frankenstein image, especially the movie poster.
Since so few guitars were actually produced, I don’t believe Universal Pictures were even aware of the use of the graphic from their movie poster, starring the late great Boris Karloff.
To avoid any possible legal action against me personally by either party, let me categorically state here that what I am stating is completely hearsay and I am not privy to the exact set of circumstances, involving the original production of the guitars.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions, hope you enjoy the pictures!
Emerald
A period of time from 1989 to 1993 Steve had no affiliation with any manufacturer. I'm sure readers are familiar with my feature on the JCF concerning the world class Charvel Strat head Dinky #4730 Glow guitar. This seminal guitar was responsible for the Hamer SS3 and then the Washburn SS80, SS100 and to a lesser extent the import SS40. In particular the neck profile was Steve's favorite part of the Glow Dinky, the handiwork of the great Mike Shannon.
Steve asked Washburn to replicate the Charvel Glow's features which included the neck profile and the reverse angled pickups, in the case of the Washburn two angled humbuckers and top mount Floyd.
The nature of my post here is to present two of the most rare Washburn's, the Jim O'Connor painted SS80 Barbarella and the first production hand painted SS100 Frankenstein graphic glow finish #1.
I am happily representing these guitars, yes they are for sale, but I am placing them here as they require a long explanation not suitable for the for sale section, if that is ok with the moderators.
First up is the Barbarella SS80 which is a one off specified by SS but he left Washburn before taking delivery.
Here is an excerpt from my extinct Washburn site describing this guitar:
SS 80 Barbarella
This is perhaps the most legendary SS 80 produced, which I read about it being built in 1993 in the magazine article interviews with SS and he described this unique Barbarella graphic painted guitar, with internal ray gun circuitry designed by Steve. He was quite looking forward to this guitar, this being the successor if you will to Steve’s amazing black metalflake SS-2 Live Aid guitar, which was featured live during the Live Aid broadcast on MTV. Steve was performing the Beatles tune “Revolution” with the Thompson Twins, whom he recorded th track on their album. Joined by Nile Rodgers on stage, this guitar had various colored pickup covers at various times, it had pink covers to match the pink push button switches and black knobs. The Hamer logo and SS signature was in dayglo pink, plus on the upper part of the body was a huge Steve Stevens signature graphic.
This guitar had built in ray gun circuitry, so Steve didn’t have to break out one of his vintage toy ray guns, which he usually actuated over the pickups, to produce his trademark sound.
Late on he duplicated this with Lexicon PCM-41’s and other outboard gear, but the ray gun has always been an SS staple of his live act, even up until the 1993 VNB tour.
So at some point after Steve had left Washburn the Barbarella guitar was produced.
I received pictures from Jon at Funky Munky Music, after I enquired about if this guitar ever did really exist. It certainly did, so I was so excited and after being offered to make an offer myself for it’s purchase, at that time it also was in Rudy Schlager’s private collection/Washburn museum, or mausoleum, as I would like to refer to it as, these magnificent guitars, basically hung on a wall on display for 16 years, instead of being played, ect.
I happened to post the pics on the Gear Page and it stirred up a lot of interest.
In fact , Steve himself had no idea all these years that the guitar was ever produced.
I have been in frequent contact with the great Jim O’Connor, the famous graphic artist form the eighties and early nineties, who has painted many a famous Hamer, Jackson/Charvel and had painted several Hamer’s for Steve, while he was with them and also painted the Famous Monsters SS 80 upon the suggestion of Steve himself. I have an upcoming interview with Jim who now lives in Maui and hope to tell some more great stories about those golden years.
Jim has painted Steve Lukather’s famous Valley Arts Robot guitar and guitars for many a rock star, including EVH.
Jim was as surprised as everyone else that SS never took delivery of the guitar. The body was sent to him to produce his incredible reproduction of the poster from the famous Sci-Fi movie starring the equally infamous Jane Fonda.
Jim sent the finished body back to Washburn thinking it would go to his friend Steve, whom Jim is a great fan of.
Neither party was aware that Washburn continued with the plans to produce the guitar.
Steve has made this public knowledge when asked on the HRI forum this past year. I have kept in confidence anything I discussed with SS, whom I was fortunate enough to communicate a few times, which was very exciting to a long time mega-fan such as myself.
As I discussed at the beginning of this piece, once I learned of these sorts of activities going on at Washburn in those days, I decided that it was better to leave the bodies buried as they say in Las Vegas.
I can say that SS has no interest in ever owning this guitar, which he designed and commissioned, but some things are pre-destined not to be.
To Washburn at the time, if they were selling off SS 80’s, relabeling them as X-80’s, removing
Steve’s logos, then building these specialty guitars, with Steve’s name still attached to them is inherently wrong in many regards.
Some may argue if an artist leaves a company, then it is only proper that they respect the former artist, no matter what the circumstances of the split, this is my personal opinion.
So enough about all this, the guitar exists, was for sale and was recently sold.
I would also like to state here that SS himself is a person I regard as of the highest integrity.
Steve is a perfectionist, both with his equipment and his tone, this is what makes him a great artist, with such longevity and the continued success and relevance, he enjoys, continuing to inspire today’s guitarists.
Back to this SS 80, the guitar has extra control covers on the backside and extra controls on the front, including an extra knob behind the tremolo.
It also has a series of LED’s that light up in relation to the speed of the ray gun effect.
This guitar has the conventional hex adjustment truss rod and black hardware.
Jim cleverly integrated all aspects of the poster, incorporating these features into the complete, graphic, which I feel is a work of art in itself, not just a copy of the poster…
Judge for yourselves, but what ever karma is associated with this guitar, be it good, bad or indifferent, it is incredibly beautiful…
Here is the album of pictures:
Next is the SS100 Frankenstein graphic glow in the dark finish. This is production #1 painted by Steve Driscoll by airbrush, later examples used stencils:
SS 100 Frankenstein
From it’s inception the SS 100 Frankenstein graphic guitar, had an even stranger history than the SS 80. Announced the same time as the SS 80, and with Steve’s interest in sci-fi movies and monster films, hence the Famous Monsters logos and the association with the universally (pun intended) known Boris Karloff version of the most recognized monster in the movies, based on Mary Shelly’s novel.
Again the Washburn literature shows Steve holding the prototype SS 100, the only Washburn that I am aware that he still owns. This was an airbrushed graphic version, with the graphic based on the original movie poster. This has a white painted headstock face, and many of the Frankenstein guitars had the legendary glow in the dark, luminescent paint.
I am not sure if Steve’s original is that way, but I would guess it would be knowing him!
This particular guitar has the Washburn script logo, with Handmade in Chicago, below the Washburn logo, with a star and the USA lettering to the right.
Recently the production spec #1 Frankenstein SS 100 from the Private collection/Museum came up for sale, this was a glow in the dark paint job with the airbrushed graphic by the artist Steve Driscoll, whom I spoke to via e-mail and he told me he painted a certain quantity for Washburn.
I learned from Jon Kluiter that the first quantity
Produced were airbrushed and after that a stencil system of painting was utilized.
These following pictures are of the #1 production SS 100 from the Washburn museum, recently offered for sale, with the glow in the dark finish.
Here is Steve pictured in 1993 with his SS 100, unfortunately the important details of which are covered by the clever, artsy, graphics. The guitar does have the black hardware though:
This show the incredible condition of the examples for sale by Funky Munky and Steve Driscoll, which were slow to sell.
As I remarked earlier, these guitars were legendary for years and in the past year, more came up for sale than in the last 12-15 years!!
Still the market(for what they know?) considered these mega-rare guitars somewhat overpriced frankly…I don’t know what to say, one day the prices on these guitars will take off..
Most of the SS 100’s came with gold hardware.
I contacted Steve Driscoll, the original artist contracted to paint the SS 100 Frankenstein series, his reply to me was:
“I was the artist that painted ALL the SS 100’s. I think I ended up painting about 50-60 of them in 1994ish. They were cool because the base was done in a glow-in-the-dark base and I airbrushed the graphics, so some of the base showed through. I did them until Washburn moved from Chicago.”
Steve Gill again,
“ He did paint a lot of guitars, unfortunately, Washburn didn’t get permission to use the graphic….there are fewer of these guitars than one would think.”
“I happen to have the last known SS 100 to leave the building, I haven’t yet received the guitar, but once it arrives, I will get some better photos.
I have two SS 100’s and the Koa topped SS 80.”
Steve Gill would unfortunately end up selling both his SS100’s and the Koa wood re-topped SS 80.
Also a little known fact is that the proper licensing apparently was never obtained by Washburn from Universal Pictures, who own the rights to the Frankenstein image, especially the movie poster.
Since so few guitars were actually produced, I don’t believe Universal Pictures were even aware of the use of the graphic from their movie poster, starring the late great Boris Karloff.
To avoid any possible legal action against me personally by either party, let me categorically state here that what I am stating is completely hearsay and I am not privy to the exact set of circumstances, involving the original production of the guitars.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions, hope you enjoy the pictures!
Emerald
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