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MICRO- FRETS GOLDEN MELODY 1968 RARE. UNDERVALUED. COLLECTIBLE. UNAPPRECIATED
Estimated price for orientation: 3 495 $
Category: Electric Guitars
Class:
Description
DescriptionMICRO- FRETS
GOLDEN MELODY
1968
RARE.
UNDERVALUED.
COLLECTIBLE.
UNAPPRECIATED.
A Guitar Every
Collector Should Own.
MICRO-FRETS guitars are, I believe, iconic American built electric guitars that were “futurist in the past” and true creations of the genius of their designers and builders.
And they are number 2 on my list of the “TOP TEN Most Unknown, Unappreciated, and Undervalued” guitars in the vintage guitar marketplace. They are special and magical and should be in the collection of every guitar lover and player in the world. But that cannot happen because there are so few of them left (maybe-but just maybe-less than 3,000 were built). That is why, early in my collector history, I searched for guitars of this brand and bought as many of them as I could. Those are the guitars I am now selling.
THE MICRO-FRETS GUITAR FOR SALE IN THIS LISTING.
OUR ID: 617
MODEL: Golden Melody
YEAR: 1968
BODY WOOD: Hard wood. With Sound Chamber.
NECK WOOD: Maple.
FINGERBOARD: Brazilian Rosewood.
HARDWARE: Micro-Frets handmade, custom machined.
PICKUPS: Hand wound by former Rickenbacker employee. Enclosed in white Plexiglas.
CONTROLS: Volume and Tone.
COLOR: Sunburst.
CONDITION: Good.
HAS CASE.
The Micro-Frets Company
The Micro-Frets Company was started by Ralph J. Jones in 1967 in his Wheaten, Maryland, USA workshop.
These guitars featured some of the most unique features of any US built guitar.
Among those are: The GENUINE “CALIBRATO” Vibrato System. Calibrated string movement adjustments. Can adjust system to work with any gauge of strings. Can modulate pitch. Retain tuning on all strings at all modulation level at higher or lower pitch levels. Keeps strings in tune at all pitch levels. Makes string tuning more precise. The BODY. Carved from select SOLID woods. Not plywood or veneer. Has carved out hollow body making it a true acoustic guitar. Traditional cut with larger lower bout and smaller upper bout. By carving out the inside of a solid block of wood with a lathe tool, a “sound chamber” is created that provides unique resonance and tonal response not available in other electric guitars. No sound holes. The designer of the MICROFRETS “unique sound chamber” discovered, after a lot of research that a sound hole actually “decays” the acoustic tone of a guitar. The NECK. The elliptical shape of the “speed line” neck is the “finest in the industry” and “immediately feels familiar to the player”. Featured on the neck is a precision scaled fingerboard. The neck is labelled “Stringbender” because its shape and design and fret size allow the player to more easily bend strings when playing. The “MICRO-NUT” Exclusive to only MICRO-FRETS guitars is the patented “Micro Nut”. It is considered to be the most revolutionary product ever invented for an electric guitar. The “Micro Nut” makes the Micro-Frets guitar “the most precise tuning guitar” available. It features FIFTY-TWO (52) different parts. It is an engineering marvel. (Read more about how it works below). These are amazing innovative guitars with many unique features and structural characteristics. Please read more about these guitars below as told first hand by one of the luthiers in the original MICRO FRETS workshop.
Information about Micro-Frets Guitars from “Guitar Attack” online.
The Truth about Micro-Frets Guitarsby Dan X, a designer & former employee of the defunct Micro-Frets Co.There have been a lot of questions over the years about the Micro-Frets guitar Company on Grove Road, Frederick, Maryland. I have also read a lot of things about the Company, written by guitar collectors that are not true!I lived in Rockville, Maryland at the Monroe Street Apartments. I would drive to Frederick every morning to a job that I loved!!!! I would go to work so fast that the telephone poles on Route 355 whizzed by like pickets in a fence. Make a left on Grove Road and pull into the parking lot on the left. (Now called the Auto Trim Co., but still on Grove Road.Here was the building layout when it was Micro-Frets : You go in the front door, to the left was a door that led to the guitar room. That's where we kept 2 of every model of guitar that we made. There have been some very famous people in the room -- Buck Trent, Carl Perkins, and Mark Farner, to name a few.You come out of that room back into the hall and on the right was the secretary `s office. One of the secretaries that I remember best was a girl about 18 years old named Deloris Schrower, We called her Dee! I had a BIG crush on Dee!!! The next off was where Mrs. Huggins, wife of the head of the company Marion Huggins worked. The next office was Marion Huggins' office.You're wondering by now -- where is Ralph Jones? We're not there yet.Down the hall past Huggins' office you went through a door. Take a left turn and there was the Machinist. I can't remember the Machinist's name, but Ralph Jones worked there sometimes. In front of that was the metal buffing booth. You have to remember most of the parts on the new guitars were Aluminum!!Down from that area was a hole in the wall by the steps. Billy Boggs worked there! He did the fretwork. Billy use to pick with Chet Atkins on the road. Over in front of him was the body lathe, where we hollowed out the bodies. In front of that was the overhead pin router where we cut out the bodies. Farther back was the pickguard pin router.Pete Lagocky, a rock picker, ran that for a while until he just about lost a finger!! Around the corner was the table saw where the pickguards & Pickup pieces were cut out. Back to the steps and up the stairs, just at the top, was the shipping booth. Now this is one big room the whole upstairs was open.To the right was the electronics area. Do a 180 and you would see the paint area. A Magician by night, Painter by day -- a guy called the Amazing Tracy!! He painted the guitars. Beside him was where Mary Jones, the wife of Ralph Jones worked. She sanded between the coats of paint. A real beauty for her age!Everyone wanted me to try to talk her into keeping the plant open. Believe me I tried. I even tried to get out on a date. Didn't work because I wasn't good looking enough, I guess. But I will tell you this she was a nice lady.Down from there to the right was the body and neck wood sanding booth. A little Blond worked there named Linda. She looked like a small child but she was beautiful 19-year old. Do a 180 and you're looking at the guitar assembly stations. There were two of them. One of the stations was mine. A Hippy named Larry worked there also. He was a hard rock picker as well. He quit and I had them put this female assembler over by me. She was a great person and did her job well.Just behind me was Woody Free. Woody assembled the sound hole pickups. His son, my Boss, was Gary Free. Gary was the plant Supervisor/custom builder/guitar designer. Then there was me, Dan Electricbanjoman, guitar assembler & custom builder/designer.Now who was Ralph Jones and where did he work in the factory? He worked the whole factory, and he was at every station at some time everyday making things. He was the creator of the Micro nut, Calibrato, and the FM wireless system.We made the first FM guitar, called "The Orbiter". It was a Swiss cheese model -- front & back & white center piece. There was an FM box that came with that guitar, so you could set the box on top of your amp. The guitar had an antenna that came out of the upper cutaway. I walked down the stairs and out the door one day picking one of those, half way down the street to where the red light is now on Grove Road. It still picked me up through the metal wall to the amp upstairs.We had wild names for the guitars but we all helped name them. Gary, Woody, and I designed the newer bodies, Micro Nut, and Calibratos. We had three different guitar styles: The Swiss Cheese, The Twin, and The Single. First were the Swiss Cheese Models. They were really wild looking, like from outer space, hence the space names like Orbiter, Golden Comet, Calibra, Wanderer, and Spacetone. Ralph designed these guitars. They had Gretsch guitar pickups with a metal case. Huntington ( mine), Signature (mine), the Stage II, the Swinger solid body guitar, the Husky solidbody Bass, and The Spacetone (Woody and Gary Free) -- those were our guitars of the 60`sRalph Jones died and we kept the older guitars there for a while. All of a sudden the order came up to clean them up and get them out! So we sold those out fast. Some of those went overseas to England, Germany, France, Japan, and China. One of those shipments sank in the Atlantic.These were the guitars of the 70's. At that time we bought our pickup formula from a guy at the Rickenbaker Guitar Company in California. We made the pickups out of White Plexiglas, and a few Black ones as well. Mrs. Jones did all the guitar pickup wire wrappings by hand. She had a booth 8 feet square. It was a big secret so they kept the curtain closed.We would work all day and sometimes for no pay on the weekends. We redesigned the pickups, the bodies, and revamped the Micro Nut and Calibrato units.The rumor is that the guitar just didn't sell so we had to close. NOT TRUE!!! We closed about four years after Ralph Jones died. Marion Huggins was the money man. He wanted to keep the place going, and would have if it were up to him. I would still be there making guitars! Mrs. Jones wanted the company to close with her husband. "It's his invention", she used to say. "I don't want anybody to take credit for it. I want to get my money back out of it, and I just want this place to just go away."There was a court trial, I think in Frederick, Maryland. There would be a case on file. Jones v. Huggins Micro-Frets Corp. It is probably public domain now because it's been 30 years. Mrs. Jones won the case. I watched people's jobs get cut one at a time. They cried as they walked out the door! I was one of the last ones to leave, and I cried too! We made thousands of great guitars, and were getting to bring out a couple new ones that Gary, Tracy, and I were drawing up. Our sales were good all over the USA, Canada, and the world. Our Patent covered all countries. Nobody could make the Micro-Frets nuts and Calibratos but us! Now I hear that a company in Japan is buying up all the guitars. They plan to make the Micro-Frets again. So the older USA made ones will be real collectors now.We were all musicians in that factory, and we ate across the street at a 50's style restaurant called the Pontiac Inn. We would always eat lunch there, and sometimes dinner. We were a very open about trying new things. If it was weird we liked it. To us every guitar was different -- every guitar was the Batmobile! It was great fun. If you like customizing guitars, then you should have been there son! Pretty girls and great people to work with. Life at Micro-Frets in Maryland was a guitar customizer's heaven on earth. There was me and one other guy who put the guitars together. During the last year the other guy quit and I had them hire this nice looking young girl guitar picker. She was with us until early 1973. I was the last one left. I worked the last two weeks for free putting the guitars together before the company was auctioned.We were all working musicians. I played some with Waylon Jennings and Dottie West while I was there. Gary Free had his own local Blues & Jazz band. BODY STYLES (and configurations). STYLE 1. The older (first) Micro-Frets style had a 3-piece body. Some of those had the Volume & Tone controls under the pick guard. As we changed the body we changed the pots and position. The Calibrato and the Nut were also changed three different times. The pickups were changed twice; The Golden Melodys eventually became the Spacetone & the Stage II. Two piece body with particle board side gasket. This gasket was screwed onto one half of the body and clipped onto the other half. The gasket, while eye catching, added a good bit to the weight and didn't serve any other real function. 3. DeArmond pickups. I've heard that other types were used but haven't seen any examples (not counting the Style 2 and 3 'Lawrence' pickups). Bi-level white pickguard with volume and tone controls attached. Controls were adjusted using nylon wheels instead of more traditional knobs. Guitars without the Calibrato featured a giant aluminum 'M' on the body. Tuning gears were generally open style, 6 on a plate Cloth was used to cover the sound hole on many models. Bridge tailpiece combination had shorter distance between the bridge and the end where the strings attached. Bridges featured aluminum saddles that had intonation adjustment going through with a spring to keep it in place similar to Fender. STYLE 1.5. Style 1.5 features all of the Style 1 mentioned details with the differences: The side gasket is now gone and the two piece body with visible seams are joined together with clips. STYLE 2.0 The second body style was two-piece and we took out the grill cloth from the (F) hole. Two piece body with visible seam. Bi-level pickguard with clear upper level and white lower level. Volume and tone knobs are now located on body. Calibrato version 2 which features a large leaf spring to provide counter tension. Strings attached to a one piece tailpiece. Large, white, rectangular 'Lawrence' single coils pickups now used. These were designed by Bill Lawrence and built by MICROFRETS in house. These pickups had more output than the DeArmonds and were substantially larger with a plexi housing. No aluminum discs or 'M's. Bridge/tailpiece combinations had longer distance between bridge and where strings attached on non-tremolo models. Bridges now have aluminum saddles with nuts added on to the intonation adjustments screws. This allowed the intonation to be set and somewhat locked in place by tightening the nut up against the bridge. Simple, but practical. Schaller tuners standard. STYLE 3.0. The third style was made two-piece but glued together to look like a semi hollow body. There were many different body shapes and names. For example, The Huntington, The Signature, and Signature Custom, which were my designs. Then there were the Orbiters, Comets , and Spacetone which were Ralph Jones' designs. The Swinger, Huskybass, & Stage II were Gary Free's design. The Sound Hole pickups for acoustics were Woody Free's design. Except for the Swinger guitar and Husky bass (which were solid body), the inside of the guitar was cut out with a wood lathe. If you look inside you'll see the cavity was cut out like a record with the center circle and outer edges of the body. That's what the bridge is setting on -- a round center. The body is held together with slide clips. To take it apart you take off the neck, hold the guitar facing you standing up on the end of the bout, and lightly slam the backside. That will slip the two parts apart! You put it together the same way only turn the body face away from you. Bodies are still two piece but are glued together with no seam that can be felt (though it can be seen on models with translucent finishes Introduction of the Speedline neck which addressed the problem of being able to bend notes up the neck that earlier models often had due to the small, low frets and rounded fingerboard. Introduction of the Swinger model which wasn't a typical model in that it is was a solid body without the 'doughnut' routing. THE BODY.
The body was solid on the outer edge, and a 4 to 5 inch center under the bridge was solid. This was true on all the guitars to make them lighter except for some of the older Swiss cheese bodies like the Orbiter and the Golden Comet.The newer bodies were cut out on a lathe. I cut some of these out as well. We cut out a doughnut from the inside, with the solid sides and the very center. This helped in the distortion ability but not much. The hollow body didn't affect the overall tonal ability of the guitar.THE MICRO-NUT
Someone asked me," What makes the Micro-Frets guitar different from the others?" Most other guitars have a tunable bridge that sets the harmonics up to the twelfth fret. The Micro-Frets has the Micro-nut. It's 52 pieces of adjustable nut. Each string can be adjusted up or down in height, which is convenient as the weather changes. This is especially true if you're very picky about you string height. As for back and forth, the back and forth is what sets the harmonics above the twelfth fret. The guitar was totally in tune all the way up the neck. The stainless steel rollers don't roll, but they let the string slide across without sticking. There are little ears that stick up just behind the roller that allow you to set the width of your strings.THE NECK.
The necks were called Speedline necks because they were the thinnest around at that time. Made of solid maple, most with rosewood fingerboards (some with Maple fingerboards), the necks were fantastically quick! But it was always my opinion that the frets were cut too low. We at the factory always argued about that.
CONDITION: This guitar is in good condition. It has various dings, dents, scrapes, scratches, and paint chips on side, finish cracks, etc. but operational condition is excellent.
TERMS OF THE SALE:
For buyers outside the continental USA, please ask for shipping quote before buying this item. Thank you.
Please remember to read our policies and procedures listed below.
The guarantee. The guitar is in GOOD cosmetic condition and is as described in this ad. The guitar is in fully operational condition. Buyer has 48 hrs. to inspect the guitar or have it inspected. Any defects, damage, misrepresentations or other problems must be reported within that time period in writing to the Seller. In the case of damage during shipment, Buyer shall immediately inform seller of such damage and will maintain all original packing materials and box for inspection by the transportation company. If other problems are discovered, Seller will either arrange for repair etc. at a location near the Buyer or request that the Buyer return the guitar to the Seller (Seller will reimburse Buyer for cost of shipment of guitar back to Seller). Seller will correct indicated problems and ship the guitar back to the Buyer within 7 days of receiving it. In the event that the guitar cannot be repaired or replaced with a similar item from Seller’s inventory, the Seller will give the Buyer Credit toward current or future purchases from inventory of Seller. No refunds or returns for Buyer Remorse or Buyer Mind Changing. If there are any undisclosed physical attributes of this guitar that will prevent buyer from playing it successfully, e.g., neck to wide to be played with arthritic hands, guitar too heavy to be played due to back, shoulder, etc. problems, then we will, upon return of the guitar, issue a Credit Memo to Buyer in the amount paid for the guitar plus the cost of shipment paid by the Buyer against the future purchase of a guitar from us.
Shipping SHIPPING CHARGES. The charges listed in this ad are for the continental US only. Shipment outside that area is at actual cost and Buyer must pay all tariffs, duties, and other charges that may be levied on the item when it is imported into its final destination. And for foreign buyers, please request a quote for shipping cost before you bid. No surprises are always good. And please do not ask that we use a lower value for an export shipment. NOTE: WE WILL NOT SHIP TO ANY THIRD PARTY AND WE WILL NOT DO SHIP TO ANY FIRM, SUCH AS Shop Airlines America or sekaimon WHO RESHIPS THE ITEM OUTSIDE THE USA. SHIPPING DAMAGE. Any external, or internal, shipping damage MUST BE REPORTED to Seller and to Carrier within 24 hours of receipt of delivery. IT IS THE BUYER?S RESPONSIBILITY TO NOTIFY SELLER IMMEDIATELY IF THE INSTRUMENT HAS INCURRED ANY DAMAGE DURING SHIPMENT. IN THE EVENT OF SUCH DAMAGE, PLEASE RETAIN ALL SHIPPING MATERIALS FOR INSPECTION.NO EXCEPTION.
Terms of Sale 1. Payment must be received within five days of the end of the auction. 2. NO REFUNDS. Please ask your questions before you bid. As noted under "Shipping", we will repair any defective item. This does not apply to shipping damage or to damage after receipt. Please note that every guitar we sell has been fully audited, tested, set up,inspected, and photograph prior to shipment.
About Us ABOUT TUNEYOURSOUND. Tune Your Sound Sound Your Tune Guitars make Sounds ! Guitar players make Tunes. But which guitar makes your Tune best?The beginning point in making a tune is You. The music in your head goes to your hands which form chords and notes. The end point is the Tune heard by those listening created by the Sounds of the instruments in between. Our job at TuneYourSound.com (TYS) is to fill in the middle. Or, in other words, "complete the chain". We are guitar players and collectors at TuneYourSound.com. Collectively we have personally owned and played over 1800 guitars. And we have seen guitar players play-from Jimi using his teeth to Jimmy using his bow. And now, we want to tell you what we have learned over the years and under the stages. First: There should be two primary guitars in your life. The one you start with (by choice or coincidence) and the one you finish with (once you find it, you'll know it and keep it). But of course, humans are acquisitive by nature, so we are prone to own more than we need-but a guitar player must have what he really needs. Two: Sometimes it's better for a guitar to be heard than seen and other times it's better for a guitar to be seen than heard. So, play it both ways. Buy a guitar that does both. Three: Avoid the hype. Especially now with the Internet overloading us with data. Buy a guitar that you trust from someone you trust. Four: Make it personal. Establish a relationship with your seller. That way you will never be disappointed-nor abandoned. After all, it is still about money-your money. And you deserve to get more than you give. At TuneYourSound.com, we have the answer!
Please contact us directly at ebay email system.
Description
GOLDEN MELODY
1968
RARE.
UNDERVALUED.
COLLECTIBLE.
UNAPPRECIATED.
A Guitar Every
Collector Should Own.
MICRO-FRETS guitars are, I believe, iconic American built electric guitars that were “futurist in the past” and true creations of the genius of their designers and builders.
And they are number 2 on my list of the “TOP TEN Most Unknown, Unappreciated, and Undervalued” guitars in the vintage guitar marketplace. They are special and magical and should be in the collection of every guitar lover and player in the world. But that cannot happen because there are so few of them left (maybe-but just maybe-less than 3,000 were built). That is why, early in my collector history, I searched for guitars of this brand and bought as many of them as I could. Those are the guitars I am now selling.
THE MICRO-FRETS GUITAR FOR SALE IN THIS LISTING.
OUR ID: 617
MODEL: Golden Melody
YEAR: 1968
BODY WOOD: Hard wood. With Sound Chamber.
NECK WOOD: Maple.
FINGERBOARD: Brazilian Rosewood.
HARDWARE: Micro-Frets handmade, custom machined.
PICKUPS: Hand wound by former Rickenbacker employee. Enclosed in white Plexiglas.
CONTROLS: Volume and Tone.
COLOR: Sunburst.
CONDITION: Good.
HAS CASE.
The Micro-Frets Company
The Micro-Frets Company was started by Ralph J. Jones in 1967 in his Wheaten, Maryland, USA workshop.
These guitars featured some of the most unique features of any US built guitar.
Among those are: The GENUINE “CALIBRATO” Vibrato System. Calibrated string movement adjustments. Can adjust system to work with any gauge of strings. Can modulate pitch. Retain tuning on all strings at all modulation level at higher or lower pitch levels. Keeps strings in tune at all pitch levels. Makes string tuning more precise. The BODY. Carved from select SOLID woods. Not plywood or veneer. Has carved out hollow body making it a true acoustic guitar. Traditional cut with larger lower bout and smaller upper bout. By carving out the inside of a solid block of wood with a lathe tool, a “sound chamber” is created that provides unique resonance and tonal response not available in other electric guitars. No sound holes. The designer of the MICROFRETS “unique sound chamber” discovered, after a lot of research that a sound hole actually “decays” the acoustic tone of a guitar. The NECK. The elliptical shape of the “speed line” neck is the “finest in the industry” and “immediately feels familiar to the player”. Featured on the neck is a precision scaled fingerboard. The neck is labelled “Stringbender” because its shape and design and fret size allow the player to more easily bend strings when playing. The “MICRO-NUT” Exclusive to only MICRO-FRETS guitars is the patented “Micro Nut”. It is considered to be the most revolutionary product ever invented for an electric guitar. The “Micro Nut” makes the Micro-Frets guitar “the most precise tuning guitar” available. It features FIFTY-TWO (52) different parts. It is an engineering marvel. (Read more about how it works below). These are amazing innovative guitars with many unique features and structural characteristics. Please read more about these guitars below as told first hand by one of the luthiers in the original MICRO FRETS workshop.
Information about Micro-Frets Guitars from “Guitar Attack” online.
The Truth about Micro-Frets Guitarsby Dan X, a designer & former employee of the defunct Micro-Frets Co.There have been a lot of questions over the years about the Micro-Frets guitar Company on Grove Road, Frederick, Maryland. I have also read a lot of things about the Company, written by guitar collectors that are not true!I lived in Rockville, Maryland at the Monroe Street Apartments. I would drive to Frederick every morning to a job that I loved!!!! I would go to work so fast that the telephone poles on Route 355 whizzed by like pickets in a fence. Make a left on Grove Road and pull into the parking lot on the left. (Now called the Auto Trim Co., but still on Grove Road.Here was the building layout when it was Micro-Frets : You go in the front door, to the left was a door that led to the guitar room. That's where we kept 2 of every model of guitar that we made. There have been some very famous people in the room -- Buck Trent, Carl Perkins, and Mark Farner, to name a few.You come out of that room back into the hall and on the right was the secretary `s office. One of the secretaries that I remember best was a girl about 18 years old named Deloris Schrower, We called her Dee! I had a BIG crush on Dee!!! The next off was where Mrs. Huggins, wife of the head of the company Marion Huggins worked. The next office was Marion Huggins' office.You're wondering by now -- where is Ralph Jones? We're not there yet.Down the hall past Huggins' office you went through a door. Take a left turn and there was the Machinist. I can't remember the Machinist's name, but Ralph Jones worked there sometimes. In front of that was the metal buffing booth. You have to remember most of the parts on the new guitars were Aluminum!!Down from that area was a hole in the wall by the steps. Billy Boggs worked there! He did the fretwork. Billy use to pick with Chet Atkins on the road. Over in front of him was the body lathe, where we hollowed out the bodies. In front of that was the overhead pin router where we cut out the bodies. Farther back was the pickguard pin router.Pete Lagocky, a rock picker, ran that for a while until he just about lost a finger!! Around the corner was the table saw where the pickguards & Pickup pieces were cut out. Back to the steps and up the stairs, just at the top, was the shipping booth. Now this is one big room the whole upstairs was open.To the right was the electronics area. Do a 180 and you would see the paint area. A Magician by night, Painter by day -- a guy called the Amazing Tracy!! He painted the guitars. Beside him was where Mary Jones, the wife of Ralph Jones worked. She sanded between the coats of paint. A real beauty for her age!Everyone wanted me to try to talk her into keeping the plant open. Believe me I tried. I even tried to get out on a date. Didn't work because I wasn't good looking enough, I guess. But I will tell you this she was a nice lady.Down from there to the right was the body and neck wood sanding booth. A little Blond worked there named Linda. She looked like a small child but she was beautiful 19-year old. Do a 180 and you're looking at the guitar assembly stations. There were two of them. One of the stations was mine. A Hippy named Larry worked there also. He was a hard rock picker as well. He quit and I had them put this female assembler over by me. She was a great person and did her job well.Just behind me was Woody Free. Woody assembled the sound hole pickups. His son, my Boss, was Gary Free. Gary was the plant Supervisor/custom builder/guitar designer. Then there was me, Dan Electricbanjoman, guitar assembler & custom builder/designer.Now who was Ralph Jones and where did he work in the factory? He worked the whole factory, and he was at every station at some time everyday making things. He was the creator of the Micro nut, Calibrato, and the FM wireless system.We made the first FM guitar, called "The Orbiter". It was a Swiss cheese model -- front & back & white center piece. There was an FM box that came with that guitar, so you could set the box on top of your amp. The guitar had an antenna that came out of the upper cutaway. I walked down the stairs and out the door one day picking one of those, half way down the street to where the red light is now on Grove Road. It still picked me up through the metal wall to the amp upstairs.We had wild names for the guitars but we all helped name them. Gary, Woody, and I designed the newer bodies, Micro Nut, and Calibratos. We had three different guitar styles: The Swiss Cheese, The Twin, and The Single. First were the Swiss Cheese Models. They were really wild looking, like from outer space, hence the space names like Orbiter, Golden Comet, Calibra, Wanderer, and Spacetone. Ralph designed these guitars. They had Gretsch guitar pickups with a metal case. Huntington ( mine), Signature (mine), the Stage II, the Swinger solid body guitar, the Husky solidbody Bass, and The Spacetone (Woody and Gary Free) -- those were our guitars of the 60`sRalph Jones died and we kept the older guitars there for a while. All of a sudden the order came up to clean them up and get them out! So we sold those out fast. Some of those went overseas to England, Germany, France, Japan, and China. One of those shipments sank in the Atlantic.These were the guitars of the 70's. At that time we bought our pickup formula from a guy at the Rickenbaker Guitar Company in California. We made the pickups out of White Plexiglas, and a few Black ones as well. Mrs. Jones did all the guitar pickup wire wrappings by hand. She had a booth 8 feet square. It was a big secret so they kept the curtain closed.We would work all day and sometimes for no pay on the weekends. We redesigned the pickups, the bodies, and revamped the Micro Nut and Calibrato units.The rumor is that the guitar just didn't sell so we had to close. NOT TRUE!!! We closed about four years after Ralph Jones died. Marion Huggins was the money man. He wanted to keep the place going, and would have if it were up to him. I would still be there making guitars! Mrs. Jones wanted the company to close with her husband. "It's his invention", she used to say. "I don't want anybody to take credit for it. I want to get my money back out of it, and I just want this place to just go away."There was a court trial, I think in Frederick, Maryland. There would be a case on file. Jones v. Huggins Micro-Frets Corp. It is probably public domain now because it's been 30 years. Mrs. Jones won the case. I watched people's jobs get cut one at a time. They cried as they walked out the door! I was one of the last ones to leave, and I cried too! We made thousands of great guitars, and were getting to bring out a couple new ones that Gary, Tracy, and I were drawing up. Our sales were good all over the USA, Canada, and the world. Our Patent covered all countries. Nobody could make the Micro-Frets nuts and Calibratos but us! Now I hear that a company in Japan is buying up all the guitars. They plan to make the Micro-Frets again. So the older USA made ones will be real collectors now.We were all musicians in that factory, and we ate across the street at a 50's style restaurant called the Pontiac Inn. We would always eat lunch there, and sometimes dinner. We were a very open about trying new things. If it was weird we liked it. To us every guitar was different -- every guitar was the Batmobile! It was great fun. If you like customizing guitars, then you should have been there son! Pretty girls and great people to work with. Life at Micro-Frets in Maryland was a guitar customizer's heaven on earth. There was me and one other guy who put the guitars together. During the last year the other guy quit and I had them hire this nice looking young girl guitar picker. She was with us until early 1973. I was the last one left. I worked the last two weeks for free putting the guitars together before the company was auctioned.We were all working musicians. I played some with Waylon Jennings and Dottie West while I was there. Gary Free had his own local Blues & Jazz band. BODY STYLES (and configurations). STYLE 1. The older (first) Micro-Frets style had a 3-piece body. Some of those had the Volume & Tone controls under the pick guard. As we changed the body we changed the pots and position. The Calibrato and the Nut were also changed three different times. The pickups were changed twice; The Golden Melodys eventually became the Spacetone & the Stage II. Two piece body with particle board side gasket. This gasket was screwed onto one half of the body and clipped onto the other half. The gasket, while eye catching, added a good bit to the weight and didn't serve any other real function. 3. DeArmond pickups. I've heard that other types were used but haven't seen any examples (not counting the Style 2 and 3 'Lawrence' pickups). Bi-level white pickguard with volume and tone controls attached. Controls were adjusted using nylon wheels instead of more traditional knobs. Guitars without the Calibrato featured a giant aluminum 'M' on the body. Tuning gears were generally open style, 6 on a plate Cloth was used to cover the sound hole on many models. Bridge tailpiece combination had shorter distance between the bridge and the end where the strings attached. Bridges featured aluminum saddles that had intonation adjustment going through with a spring to keep it in place similar to Fender. STYLE 1.5. Style 1.5 features all of the Style 1 mentioned details with the differences: The side gasket is now gone and the two piece body with visible seams are joined together with clips. STYLE 2.0 The second body style was two-piece and we took out the grill cloth from the (F) hole. Two piece body with visible seam. Bi-level pickguard with clear upper level and white lower level. Volume and tone knobs are now located on body. Calibrato version 2 which features a large leaf spring to provide counter tension. Strings attached to a one piece tailpiece. Large, white, rectangular 'Lawrence' single coils pickups now used. These were designed by Bill Lawrence and built by MICROFRETS in house. These pickups had more output than the DeArmonds and were substantially larger with a plexi housing. No aluminum discs or 'M's. Bridge/tailpiece combinations had longer distance between bridge and where strings attached on non-tremolo models. Bridges now have aluminum saddles with nuts added on to the intonation adjustments screws. This allowed the intonation to be set and somewhat locked in place by tightening the nut up against the bridge. Simple, but practical. Schaller tuners standard. STYLE 3.0. The third style was made two-piece but glued together to look like a semi hollow body. There were many different body shapes and names. For example, The Huntington, The Signature, and Signature Custom, which were my designs. Then there were the Orbiters, Comets , and Spacetone which were Ralph Jones' designs. The Swinger, Huskybass, & Stage II were Gary Free's design. The Sound Hole pickups for acoustics were Woody Free's design. Except for the Swinger guitar and Husky bass (which were solid body), the inside of the guitar was cut out with a wood lathe. If you look inside you'll see the cavity was cut out like a record with the center circle and outer edges of the body. That's what the bridge is setting on -- a round center. The body is held together with slide clips. To take it apart you take off the neck, hold the guitar facing you standing up on the end of the bout, and lightly slam the backside. That will slip the two parts apart! You put it together the same way only turn the body face away from you. Bodies are still two piece but are glued together with no seam that can be felt (though it can be seen on models with translucent finishes Introduction of the Speedline neck which addressed the problem of being able to bend notes up the neck that earlier models often had due to the small, low frets and rounded fingerboard. Introduction of the Swinger model which wasn't a typical model in that it is was a solid body without the 'doughnut' routing. THE BODY.
The body was solid on the outer edge, and a 4 to 5 inch center under the bridge was solid. This was true on all the guitars to make them lighter except for some of the older Swiss cheese bodies like the Orbiter and the Golden Comet.The newer bodies were cut out on a lathe. I cut some of these out as well. We cut out a doughnut from the inside, with the solid sides and the very center. This helped in the distortion ability but not much. The hollow body didn't affect the overall tonal ability of the guitar.THE MICRO-NUT
Someone asked me," What makes the Micro-Frets guitar different from the others?" Most other guitars have a tunable bridge that sets the harmonics up to the twelfth fret. The Micro-Frets has the Micro-nut. It's 52 pieces of adjustable nut. Each string can be adjusted up or down in height, which is convenient as the weather changes. This is especially true if you're very picky about you string height. As for back and forth, the back and forth is what sets the harmonics above the twelfth fret. The guitar was totally in tune all the way up the neck. The stainless steel rollers don't roll, but they let the string slide across without sticking. There are little ears that stick up just behind the roller that allow you to set the width of your strings.THE NECK.
The necks were called Speedline necks because they were the thinnest around at that time. Made of solid maple, most with rosewood fingerboards (some with Maple fingerboards), the necks were fantastically quick! But it was always my opinion that the frets were cut too low. We at the factory always argued about that.
CONDITION: This guitar is in good condition. It has various dings, dents, scrapes, scratches, and paint chips on side, finish cracks, etc. but operational condition is excellent.
TERMS OF THE SALE:
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The guarantee. The guitar is in GOOD cosmetic condition and is as described in this ad. The guitar is in fully operational condition. Buyer has 48 hrs. to inspect the guitar or have it inspected. Any defects, damage, misrepresentations or other problems must be reported within that time period in writing to the Seller. In the case of damage during shipment, Buyer shall immediately inform seller of such damage and will maintain all original packing materials and box for inspection by the transportation company. If other problems are discovered, Seller will either arrange for repair etc. at a location near the Buyer or request that the Buyer return the guitar to the Seller (Seller will reimburse Buyer for cost of shipment of guitar back to Seller). Seller will correct indicated problems and ship the guitar back to the Buyer within 7 days of receiving it. In the event that the guitar cannot be repaired or replaced with a similar item from Seller’s inventory, the Seller will give the Buyer Credit toward current or future purchases from inventory of Seller. No refunds or returns for Buyer Remorse or Buyer Mind Changing. If there are any undisclosed physical attributes of this guitar that will prevent buyer from playing it successfully, e.g., neck to wide to be played with arthritic hands, guitar too heavy to be played due to back, shoulder, etc. problems, then we will, upon return of the guitar, issue a Credit Memo to Buyer in the amount paid for the guitar plus the cost of shipment paid by the Buyer against the future purchase of a guitar from us.
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