USSR Formanta Guitar demo by Weird & Wired
Vložit
- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- I recently had the pleasure of doing some work on this vintage Russian guitar. These appear to becoming increasingly sought after so the customer agreed to let me show off what this guitar can do!
Unfortunately the Fuzz circuit does not work on this particular guitar but there are other videos on CZcams that demonstrate it's full variety of sounds! A lot of this information was collected at the following link which has a lot of details about USSR guitars:
www.meatexz.com...
Feel free to add any further details on this guitar in the comments!
It is always so interesting to see and HEAR these former Soviet made instruments. I always found their take on ergonomics and layout controls interesting and the choices made for hardware like switches and pots a truly unique sight to be seen. Reverb had a good article on Soviet made hardware about a year or so ago and it was an interesting primer for anyone looking for the strange and unusual in the guitar world.
Hey Keith :) These Soviet guitars certainly are a time capsule of their era! I love how whacky and ingenius the designs can be, and some of the body shapes are just mind blowing
🤯
All the best,
Danny
the guitars have a charm, but there are no ergonomics whatsoever. nothing about the control layout or neck comfort says 'ergonomics'.
I don't know how you don't have more subscribers, man. Absolutely beautiful guitar, lovely sound to it too! Cheers :)
Hey Harrothe100th! Thanks for your kind words and support :) this model is a beauty! I pretty much love all of the USSR era guitars that I come across; I often think about picking one up to revamp with modern hardware...so perhaps there will be a video on that in the future! :)
All the best to you my friend
Danny
@@WeirdandWiredvielleicht mehr clean sound s über die diversen Pickups. aber schönes Video, thanks
Hey man, I bought one of these in rough shape a while ago with plans to give it a new finish and hardware, but honestly I've never done any hardware replacement on guitars before, let alone this funky guitar. I've love to hear any advice you could give on working with the pickups, or if the pickups can even be replaced on this guitar.
Hey MrAmazing! The pickups on this Formanta sat on top of the pickguard so they are quite unique to this guitar (and many USSR/60s Japanese guitars such as Kay/Teisco etc). If you're planning on upgrading the bridge and neck then you could certainly install some new pickups; it may just require routing the body and cutting the pickguard to allow them to sit more flush with the body :) It's certainly a fantastic blank canvas to start with, I often ponder picking up a USSR guitar and fixing it up myself so I'd love to see your results!
I hope this helps, any other questions don't hesitate to get in touch - weirdandwiredcreations@gmail.com
All the best,
Danny
youtube's suggestions once again drew me in through my love of obscure instruments... subbed instantly :D
I’m glad to have you here! Thanks for your support :)
All the best,
Danny
Hi. To activate fuzz circuit you need to connect 4 and 5 contacts of 5 din jack together
Every other guitar I’ve seen like this was a shit box, you actually got that one sounding really good.
Just been checking out some of your videos. Thought you would be interested in converting small tube radios into practice amps. I used to do this a lot and it’s a fairly simple modification. They’re also great for studio recording as well. Cheers!
Hey Cash! That is certainly something that I have been looking at experimenting with! 😄 I’ll surely post a video when I do 📻 🤖 thanks for the encouragement!
All the best,
Danny
My friend you have my attention, johnlula800@gmail.com please tell about tube radio amp conversion
I had such one! While I played in rock-band at school. I purchased it in 1990. It was last one guitar available in local music store (before collapse of USSR). My friend lent me 10$ to buy this one. For the first electric guitar for the kid , it were ok. But in reality, now I know that, it was terrible instrument. This one could lead anyone to hate the guitar playing. The neck is thick, even for adult. The neck bents, spring screw does not help it at all, so the strings re pretty high off the frets. The tremolo mechanism is awful, the all strings loose the tune after one song with tremolo. I managed to hold the hand on tremolo all time, and adjust it constantly, to keep in tune. The built-in distortion effect was useless, because the sound where terrible. I never used it, and later removed at all. ((However, now I red in internet, that the Russian guys says, there must be done some wire replacement and it fixes the sound). I played the guitar for 10 years, then i got the Fender (so it was like travel from stone age to modern guitar) . By the way I rebuilt it twice. It is still intact, but I do not risk to play it again. Anytime I take it in my hands, I think: "How the hell..." - and put it back on the wall. :)
Hey Raivis! I love that story, thank you so much for sharing :) I can totally understand what you mean by it leading someone to hate the guitar! It is very quirky and can certainly take a lot of work and skill to play it so I applaud you! I often think of buying one purely to rebuild; bringing it in to the 21st Century! I'm glad to hear you're still playing and I would love to see how yours is looking :)
All the best my friend
Danny
@@WeirdandWired I just have idea to rebuild it as well. I am curious, is it possible to make it somehow better and to sound and feel as good instrument... And somehow I feel it is my duty to pay attention and take care of my first guitar, the one that I have learned how to play solos or metal rifs...
@@raiviste4187 I should certainly think so :) for me personally I would replace the neck and bridge as I found them to be the main areas of discomfort/trouble with this particular guitar. Alternatively you could sand down the neck to adjust the profile to keep more original parts to it, but I think for me I would look at a new neck altogether - my mind always pictures a maple neck on one of these!
The bridge adjustment on this was very limited so I would replace that with something modern and manageable, perhaps keeping the vibrato tail piece original as this one kept tune fairly well as it was
I would keep the original pickups because I love how they sound with Fuzz! For me the tone they have is part of the appeal of these guitars :) you could replace the pickups for something modern but as the originals sit on top of the pickguard it would require some routing so they sit in the body
I absolutely understand wanting to take care of your first guitar; it's the guitar you started your musical journey with! It would be great to see it, please feel free to send photos and keep me updated on your progress :) weirdandwiredcreations@gmail.com or @weirdandwiredcreations on Instagram
@@WeirdandWired I am not exactly planning to adjust lower the neck, or replace the neck completely (I do not have time for such experiment :D) Many years ago I allredy modified the body - cutted the body of the guitar, so it looks a bit more like Stratocaster. The bridge, is really piece of crap. But it is not so easy to remove (because massive and old screws). And if changed to othertype of bridge, the strings will be lower - so it is the problem because of height of the neck. So I plan to leave the bridge. The tremolo must be fixed foreve,r - meaning, I allready had to fix it with the bolt. (Funny, but in some internet videos and photos, many guitars apear with the tremolo fixed in the same way :) ). I plan to make video about the rebuild of the guitar. So I will share it here as well :) But it will be ... lets say, in few months :)
Excellent post. My first guitar was also terrible and just like you i played terrible guitars for years and then....I bought a Fender just like you. I can't play shit guitars anymore, I've done my time.
Glad you managed to get a good sound out of this, soviet guitars look awesome but from my admittedly limited experience are hilariously badly made instruments. The screwdriver built into the body is actually a genius feature just very poorly executed. I have a soviet aluminum acoustic guitar but the condition is completely unplayable, would require far more money or effort than I am willing to invest to get it in a playable state.
Hey Han! (Love the KG&TLW reference)
I agree wholeheartedly; they are usually a challenge but it is definitely rewarding to get them playable when possible! I have seen the soviet aluminum acoustic guitars and wondered about the quality/work required so I appreciate the insight - perhaps I'll step up to the challenge and post a video on that one day! :)
All the best,
Danny
@@WeirdandWired yeah they are cool, mine doesn't hold tune for more than 30 seconds and the intonation is so bad that even playing CAGED chords sounds out of tune and the action is pretty awful as well. You'd have to probably replace pretty much everything for it to be playable as none of the hardware is really adjustable. Anyway if you did decide to take on the challenge don't buy any of the ones currently on reverb, there is a seller in Ukraine selling a bunch of them but they are not worth nearly what they are charging. I'd part with mine for half that price because I'm really getting no use out of it.
I got a few ripe comments from tvarich ,with English as a second language, for suggesting in a comment on another channel that the sixties versions were derivative and reverse engineered. The fact that I had said I liked them seemed to carry little weight. Another told me that you didn't know how bad a guitar could be until you've played a Soviet guitar..
Good luck.
Житомирская гитара из обрезков холодильников?) Очень редкая вещь кстати. Но да, гриф у неё по сути, как у Ивановских и прочих акустик: толстый, мягкими ладами, хрупкими силуминовыми колками и зазором между накладкой и корпусом, из-за чего он по прошествии десятилетий взлетает в небо и высота струн становится такой, что можно проснуть там ладонь.
Ждëм обзор на урал 650
I have been looking at the Ural 650 guitar model lately! I will see if I can make it happen :)
The problem I am having with my formanta is that the action although the neck is true is still too high however the saddles set in the adjustable bridge are at the lowest position and the action is still unreasonably high my solution is to make multiple shims of sheet metal and then drove them out to match the spacing of your screw holes for the neck that way rising the neck up higher my problem is I can't get enough tension on the saddles to not have the string sound like kazoos So if I rise the neck up lowering the action if I do it excessively then I can raise the bridge To the point where these saddles will actually start to be leveraged down against their foundation and not buz Z like a swarm of bees
That sounds like the exact same process I went through with setting the action on this guitar to make it playable! 🎸🤦♂️😂
Khe-khe...nice fingerbreaker).
So rad, I'd love one of those... but I already own waaay 2 much weird shit
These are a lot of fun! 😎 and certainly make for interesting project restorations 😄 would love to hear more about the weird stuff you have already 🤩
As I promissed and as
Weird and Wired requested, here is video on restoration and overhaul of Formanta Solo 2 guitar: czcams.com/video/199dg2bwNVU/video.html
Yes! 😄🎸 Thanks for sharing Raivis, what a great transformation! I love the finish 😍 and the quality control did an excellent job 😂👏
This Formanta is actually was made in Belorussia
Thanks for the correction! 🙇♂️ I appreciate all the comments that have provided more info on this model/era of guitars - hopefully the next video will be more accurate 😄 🎸
All the best my friend
Danny
If Teisco Del Rey had a sister planet, it would be that guitar. Wire the guts of a stomp box in there.
what kind of adapter would i need for this guitar?
Hey Matthew! It requires a 5 DIN pin to 1/4" jack adaptor. There are a few varying 5 DIN to jack adaptors available; the built-in Fuzz Circuit on this Formanta requires a very specific adaptor but I was able to get this from Syndicate Guitars on Reverb.com
Great product with amazing service, very helpful and I cannot recommend them enough :) if you specify what guitar or instrument the adaptor is for they'll be able to hook you up with what you need!
reverb.com/shop/syndicateguitars
AFAIK it's made in Belarus, not Russia.
Hi Michael! Thanks for the correction 🙇♂️ I often think about doing another video on this era of guitars (documenting a rebuild) so I shall be sure to get the correct details for that 🎸 do you have a favourite model from this era?
All the best my friend,
Danny
@@WeirdandWired not really... I was a kinda wannabe that time. However, I owned a couple of Soviet shit-o-coustics when I was a student. And the very first of them looked exactly like this:
www.etsy.com/listing/902339486/6-string-guitar-ussr-guitar-vintage (Lunacharsky factory in St Petersburg, 1970)
@@Ardolynk wow I don’t recall seeing any soviet acoustics like that 🎸 other than the aluminium acoustics and they certainly intrigue me, though I’ve not heard favourable reviews 😂🙈
that link is dead brro, i my self am a fellow space traveler ane ,im thinking of grabbing a stella rostov myself
Thanks for letting me know BeachMaster! I've just updated the link so it should work properly now :)
The Stella Rostov looks wild! A lot of fun to be had with 4 pickups as well 🎸 I did have an Alden Quadrastar which was a 4 pickup offset guitar and the tonal variety was phenomenal fun; I'd definitely like to see/hear the tonal variety with these wildcard USSR pickups as they are certainly in their own league!
All the best to you my friend,
Danny
I don't know how to send you pictures on comments to display the headstocks but if either you send email address I can attach photos that way,might I suggest creating email solely for this as your account could potentially become problematic if public has access
You can shoot me a message via facebook if that works for you 🙂 facebook.com/weirdandwiredcreations
And wid dis butun hir you can launch a nuclear head, tovarish
I don't think the headstock is correct,I believe the neck to be from a different factory's different guitar.I just received my formanta from Russia 🇷🇺 😳 today,I assembled it and currently am awaiting my second Russian. Alieta some similarities with hardware although it's headstock is inspired by baldwin era gretch Gretzky electric (neck looks like hockey sticks) was using ohmmeter scratching my head not finding an unconvoluted course thanks for the reverb tip. ps saddles lousy design string alignment problems due to under developed construction (looks groovy 😎 but dysfunctional, I had a phase so I can relate) So here's goodbye from CRAZY JOHN'S GUITAR'S GALORE (FAIRFAX VA.) Look for me on fb marketplace
Hey John! 😄 I’d be intrigued to see the headstock on your Formanta for comparison 🎸 I’ve been eyeing up the Alieta model myself! I hadn’t noticed the Gretsch headstock influence 🤯 I’ve also been looking at the ‘Krunk’ Hofner style Bass - the name sounds exactly how it looks 😂
Are you going to be keeping your Formanta original or do you have plans to upgrade it/make it more playable? Crazy John’s Guitars Galore is an amazing name; sounds like my kinda store! 😎
All the best my friend,
Danny
Форманты делали на четырех фабриках в СССР и действительно, головы были у всех разные
No comment😵
my kind of jaguar... but i cant afford even this guitar
These do have a great look to them! They can be quite expensive for what they are; often needing further work to make them more playable. I sometimes see the Formanta guitar bodies for sale and I think about buying one and fixing it up with modern parts, perhaps a less expensive alternative :) I hope you get your dream Jaguar one day!
All the best my friend,
Danny
This horror is not russian!
This Soviet Union of Socialist Republics
The formant looks great, the sound is also good, the perfect shape for surf rock. I apologize for my English
I love Soviet guitars and electric organs and any old instruments from all over the world. I think they are more interesting than any modern boring mass market. But they require work and dedication from you. We recorded an album with friends a couple of years ago, it features Ural 510l bass, Stella electric guitar, Vilnius 3 electric organ, Philips Philicorda electric organ, and several other old instruments from Japan, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Whether they sound good or not is not for me to judge, but as an author I am satisfied.
czcams.com/users/results?search_query=Holy+Troika+-+Holy+Troika+(Full+Album+2020)
Hey Space Gangster! 😄 The Formanta definitely has the surf rock vibe 🏄♂️ 🎸
It sounds like we are kindred spirits! I love finding more obscure instruments or brands and enjoy the challenge of making them playable (although it can have it's frustrations 😂)
What an inspired album! I often think about doing a similar project so I applaud your initiative 👏 😄