So what should I do with this thing now? Last chance to grab the new course for $9 samuraiguitartheory.com/p/chord-revolution?coupon_code=WORSTGUITAR&product_id=5676346
@IzzyisEC
Ай бұрын
Weaponize or Harmonize it The choice is yours, samurai.
@KimonFrousios
Ай бұрын
You should send it to a youtuber luthier and challenge them to fix it into a playable instrument while keeping as much of the original as possible.
@FoxxoFox
Ай бұрын
I can grab that guitar for $9
@K1500Project
Ай бұрын
Homemade conversion to a fretless? Seems like the best solution to both the neck being skewed and the frets so terribly set.
@Oyaeboooo
Ай бұрын
You can spend a lot of effort and make these guitars playable. But in the end, all you get is a mediocre, but no longer authentic instrument. Russian guitar collectors have been through this for a long time and it's not considered a meaningful activity here. The worst part is that the guitars that survived until 2024 are not the worst. It is a historical artifact with all its flaws. Just hang it on the wall.
@opart
Ай бұрын
Some misinformation here... Soviets absolutely did not make these guitars "antithetical" to the west, they just made whatever they could with what they had, probably copying japanese guitars from the 60s. It does actually says Aelita. "Аэлита". The factory as stated on the guitar was in Ordzhonikidze (now Vladikavkaz) The instruments from japan all had switches and buttons in the 70s, and I am sure thats where the inspiration came from. Nothing to do with "doing everything opposite to the west" But terrible instrument of course.
@JTHelectronics
Ай бұрын
came here to make this same comment, they were clearly copying the production model of 60s Japanese electric guitars which makes a lot more sense considering their original price point
@opart
Ай бұрын
@@JTHelectronics Honestly, having these buttons gives you more options than 5-way switch (which I actually think is way more counterintuitive)
@ZacksRockingLifestyle
Ай бұрын
@@opart Yes and no, the master volume control is counterintuitive when also paired with independent volumes, tone dials would provide more adjustability compared to a dark/bright button, and the loss of the ability to have N/B and N/M/B pickup options is most easily rectified by wiring a 5-way switch with a push-pull (or push-push) tone pot rigged to activate the neck (or bridge) pickup in any switch position ("7-way mod"). Those original Soviet button switches will also likely be a challenge to refurbish/replace.
@opart
Ай бұрын
@@ZacksRockingLifestyle Humbly disagree with most of the things you said. The tone switches is whats missing here, as for the 7-way or a "The Gilmour Switch Mod", sure - but thats a custom modification, and I am talking vanilla 5-way - still more confusing and less versatile. And don't get me started on Les Paul 4 knobs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . The original Soviet switches are built like tanks, so the likelihood of them failing is nil. In fact you can probably fight a zombie horde with this guitar and then play a tune or two right after. In any case, my main point is that the "expert" did not provide any real info, just misinformation, and that somehow Jaguar and all the Japanese guitars with buttons were all of a sudden forgotten. But hey, I guess this is how you get KZitem views :/
@ZacksRockingLifestyle
Ай бұрын
@@opart dude, are you well? You’re saying a (standard) Les Paul, with two pickups and independent volume and tone pots for each pickup, plus a lone three-position toggle… is confusing? But less confusing is a guitar with three (microphonic) pickups, four volume controls that contradict each other (because of the master), and six switches? And to say the 7-way wiring is a “custom modification” is a bit disingenuous. Many guitars today come with that as a standard, even budget guitars like the Squier Nashville Telecaster. Last, “built like a tank.” So, bulky, used largely in specialized conditions, is complicated to operate, costs a fortune to operate effectively, and needs constant maintenance? Perhaps, yes.
@lautreamontg
Ай бұрын
>Gets a Soviet guitar >Doesn't play Tetris theme on it I am disappoint.
@Metalcora
24 күн бұрын
Or Soviet anthem😂
@juliuszjeziorski6031
22 күн бұрын
Or Kino
@rdengin
15 күн бұрын
Ahahaha! Hilarious comment! 😂
@aarongrimes6490
14 күн бұрын
@@juliuszjeziorski6031kino? Like bo1 kino?
@raiviste4187
Ай бұрын
I had to play such guitar many years, because I was born and raised in Soviet Union. At that time there where no way to get other guitars there, and even in the music store there where no choice - one or two models of the guitars You illustrated (and all of them in theese terrible colours). So I played that guitar many years, no other option. We had the experience to modifications, fixed some of the problems You have mentioned. We disabled all those buttons, playedmostly one pickup (otherwise there where terrible noisy from electromagnetic field). The bridge (with the moving parts, usualy where glued, not to make noise. The tremolo where abslolutely not in tune, so I removed the bar, and tried not to touch the tremolo. The worst part fhere the neck truss road, - not possible to adjust the relief, so playd on really high action height, and suffering from strongs going out of tune. T So, two years back I got my old russian made guitar, tuned it, and tried to play. It is teerible instrument. I really feel sorry for myself, that as teenager I was forced to lern guitar on such peace of junk.
@Aeduo
Ай бұрын
Shame about the build quality. Pretty cool people were modding them though. Kinda like that DIY instrument/musician relationship but if it's just to fix quality problems, that's not so good. Need to strike a balance of a guitar that isn't some pristine thing that you can't touch or modify because it's being treated as an investment that's going to be sold or traded on in the future, but still being something you care about and can rely upon. I love the colors, though, but yeah if there are only a couple options of colors, they probably lose their novelty.
@honkytonkinson9787
Ай бұрын
That’s what learning guitar was like for me in the USA in the 90s. I couldn’t afford a guitar that wasn’t junk until I was older. A lot of my friends back then had equally bad equipment, but we made do and had fun! I don’t think having a high end instrument would have made us sound any better
@raiviste4187
Ай бұрын
@@honkytonkinson9787 Absolutely agree. We seurvived bad instruments, and got the hard experience :) Most important - we still play the guitar, despite probably hate those junk guitars in our past.
@Bacopa68
Ай бұрын
What's wild is that Soviet synths from the same era are considered kinda groovy even with their limitations.
@aylbdrmadison1051
Ай бұрын
My family never bought me any musical instruments, so my first guitar (this was the 1970's) was almost exactly like that; same shape, same pickups, layout & switch positions (it didn't have buttons like this one). But no tremelo, a different headstock, & the finish was just red spray-paint. It had no name. I found it a Flee market in California. They wanted 6$. I talked them down to 1$. When I was very young, my Nana taught me how to haggle. lols
@STEVSKI7
Ай бұрын
I thought you’d play “back in the USSR” on it.
@Aeduo
Ай бұрын
He even made something that kinda comes off as that melancholic post-punk music sound like Canadian folk guitar. :p
@mycosys
26 күн бұрын
perhaps 'born in the USA'
@schmoosmith
15 күн бұрын
Best comment.
@Aeduo
15 күн бұрын
@@mycosys freebird, some NASCAR rock, Lee greenwood, haha
@mycosys
15 күн бұрын
@@Aeduo maybe listen to the song sometime
@Brainplastics
Ай бұрын
In soviet russia, guitars play you
@cranklabexplosion-labcentr8245
Ай бұрын
Ha! Classic
@OngoGablogian487
Ай бұрын
maybe the hackiest joke format of all time
@Bacopa68
Ай бұрын
@@OngoGablogian487 It was funny 70 years ago when Bob Hope invented it.
@Robman275
Ай бұрын
@@Bacopa68 In Soviet Russia 70 years ago, joke invented Bob Hope
@GetShwiftyInHere
Ай бұрын
@@cranklabexplosion-labcentr8245 I have to agree! Regardless of one man's opinion, this joke will always be funny. To at least someone.
@Tigermaster1986
Ай бұрын
It does say "Aelita", it's just written in what looks like cursive Cyrillic. I'm a Bulgarian, I can read it.
@strangnet
Ай бұрын
That's correct.
@Revontuletband
Ай бұрын
He probably meant that other similar guitars had a different name, though my first thought was that it says Aelita too
@user-lu3qj3zj8i
25 күн бұрын
Привет брат словянин.
@Metalcora
24 күн бұрын
Круто, что у вас такой же алфавит как у нас:) 🤝
@rdengin
15 күн бұрын
Give this guy some potatos!
@andremorr
Ай бұрын
It actually says "Аэлита" on a headstock, so "Aelita" in Russian
@shid007
Ай бұрын
Leo Fender ... didn't play guitar, also made guitars with mutes and cool looking impractical chrome covers and a ton of switches. (Also apparently got the bridge pickups slanted the other way and headstocks make more sense to be reversed...:)) Some Gretches have weird mutes and tone switches instead of pots ... these weird east european guitars seem more like an attempt of cramp all that into one guitar. I bet you could find weird italian or japanese guitars from the same era that will also be quirky like this...
@ragnarokandroll2638
Ай бұрын
These were definitely a "trend" in Brazil back in the 60s and 70s, any idea fender had they imitated here for a while, which resulted in a bunch of guitars that feel like a mix of a jaguar and a danelectro in the worst possible way.
@shid007
Ай бұрын
@@ragnarokandroll2638 also over here in central/east europe they kind of used hardware they had at hand ... Jolana Alfa for example used switches that were from a vacuum cleaner :)
@seanmckelvey6618
Ай бұрын
You'll find plenty of japanese guitars from the 60s and 70s that also feature a lot of these same weird design quirks. They're usually better built than the soviet guitars though.
@SteelSkin667
Ай бұрын
Leo isn't even the only example, Ned Steinberger isn't a guitar player either! The main thing that's wrong with those soviet guitars is likely the build quality (most things made in the USSR were terribly built), but the weirdo spec does seem fairly usual for the 1960s.
@mal2ksc
27 күн бұрын
@@seanmckelvey6618 It almost looks like the Soviets tried to copy Japan's low cost guitars and utterly failed to comprehend what corners can be cut, and what corners must not be cut. Kinda like China for the last 40 years, only without the lipstick on the pig.
@megaman13able
Ай бұрын
4:30 - SammyG pretends like he's never played a Fender Jaguar
@davidozab2753
Ай бұрын
Yeah I'm not a fan of Jag switches either.
@jeevansingh6944
Ай бұрын
Fender Mustang, Jazzmaster, Jaguar, Burns, Les Paul Recording..... List is endless. Quickly adapt and appreciate options like bridge and neck etc.
@garydiamondguitarist
Ай бұрын
Yeah those often have the mute/felt thing and it's about as useless on those. Other than that though, I love Jags especially the Japanese made ones, assuming you install better pickups and hardware etc, the luthiery is usually outstanding on them. I like the switches, sets it apart from other guitars, confuses other players, allows you to kill switch toggle either pickup. Fun stuff.
@raistaparta
Ай бұрын
I’m not a guitarist and after a day with a jaguar I had figured it out and memorized the settings as good as a strat. Not a challenge at all.
@mr_bassman6685
Ай бұрын
@@garydiamondguitarist I don't think most modern Jaguars outside of vintage reissues come with the mutes installed anymore.
@__aythami
Ай бұрын
"Engineers who think of things in terms of engineering and not in terms of guitar or guitar culture." so... exactly like Leo Fender. To be honest most of the design flaws you point out were or even still are present in the USA models. The argument the tuners to be thread in the "opposite" way... back then it wanst as set in stone as it is today, even less in the Soviet Union where the western influence was limited. Also I think it would have been better to compare it to some teisco models than to a les paul as they are way more similar in price, design and target, it looks a lot like some of those japanese designs so maybe that whats the used as a starting point as Im sure cold war Soviet government wouldn't like to be perceived as copying the enemy (although Japan was basically a US controlled satellite after WW2). About the quality of the instrument im sure it wasnt the best as they were mass produced to be available not to be professional grade instruments, you can easily find on Google how much buying power those 190 rubles had. All that being said I think they were a product of their time and the circumstances in which they were designed and produced so in my opinion some more context would have been nice. Afte all I enjoy the video and id love to know more about these obscure and forgotten guitars that didnt leave that much of a mark at this side of the iron curtain, or even some less known european designs.
@__aythami
Ай бұрын
F..k I didn't think it was that long...
@Augrills
Ай бұрын
@@__aythami it’s a fair comparison. This was top of the line in the Soviet Union just like Fender/Gibson was top of the line in the US. And you say Fender and Gibson have these problems, but EVERY Soviet guitar plays like trash
@DanDanDoe
Ай бұрын
@@__aythamiObligatory “That’s what she said.” But yeah, I agree. This video is looking at a guitar from the 70s with a modern view. In the 70s electric guitars were ubiquitous, but nonetheless still relatively new. There was still some experimentation, and as you said nothing was really set in stone yet. Things that have a precedence of 70+ years now were still just 10 to 20 years old at the time. Also ideology plays a role. The idea of many Soviet products was that every household should have been able to own something like it. Cameras, musical instruments, vehicles, tools, houses, a lot of things were built for the masses. Often poor builds compared to what was available in the West, but not bad for its price. I’ve played on some cheap East German guitars a few years ago, and while they definitely weren’t good (also considering they were 50 years old) , they were at least relatively affordable for many East Germans of the time.
@MCDreng
Күн бұрын
Correct me if im wrong but I'm pretty sure that "turning peg away from neck = note goes higher" has been a convention on Western instruments since before mechanical tuners were invented. (Eg the violin, or ... I want to say the lute but all playable lutes today are ofc modern replicas and even if there are existing period lutes they are strung by modern musicians who know the convention... which i guess could be the same for the violin ... but also doing it that way reduces the angle from nut to fretboard, so it's probably beneficial.
@jeffreydude2344
14 күн бұрын
I'm from Russia, and my uncle always told me, that the only sound that Soviet guitars should make is crackle in the fire
@nicandknacksandseans
Ай бұрын
I don't know that a switch is more intuitive than buttons. We're more used to it, but "down is on, up is off" seems pretty intuitive to me. You can also get more combinations that way, like having all three on at the same time for instance (can't do that with a strat). Brian May's homemade guitar has a similar set up. I think the biggest downfall, and perhaps why it isn't used more, is that it becomes really difficult to switch QUICKLY. In certain styles of music you're switching from the neck to the bridge, perhaps multiple times in the same solo. If you had to both turn ON one pickup, and also turn the other one OFF, I can see how that might get to be a pain in the ass
@Aeduo
Ай бұрын
Seems like motions you'd just learn. But yeah it comes off as more of a "studio" guitar with a bunch of weird switches for different functions where you're recording different parts of a song in different takes. Probably awkward for live performance, but the muscle memory comes if it's just what you're used to.
@sydwynd
Ай бұрын
Having played a Brian May guitar live, you are correct about switching pickups (or in/out of phase). However, works great if you know ahead of time what you're going to do and when. Also, NOTHING sounds like a Brian May guitar, even if you don't run it through a bunch of AC30's.
@Grishanof
Ай бұрын
One press of a finger on both buttons and you're set, these П2К switches are not hard to press at all
@nocturnal101ravenous6
Ай бұрын
Uhm alot of guitars have 1 switch per coil or pickup, Sammy is just being a dummy here. . . . . . Kramer specifically did this for years and years also 5 way switches are garbage and in the way ALL THE TIME on strats and Teles.
@mal2ksc
27 күн бұрын
The way I deal with this is that I have _pushbutton_ switches for each pickup mounted in the same place the 5-way switch normally goes on a Strat. I can strike any one, two, or all three buttons in one motion, taking about the same amount of time as flicking a 5-way. It requires more forethought though, since it depends on the state you're already in. Obviously this makes neck+bridge (what I call "Tele position" on a Strat because it's the one the Tele has and the stock Strat does not) and all pickups possible -- and also NO pickups, if I want to use a headstock tuner.
@arvindale7936
Ай бұрын
There is a guitar youtuber, Gleb Oleynik, he's specialised in these weird things
@thisissan4ezzz
Ай бұрын
ВУНДЕРВАФЛЯ
@madarabased1920
Ай бұрын
ЕТИТСКАЯ СИЛА!
@nikitarus3724
29 күн бұрын
ОУУУУУУУУУУУУУУУУУУУУУУУУУУ ВСЕМ ПРИВЕТ, МОИ МОЛОДЫЕ ГИТАРНЫЙ ДРОЧЕРЫ!
@petrkolob
27 күн бұрын
Абсолютли
@mal2ksc
27 күн бұрын
I know someone who buys weird guitars and basses and all manner of string and percussion instruments in order to sample them. He eventually has to sell most of them, he doesn't have infinite space.
@atomicgearworks
Ай бұрын
NGL, I think I would like the buttons for pickup selection. You get way more selection variety than you can from a switch.
@OngoGablogian487
Ай бұрын
He's just looking for shit to hate on to pad out the video length, if we're being honest.
@Aeduo
Ай бұрын
@@OngoGablogian487 Yeah, the build quality stuff are fair arguments but other stuff that's just "it's different and not made by some famous guy or played by some famous guys so it's bad" are silly. He should've padded it out with more playing demos.
@selliantuttimusi6735
Ай бұрын
Exactly, if it didn't have the mentioned hardware issues I would totally consider this guitar for its tonal capabilities. Guitar looks dope too IMO.
@TheHesseJames
29 күн бұрын
You just get two more which don’t make much sense.
@mal2ksc
27 күн бұрын
@@TheHesseJames _Three_ more settings. All pickups off makes a separate mute switch (on the guitar or on the floor) unnecessary. And I like "Telecaster position", neck and bridge combined, even though this defeats the hum canceling the middle pickup should be providing. All three at once just sounds sludgy though, I can see why few people bother enabling it. This works a whole lot better with pushbutton switches that can be slapped rather than slid. Then changing pickups is just as fast as any other switch in the same position on the guitar (slapping multiple pushbutton switches at once is pretty trivial), although more situational awareness is required.
@pacolopez9577
Ай бұрын
Jaguars, Jazzmasters and bass vi have switches too...
@dimitrisilva6452
Ай бұрын
Most Mustangs also have individual on/off switches for each pickup. I actually think that is better in a 3 pickup guitar than the strat type of switch, because it allows you to play neck+bridge and also with all the pickups at once.
@raymondmeers
Ай бұрын
Sorry but you are wrong about switches. Brain May's "Red Special"(I own one) has pickup selectors just like the ones you have there. Only difference is they are below the strings, not above.
@joseislanio8910
Ай бұрын
And the fender Mustang has individual switches above the pickups.
@Amorous578
Ай бұрын
@@joseislanio8910 as well as my Squier Bass VI. Bruh.
@joseislanio8910
Ай бұрын
@@Amorous578 most of the "flaws" he listed are present in high end guitars. The mute, switches, bridge cover. Even the inverted tuners were a thing in old silvertone guitars.
@Amorous578
Ай бұрын
@@joseislanio8910 💯
@billballoon
25 күн бұрын
@@joseislanio8910indeed. lame review
@114Freesoul
Ай бұрын
A quick correction: on the backplate, it says "city Ordzhonikidze" rather than "mountains Ordzhonikidze." This city is currently known as Vladikavkaz, and that's probably where this guitar is made, as opposed to Rostov-on-Don as your friend has suggested. After doing a bit of research, it looks like Rostov-Don refers not to the city, but to another factory that was indeed located in Rostov-on-Don. Both factories were parts of a large association called MPO "KAVKAZ." The Rostov-Don factory was probably the main one, and the guitar you have is a copy of their model line made at a different factory called TEREK in the city of Ordzhonikidze, now known as Vladikavkaz.
@Aeduo
Ай бұрын
oh i could imagine how the translation mixes up city and mountains haha
@opart
Ай бұрын
The guitar headstock also says Aelita, not Aerima... kinda ranting video, and an "expert" friend is not helping. Soviets absolutely did not make these guitars "antithetical" to the west lol. They just made whatever they could with whatever they had.
@114Freesoul
Ай бұрын
@@opart I chose not to point out aelita/aerima thing cause I felt it was more of a joke, though I do feel like people may get the wrong impression if they can't read Cyrillic
@opart
Ай бұрын
@@114Freesoul pretty sure he meant it :D In any case, these were mostly copies of instruments from Japan. Gibson and Fender guitars were pretty rare in Europe anyway, and I doubt soviet engineers even saw them.
@kefeer123
Ай бұрын
Autocorrect struck you on the last word, mate.
@prabhatkhadka6329
Ай бұрын
The button for pickups is even more intuitive and can help get different configurations. Sammy is just riding the USA cold war theme here, ask every guitar player here how many times they accidentally have switched to the other pickups whilst playing. You gotta give props where necessary and be objective about things.
@Levon_Lellore
12 күн бұрын
Right
@marcobrunettisaavedra9582
Ай бұрын
It's just a cheap 70's guitar, like any other cheap 70's guitar from any other country. You are "comparing apples with pears", like we say in my country.
@Junior-gf7hi
24 күн бұрын
He also compares it with Gibson and Fender
@CliffjumperCars
Ай бұрын
In 1990, some ships from the Soviet Union visited San Diego. My dad was the Commanding Officer of the Naval Station in San Diego where they tied up pierside and came ashore for international relations building purposes. As a teenager at the time, I was SO EXCITED to get to go aboard Russian warships, trade things with Russian sailors, and we even had a musical exchange, with a band from a US Navy ship playing on the pier, and a band from the Russian ship playing from their quarterdeck. I got the chance to go meet the band members, and play one of these horrible electric guitars. It was the same make & style of the one you showcase here, but it was plain black in color. Terrible frets that felt like they were made of nails. Pickups that could have been made by soldiers cooped up in an Afghan cave out of spare parts from an exploded tank. The sailor joked that if you could play on one of these you could play anything. It was to date the most terrible instrument I've ever held in my hands and attempted to make music with.
@xushen540
Ай бұрын
You mention that it is strange that the prize would be printed on the back plate. What about the ES-175 that sold for $175, the 335 which went for $335 and so on?
@lorde_spooky
Ай бұрын
Not gonna lie i absolutely love that felt mute for the bridge, i wish i could get something like that to add to some of my guitars
@Aeduo
Ай бұрын
probably could make something you can shove under there.
@lorde_spooky
Ай бұрын
@@Aeduo yeah but i like how it's self contained and switches on and off
@the-engneer
Ай бұрын
I also liked it! I think that's actually a pretty cool little feature
@colinedmunds2238
Ай бұрын
Fender made a mute for jags, did the same basic thing. I bet you could reverse wng8neer sowmth8ng from one of those
@Aeduo
Ай бұрын
@@lorde_spooky oh well yeah I just mean to experiment with something and it might just be good enough in most cases. :p
@moonboogien8908
Ай бұрын
Somewhere in Connecticut, Tim Sway is sobbing in his hands.
@SneedyKetler
Ай бұрын
I’d love to see a crossover where Tim brings it up to modern code
@ErikSWE
Ай бұрын
Fender had a problem with those crooked necks as recent as the gold foil guitars from a year or so ago. Only those were $1500.
@fancykarlmarx
Ай бұрын
Really? I thought those were cool. Were they all bad?
@ondrejmalek1322
Ай бұрын
old czechoslovak guitars were actually kinda great, some pre 80s ones are able to rival the big brands
@shid007
Ай бұрын
My first electric was Jolana Diamant and I still have (it) a fond memory of playing it.
@Loeffellux
Ай бұрын
Like anything else, it's hit or miss. From an outsiders perspective we have this need to tie everything we experience about such a product to the conditions it was produced in (in this case Soviet style communism). But that was of thinking obviously falls flat quite quickly if you look at other products that were made in these conditions and that don't suffer in quality to nearly the same degree. For example, some of the best cheap and reliable mechanical watches you can get are from a brand that has already existed in the Soviet Union (raketa)
@Zundfolge
Ай бұрын
There was an odd quirk of Czech culture that communism wasn't able to squash and that's pride in craftsmanship. Czech firearms are another example, often on par with their western counterparts whereas most other ComBloc stuff has pretty bad QC.
@tomvesely4008
Ай бұрын
Just to add: they were exported to the West under the name Futurama and some famous rock guitarists actually started on these, cause they were cheap
@Loeffellux
Ай бұрын
@@Zundfolge why do you think communism would inherently try to "squash" good craftsmanship? It's ok if you are ideologically opposed to socialism but the picture you're painting in your head is comically simplistic
@user-ri5fe7ti6i
Ай бұрын
"Uniquely horrible" is a new favorite insult I'm adding to my vernacular.
@Catalyst1764
Ай бұрын
As someone learning on an acoustic, those switches are WAY more intuitive. You're just used to the switches. One thing I hate about electric guitars is they're all built with the assumption that everyone all knows how to play them, no labels, no manual, half the time the dials don't even show a marker for where the dial is turned to, no information whatsoever.
@kefeer123
Ай бұрын
Remember how sammyg figured out those bar springs on camera just last year?
@samus88
Ай бұрын
Lol, what? How are switches more intuitive than buttons? You've got three pickups. Three buttons. Any button pressed means the corresponding pickup is active. Combine them however you want. Switches are counterintuitive, because they have multiple positions and you've gotta remember what combination of pickups each position corresponds to. I think all guitars should have buttons now!
@Augrills
Ай бұрын
A blind person can find a switch by feel and push it the direction they need. Adding multiple buttons in different positions with the same feel is much more confusing. Consider most place you play a gig at are going to be dark as well. A switch has a much more haptic and accessible design
@pznt_patrick9980
Ай бұрын
I can't imagine trying to switch between pickups mid song with buttons bruh. You normally have half a second mid song to switch pickups and having to memorize button layouts sounds like hell. HAHA. If buttons were more intuitive, they'd have been normalized on guitars by now.
@Augrills
Ай бұрын
@@pznt_patrick9980 As a guitar player with impaired vision, I can’t imagine anything that would upset me more than turning my pickup selector from one switch into 3-5 buttons. I also think switches are more intuitive because the sound moves the direction you pushed your switch, either up to the neck or back to the bridge
@user-xe6sm4jv8f
Ай бұрын
@@Augrills There are 3 buttons, each 1 for each pickup, and there can't be 5 unless you have 5 pickups. It's literally isn't any less intuitive and follows the neck and the bridge just the same. You say it's bad only because you are conditioned to think that a guitar has to have a switch and not anything else. But what if you don't just blindly reject everything novel or unconventional? Pun intended. Buttons and switches are indeed different from each other, and they allow for different things in your instrument. It's that simple. We all play different music on different instrument. If your playing requires you to quickly hop from the neck to the bridge pickups - or at least you think it does - then yeah, you go for a switch. But if speed isn't necessary, then you can have great flexibility with buttons. Again, it's a design choice that you can make when you build a guitar. There's nothing inherently bad about it. It's just different. Don't bring your habits into this.
@mobuyus3560
Ай бұрын
Stopping in a groove to push a button doesn't work for some.
@ghijkmnop
Ай бұрын
You probably shouldn't take a look at an 80's CBS Strat if you hate the buttons...
@rmaxtpmx
Ай бұрын
CBS is the worst thing that ever happened to Fender; we already know that. They traded ingenuity for profit, and Fender has never recovered. Still just longing for the 50s-60s ever since.
@ghijkmnop
Ай бұрын
@@rmaxtpmx I actually owned that '85 Strat (and still own a Gibson Victory MV-X from that era that I love). While the build quality of the Fender was nowhere near what I got from my Strat Plus that I traded the CBS Strat for, I have to admit that I missed the two pickup options the buttons gave you.
@chorbst
Ай бұрын
Soviet map at 1:31 is a little off
@kmma99
Ай бұрын
You guys are funny: First you complain about all guitars being pretty much identical without much personality... until you find something quirky and odd. Then you complain that it isn't a Stratocaster. Certainly if this guitar was made at some random city in 'Muricah during that same period of history that would make it a fun and honest guitar. Since it was made in the USSR it is shitty. Did I get it right?
@lukespread
Ай бұрын
100%
@jeremiahedwards7991
Ай бұрын
I own one of these from the Terek factory (red pickguard) aside from it being highly flammable it plays really nice the neck is thicker and has a more rounded feel. It’s more solid and the tremolo makes it a beast for shoegaze
@lukespread
Ай бұрын
@@jeremiahedwards7991mine has the red pickguard too, faded to browny pink. Still rebuilding it, it had been heavily abused.
@Oyaeboooo
Ай бұрын
It's shitty because the goal was to deliver a product that looked like a guitar in the required quantity. There are things that the USSR did well but this just wasn't one of them. There was essentially no quality control for them as musical instruments. Many of them can't even be tuned properly. And the end consumers were mainly organizations (who also didn’t care much), and not individuals. Yes, they are different from Western guitars, but they have a lot in common with each other. It's just a different school of guitar making, and these differences are largely due to technological limitations, not creative thought. Like having the same pickup switches that toggle the room light. The quality still varied between different models, years of production and factories. And there was also some custom production, as I understand it. At least in the last years of the USSR. But in general it can be said that it was possible to get a decent guitar from Eastern Europe or East Germany, but the native USSR production was a nightmare.
@bohodebozzo
Ай бұрын
yes man soviets never ever made a single good guitar, just like they never made a good car. Also many of these ugly odd guitar designs were borrowed from Japanese guitars (that were at least playable). So yeah it is a terrible guitar
@CitizenofMelee
Ай бұрын
Well, at least with three pickups that you can turn on in any combination, and two tone choices for each pickup and the ability to blend them all with individual volumes, it would give you a huge range of sucky sounds.
@garydiamondguitarist
Ай бұрын
I never had a Soviet made guitar, but I once had a barber named Dominique. 🗺
@scherzo0o
Ай бұрын
yes... what Brian May also tried to do. Bt he succeeded ;)
@CaptHiltz
Ай бұрын
Only the KGB has information on these guitars. The guitars are easily converted to an AK-47 assualt gun and T-72 tank but sadly you can't do both at the same time. The headstocks contain a 2.5 kiloton nuclear warhead.
@KimonFrousios
Ай бұрын
I've seen modern custom guitars with individual toggles for the pickups. It's niche, but it is a thing some people find more practical. As for everything else... It was surely assembled in an accordion factory by workers who were not trained as luthiers and were probably not guitar players either.
@lambdaprog
Ай бұрын
Seeking the worst is never a good approach in life.
@pbrecipe2443
Ай бұрын
i instantly love the way the guitar looks…. lol…is it just me?
@haydenformica8571
Ай бұрын
No I think it looks cool too; I think it’s so different looking
@shiru8bit
Ай бұрын
It totally looks cool, as many Soviet axes do (with design being derived from obscure Japanese models).
@kalasmar3288
Ай бұрын
Not just you, I think it looks really fun. I think Sammy is just hating here 😂
@user-ec6vp8kw3q
Ай бұрын
I love the look of all the USSR guitars and the switching. No matter how much he complains about it it just makes me want one more. The pickup switches are good, not sure why anyone would prefer a strat 5-way over on off. volume for each pickup, awesome, mechanical palm mute another winner, microphonic pickups? YES PLEASE. machine heads wrong way? replace them, action high? lower it, fret buzz? level and crown. crackling electronics? clean or re-solder/replace. Nothing on this guitar can't be fixed to make it great, neck dive probably the worst problem with it.
@pbrecipe2443
Ай бұрын
@@user-ec6vp8kw3q yeah!… everything about the function he was disliking i was like …. “ thats cool , i like that!”lol … maybe he was kidding or it will grow on him. Neck dive is gross. i had an ibanez that did that… i got rid of it. i would make an exception this eccentric piece of awesome.
@bareknucklerc5069
Ай бұрын
Lots of guitars from the 60’s had buttons. Especially guitars from “foreign” countries
@Iva-e1q
Ай бұрын
Я из России, и у моего дяди была такая гитара. Играть на ней действительно не очень удобно, с точки зрения эргономики. Звук по сегодняшним меркам тоже на любителя. Да и время не счадит инструменты. Большинство, наверное, долгое время лежали на сырых чердаках годами
@artemkhrulkov5498
8 күн бұрын
да и дизайн у них не слишком удачный все-таки - как правильно многие уже здесь написали, инженеры пытались скопировать японские гитары из 70-ых. И это тоже не супер-веха в дизайне. Вообще, у как-то играл на Аэлите и Урале и конечно же первая гитара была в разы лучше) Урал годится только для драк))
@Swim2TheMoon
Ай бұрын
3:09 Interesting tidbit: The 1962 Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman had a felt string mute that was controlled by a mechanical toggle switch.
@Swim2TheMoon
Ай бұрын
Aaaand I just learned that there was a model that had separate mutes for the top 3 and bottom 3 strings. Neat-o!
@MikePerrino1
Ай бұрын
Individual buttons actually SUPERIOR to 5 way switches. 5 way switches only get 5 PU combos Individual on/off gets you 7 different PU combos. Jazzmasters/Jaguars have switches that control tone, and many guitars have individual tone knobs instead of master. Some of your criticisms of this guitar are praised on popular fenders and gibsons Also, Leo Fender was an engineer that didn't play guitar. This guitar, at strictly electrically speaking, is superior to most. The unique blending options are worth the cumbersome nature of it, cuz it's really not all that cumbersome. Very respectefully, skill issue. Sammy I challenge you to get your hands on a Brian May guitar and spend a week with it. Some of the most versatile guitars out there, but unlike this one they're well constructed. (But please don't play any Queen songs it's so much more than that)
@ravelitschimo
Ай бұрын
I like your channel. But I love such guitars. And I do not agree with every negative point. Gretsch builds drums and they used Drum-Materials for guitars. There are some great sovjet guitars. And dudes which restorates them or mod them.
@OngoGablogian487
Ай бұрын
It's a western tradition to reflexively shit on anything that came out of Socialism. Exhausting, honestly.
@ravelitschimo
Ай бұрын
@@OngoGablogian487 perhaps you are right. I like the design and the ideas. Of course I would change the pickups and perhaps the tuners. Brian May has his Red Special and almost everybody likes so many options with his on and off switches and so on.
@lukespread
Ай бұрын
@@OngoGablogian487 Yes. It pisses me off. Never ending xenophobia. Anything that isn't American is shit by default.
@pznt_patrick9980
Ай бұрын
@@OngoGablogian487 Eh. Not really. A bad guitar is a bad guitar. You can make the argument that some American guitars had some of these problems, but on batting average, a wonky 60s strat with a bad setup would still smoke this thing. It looks cool tho.
@OngoGablogian487
Ай бұрын
@@pznt_patrick9980 That's the problem there. You're comparing a Soviet instrument against a Strat. Compare it to old Sears catalog guitars like Silvertone or Airline. America was just as capable of making a cheap piece of shit guitar as the Soviets.
@bober770
Ай бұрын
Welcome to wonders of USSR. Soviet guitars are notoriously horrible, simply because electric guitars wasn't at the top of production. Government pushing classical music education, which required pianos, violins and accordeons. Electric guitars were usually just a side product. Also I can add that most of the models were unsuccessful try to copy Japanese productions.
@MCDreng
Күн бұрын
When you remember the official state position was that electric guitars are likely to be used to play "Western" styles which the government associated wirh spies since the '30s it's not surprising they didn't have much desire to ramp up production of those.
@gametime-wf2et
Ай бұрын
I bought an old guitar which was made in soviet in 1970's but after a few modification it plays better than it used to and stays in tune even though I don't have lock tuners.
@alanhembra2565
Ай бұрын
You should do a video attempting to correct issues with it like replacement tuners, non-microphones pickups,etc. See if you can make it into a useable instrument.
@garydiamondguitarist
Ай бұрын
When I worked on Denmark Street in London years ago, one of the technicians we hired for fixing amps was Russian. Nice guy, hard worker, fairly decent player. He did once tell me that Soviet guitars were awful and to stay away from them, most of what we could get in the UK even budget would be miles better, but Sovtek amps on the other hand were robust and kind of a nice take on Hiwatt/Plexi/Bassman tones, plus easy to work on. I know the latter is right, and now I'm sure on the former too. Wow the build quality is... wait, is there any build quality? It's the cracked paint around the fretboard edges and the completely off-centre neck that gets me.
@Deai
Ай бұрын
Soumded surprisingly sweet 😅
@greylocke100
Ай бұрын
Send it to Tim Sway and see what he can do to make it more playable.
@Selftaughtthought
Ай бұрын
I’ve had the same issue with old Soviet film cameras. They try to mirror western design but just…nope. I propose a challenge. Make the guitar functional without buying a part. You can make any change so long as the parts on the guitar at the end are the same. No swap outs. With one exception. You can drill out and dowel the neck so it can be realigned.
@uxartmusicvideo-andphotogr2043
Ай бұрын
All Soviet technology was reverse engengineered. Minor exceptions what wasn't even available to buy for general public.
@rendragydna
Ай бұрын
soviet lenses on the other hand>>> . the lenses are really good cuz they striped the Carl Zeiss Jena factory for its parts after defeating the nazi's. the cameras do have a ton issues the two ive had are just sorta meh too frustrating
@j.sparrow3265
Ай бұрын
Fender and Gibson had a duopoly for decades. All guitar companies went through their overdesign era and Fender was famously bought by people who never played a guitar in their life. Attributing any element of this guitar to an economic model is unhinged.
@user-wf4wp8im1n
Ай бұрын
I mean we live in capitalist world right now and how many companies produce best (in terms of popularity) guitars? The same that were decades ago. Yamaha, Gibson, Fender…
@j.sparrow3265
29 күн бұрын
@@user-wf4wp8im1n Exactly, they lowered quality and increased prices to increase profits - often horrifically exploiting poorer economies overseas. In particular Indonesia, which had mass anti-communist pogroms in the 60s, killing over a million for being communist or at least looking like one.
@user-wf4wp8im1n
29 күн бұрын
@@j.sparrow3265 Well I mean all major guitar companies make them in Asia. Indonesia, China mostly. Even Yamaha doesn’t make then in Japan anymore. So yea, they make business
@user-wf4wp8im1n
29 күн бұрын
@@j.sparrow3265 people don’t understand that unfortunately. They think their country invented an iPhone and it’s just because they have brilliant inventors (and they do), but the point is HOW they make them. With Russian and Ukrainian resources and most importantly, with child labour from African countries in case to get cobalt. And in sweatshops from China.
@kefeer123
Ай бұрын
It is funny hear the rant about capitlist quality in the age of awful build-to-break stuff. And by the way, there were acoustic guitars made at a furniture factory. They had a certain "fame" for sounding like a wardrobe :)
@fuckamericanidiot
Ай бұрын
It's accurate to say that it's not surprising that state-enforced extreme poverty communist countries make dogshit products.
@user-wf4wp8im1n
Ай бұрын
I actually own one of these “ wardrobes” 😅
@alchemist3661
Ай бұрын
So fun fact, about a week before this video came out, I started planning for a project where I make one of these from scratch, except I make it actually good. I haven't been sure of going through with it, it might be a waste of time, whatever. However I think this video is a sign
@chinchopuh
Ай бұрын
Yep, the Soviet guitars are straightly knockoffs of Japanese 60s guitars which were horrible also, there are some videos on Russian guitar-themed YT channels that revive and modernize 'Ural', 'Aelita', 'Tonika', etc. But these guitar-substitutes don't deserve any attention
@Michas333
Ай бұрын
3:29 it says aelita in cyrillic. why would the soviets use the latin alphabet?
@tobyret9302
Ай бұрын
Well, to dive a little more of these miracles you also need to understand one thing - no one really intended to use this guitars for long. There is no USSR Blackie from modified Aelita. A lot of musicians - approved Vocal and Instrumental Ensembles or underground movements did everything to copy, manually recreate or even buy real guitars just not to use this garbage. Also, because of this scarcity a lot of amateur musicians who wanted, but couldn't just played acoustics instead. And that was massively, im sure - a lot more than in other countries.
@yobrethren
Ай бұрын
Yeah, compared to electric instruments, acoustics were a lot more bang for your buck in Soviet Russia. Which is why you have a lot more Mike Naumenko and Boris Grebenshikov (I could also cite older players like Visotskiy and Bulat Okujawa) against the likes of early Bob Dylan and Chet Atkins and the like, as opposed to having a lot of Black Coffee, Aria, Master, Epidemia (russian metal bands) against the likes of Metallica, Exodus and others. It's just a lot easier to play such intricate music in America, which is why Russia is full of music that's strumming chords to strange riddims and weird lyrics))))
@peterblame-fb7ew
Ай бұрын
@@yobrethren surprisingly precise!
@KirillAfonin
Ай бұрын
Seeing my hometown at 3:58 was quite a surprise
@timpize8733
Ай бұрын
It looks like they added buttons to make it look like a machine in an old James Bond movie.
@Me2sa
20 күн бұрын
Mate, 190₽ in ussr is monthly salary for an engineer and was considered an above average gain… so this thing was expensive)
@Kerogas_
Ай бұрын
I love it when they compare products from capitalist countries and from countries with planned economies... Oh, the tuning pegs are turned the wrong way, oh, there is no usual switch, oh, 25 more things. They were simply impossible, because people did not know another technology and there were no necessary parts. And at that time, guitarists said thank you at least for what they had. By the way, when you criticize something, show something good too. For example, what wonderful guitars are produced in Russia today. For example, Lepsky, Inspector, Fokin.
@stravvman
Ай бұрын
Exactly. You have to be at least a little diplomatic when you talk about things like this.
@matheusrocha4082
29 күн бұрын
I think he was biesed in this video, we can't compare the two countries, they made what they could with what they had. Went from a agrarian country to a industrial one in so short time, that wasn't easy
@chris_2714
Ай бұрын
The string alignment issue is also common on Fenders. Just loosen the neck screws, give it a firm tug in the direction needed, and retighten the screws.
@thewoodbandit3287
Ай бұрын
I think you should send it to me and let me make it playable and see what it’s like when you get it back.
@mariogamutan6513
Ай бұрын
@ 7:29 I have a 70's Fender Tele that is once had a misaligned neck.
@Gattygoon
Ай бұрын
60s Hagström guitars have a LOT of switches, but they all give you a plethora of options.
@terminalglimmer
Ай бұрын
We might just be forgetting that Jaguars exist and that's likely the design reference for this??? One switch per pickup. Strangle switch for tonal variation, and another switch for a rhythm circuit? The bridge mute feature? Also a Jaguar thing.
@AndrewP
Ай бұрын
Take it to the luthier and make it playable
@groadybones
Ай бұрын
The button system actually sounds pretty nice to me.
@dmitriyrazorenov
Ай бұрын
My friend got two of these Aelitas from a village club in 1996 or so, and one of them was standing in a shed and was hit by an axe, so part of the body was lost. Also had an Ural guitar with some parts lost. So what we had to do is to upgrade them in some way and hope for the best. About the TONEWOOD: much later I got a book about Soviet guitars and learned that NONE of them were made out of solid pieces of timber. I’m not even speaking about some mahogany, ash or alder, though Russia obviously have some trees growing there. It was always some veneered furniture board, heavy as fuck and without any resonance. Just Soviet engineers believed that nobody will hear the difference and whatever they produce people would play.
@onantibiotics8636
15 күн бұрын
So wood doesn't affect the sound of an electric guitar, this myth has long been debunked😁
@brianmiller1077
Ай бұрын
Alex Lifeson has a story in the Presto tour book about going to Russia during the Glasnost era. He bought a guitar and an amp. When he got home he plugged it in and it fried the electrical system in his house and it burned down.
@marontesla2982
Ай бұрын
The problem with soviet guitars was that they were not made by musicians for musicians, but by furniture makers in furniture factories who assembled cabinets and sofas because that was what the government wanted, it should not and could not be of high quality, it should be cheap and there should be a lot of it. so that people do not look at the guitars that were done in the west. But because of this lousy quality, people wanted an unattainable guitar from the west even more, because any cheapest guitar from Europe or America was like a Lamborghini compared to a Fiat
@user-wf4wp8im1n
Ай бұрын
Exactly. They just had to think that through, find some professional musicians (they had enough of them) and hire engineers and they would find a way to make them properly. Guess they didn’t had that priority
@nancypantz
22 күн бұрын
Sounds like the future of AI music. Think about it. It will make real music even more desirable
@Yanzar98
20 күн бұрын
This commentator speaks with facts
@christskingdomiscoming5964
29 күн бұрын
To be fair, Leo Fender was an engineer who didnt play guitar.
@Cautionary_Tale_Harris
Ай бұрын
A guitar designed by committee....great idea!
@kevinmossate
Ай бұрын
I hate switches for changing pickups. I had a guitar that had a on/off switch for each humbucker, it was ok. The button system seems interesting to me, since you can combine the pickups in ways a switch can't plus you get a killswitch button for free. As to what to do with it, make it work! Put your luthier skills to the test and try to fix the guitar as much as you can by yourself.
@user-wf4wp8im1n
Ай бұрын
That’s why post-soviet space is full of males who fix everything, re-do everything and invent new hand-made things. It’s like a religion
@hijmestoffels5171
Ай бұрын
The brand on the headstock is ‘Аэлнта’, in italic type. What looks an ‘m’ is in fact the Russian letter ‘т’ in italic type. So it is not Aeruma but Aelita. Still, it is a horrible guitar.
@valvenator
Ай бұрын
One knob to control the tone. Strat and Les Paul: say what???
@yvavi6851
Ай бұрын
IT SAYS AELITA IN RUSSIAN CURSIVE BRO DO SOME RESEARCH
@yvavi6851
Ай бұрын
Many things said about Soviet production and economy were inaccurate at best but this is a guitar channel so whatever but Aeruma? Come on
@opart
Ай бұрын
@@yvavi6851 Agreed, the "expert" friend did not really say anything meaningful.
It’s not that strange to have the price printed onto a guitar, Gibson 335. Guess how much that cost…
@jacktowers7533
15 күн бұрын
Stu Mackenzie probably wants to make an album with this thing now
@thamiluscake1926
Ай бұрын
Crappy electronics, a head stock that wants to kneecap you, questionable frets, an inability to stay in tune... sounds just like my Epiphone SG (bought in '97).
@elivanleo9347
16 күн бұрын
Have you seen what kind of guitars we sell on sites like eBay? We sell them without anything, just the soundboard and neck and all the guitars that are shown in the video are very normal
@TheAndostro
Ай бұрын
i had defil (polish brand) classical guitar when i was a kid damn it was so horrible that now from string being litteraly 1 cm above frets have weirdly twisted fingers
@groezy
Ай бұрын
ok i never processed in my head that tuning machines are reverse threaded. of course the turning direction is carried over from friction pegs, but then could you just wind the strings the other way and have right-hand threaded machines?
@kjr1150
28 күн бұрын
The muted sound using the green felt piece at 3:12 is actually a pretty nice sound, too bad it has too many other issues
@yaredcastillo8104
28 күн бұрын
I really dig the aesthetics of Soviet era guitars. I'd buy them just for display
@user-do1ko4jp9y
Ай бұрын
This is my first guitar, of course it was very inconvenient to play it, but I still like the design
@36rewc
17 күн бұрын
Этими гитарами ломали стены железного занавеса. Вы ещё Тонику не видели.
@JavierKohen
Ай бұрын
I like those buttons, I don't understand what's wrong with them. I still don't find pickup switch intuitive after years of playing casually.
@bareknucklerc5069
Ай бұрын
Also the original jazzmaster and jaguar had those style mutes and bridges
@cloudhaven5083
Ай бұрын
5:38 it's not "mountains" Ordzhonikidze, it's city. The "гор." writing means short for "город" - city. The guitar was made in Ordzhonikize, TEREK factory. The city was renamed and now it is called Vladikavkaz.
@Joe_Rebel
Ай бұрын
0:25 was really enjoying that tune, wish I could hear you play on it’s own without the ad overtop
@danilyaster
Ай бұрын
In one of the videos, I saw a very necessary mod that is necessary for absolutely all Soviet guitars - replacing the neck. In that video, the neck was made to order in the workshop.
@Lucas.-11
12 күн бұрын
USE WITH A FUZZFACE. PUT THE TONE IN 0 AND VOLUME IN 10
@TheBoxBand
Ай бұрын
It is a communal guitar. Plays by more that two people and each controls one feature.
@curtisnewton895
27 күн бұрын
come on these buttons are more intuitive by essence than a switch
@CharlieKnolesPlus
29 күн бұрын
I think the pop-up, felt, mute is a pretty cool feature and it sounded kinda dope when you flicked it up.
@the_xsx
Ай бұрын
I've actually deconstructed one of these 10 years ago (first vid on my channel you can look it up). Wood is the same plank they made a cupboards with, neck bolt is not functioning in 99% of them and that black thing is not paint - it is epoxy resin took me two days to get it off. I ended up turning mine into chug master - Seymour Duncan in the bridge, fixed bridge, one volume knob. Otherwise it is the aesthetic of the guitar.
@dfgvjnkjdsnbkjsbdvjkhdsb
Ай бұрын
*average sellary in ussr was 120 rub a month*
@ondzin
Ай бұрын
I recall everything having a price printed on it. Be it your kitchen table, a book or a kids toy.
@Kylora2112
Ай бұрын
That guitar does say "Aelita" in Cyrillic script :)
@pedrohenriquecanciamsantar2044
Ай бұрын
i think the buttons and knobs are pretty cool, and I can't see a downside unless you want to switch pickups mid song
@analogVulpine
Ай бұрын
i quite like the button system actually, you can get pickup and tonal combinations that you can't achieve on a normal 3 pickup guitar with a 5 way switch, and it really wouldn't be cumbersome at all unless you need to switch mid-solo or something like that.
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