Question Vintage Musicman Cutlass Guitar NOT BASS but Guitar

[eckertsbrew]

Hello,
I am looking for any information on the guitar version of the Cutlass. I have a Pre-Ernieball Musicman Cutlass Guitar neck. I wanted to know if it was a proto that never went into production. The person I bought it from said it was one of 3 ever made. He said, there were three necks made and one was a full guitar.

Thanks,

Keith

 

[MrMusashi]

cutlass?? that would be a graphite neck then?

MrM

 

[eckertsbrew]

Yes, it is a graphite neck.

 

[fogman]

I have about 20,000 EBMM pics, and I've never seen a Cutlass guitar.

 

[eckertsbrew]

I have about 20,000 EBMM pics, and I've never seen a Cutlass guitar.

Sorry...... I did not put this is a PRE-ERNIE BALL MUSICMAN.

Thank you.

 

[straycat113]

I am clueless as this is the days of Leo and I am not up on any of these models, and would guess neither is 99% percent of the other forumites. I think the only person who remotely would have an answer would be Sterling. Since it is only one of 3 that makes it even tougher, though Mr Musashi seems to have an idea of the guitar you are talking about.

 

[DrKev]

The other obvious answer is of course to contact customer service with whatever details you can give (e.g. Serial number, etc.) and see if they can dig up any useful info.

BTW, welcome to the forum and don't forget the golden rule - the guitar doesn't exist without pictures!

 

[eckertsbrew]

Thanks for you help..... I will post pics later today.

 

[John C]

As far as I can remember there was only a Cutlass bass listed on the last of the original MM price sheets. Also if I'm remembering correctly the Cutlass design was post-Leo but pre-bankruptcy.

The story I've read is that Leo's "other company" CLF Research had continued to build the MM instruments after he sold his stake in MM back to Tom Walker and Forrest White while he also developed and built the G&L line out of the same facility. Evidently a lot of the last batches of MM instruments he shipped to MM during this time period had defective necks while the G&L models did not have these defects. That effectively ended Leo's continuing deal to have CLF build the MM instruments (and at that time Leo dropped the company name "CLF Research" and carried forward with only the "G&L Guitars" name).

At any rate MM was looking for new suppliers; that was when the Cutlass model showed up - in fact I never realized that a graphite-necked Sting Ray was really a "Cutlass 1". I have never seen a Cutlass bass in person - only in photos (my local music shop back in 1979-1984 was an MM dealer; I had a 1981 MM RD50-112 amp for a while). I would assume that the company went bankrupt before they could launch a Cutlass guitar since it never hit the price list or any literature. I would love to see the neck you have; it is likely one of the few remaining pieces of a Cutlass guitar in existance.

 

[eckertsbrew]

Cutlass Pictures

Here are a few pics of the neck.

 

[John C]

Cool - thanks for posting the photos. Since I can't turn up any info on a Cutlass guitar I have no idea if that was supposed to be attached to a Sting Ray guitar body or a Sabre guitar body. From what I've found a "Cutlass 1" bass was a Sting Ray with the graphite neck and a "Cutlass 2" was a Sabre bass with the graphite neck and different pickups. It looks like the typical Leo-era neck; I guess MM just shipped out some wood necks to Modulus.

Another little bit of old MM trivia - Grover Jackson actually re-worked some necks and his Charvel team assembled some of the MM guitars after Leo ended the CLF Research contract to build the instruments. The deal that Walker & White cut with Leo was to have him ship all the "work in process" to them, then they shipped them over to Charvel for assembly and re-work of any damaged necks (the truss rods supposedly weren't installed properly by CLF on the MM guitars - at least per Forrest White's book; George Fullerton's book says that Walker & White were trying to "starve" CLF by not ordering any instruments so he and Leo came up with the G&Ls).

 

[basscaster]

Interested in selling the neck? If so, please send private message. Thanks

 

[eckertsbrew]

Hey, its really not for sale. I would really like to find out as much as I can about it.

I have asked customer service some questions and sent them some pictures as well.

Thanks

 

[bovinehost]

I've seen my fair share of oddities, including some Stingray guitars from the Leo era - I think they sold four of them - but I've never seen a Cutlass guitar neck. Color me curious.

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

Keith.

Here's a Cutlass Guitar using a Sabre Guitar body and a Kaylor bridge. It was advertised as part of Tom Walkers estate. I'm fairly sure they didn't go into production.

The neck you have would have to be very rare. Note that the early necks on Cutlass Basses were initially manufactured by Modulus (like yours) before being manufactured by Music Man under licence by Modulus.

 

[Rod Trussbroken]

Keith. Forgot to ask:

I'm extremely interested in the date and markings on the neck heel. Can you post a pic here or send me one please?

My ewmail:

[email protected]

Ta.

 

[basscaster]

No worries - thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. Very cool piece.

 

[eckertsbrew]

Sorry, I looked all over the neck and could not find a date stamp.

 

[DrGonzo5150]

I knew I hadn't seen it all, but I thought I was reasonably across this stuff. Apparently not haha...
Well there you go. Learn/Find something new ever day
Hopefully some additional information becomes available, it's pretty interesting.

 

[eckertsbrew]

Thank you all for the info.

Keith