'Gus' The Final Chapter

designerseye88

After a long drive along the M4 on Wednesday night I'm now the proud owner of this lovely thing. I've called it 'Gus'. Im not usually into naming things but you'll see why in a minute. Just used this last night at my band practice and it sounds amazing. 




As you'll see it's a lovely melody maker from 1961. Sometime in the late 60's it had a PAT no T top pickup added which sounds fantastic. Apart form a bit of routing its a lovely thing. it's has PAT pending Grovers added and a mirrored pick guard added. Everything else appears original including the tailpiece which is rare to find these still with the guitar. This thing has wear in all the right places and rings like a bell, easily up there with some of the best guitars I've ever played.





Anyways back to the connection with 'Gus'. Well this guitar up until his death a few years ago belonged to a musician named 'Gus Eadon' (That's him in the pic with the guitar) who apparently traded a Gretsch for this Melody Maker while he was over in Sweden touring in 73'. 
Along with the guitar the previous owner handed me a bag full of Gus's old records, tabs, diaries and the strap in the photo. The case has a tonne of old stickers and cards from various recording studios he must of played at over the years too. 

Bit of a long shot but if you know of any further info on Gus I'd love to know. 

Cheers

tony99

did Gus name the guitar after himself or did someone name it after him?

designerseye88

tony99 said:

did Gus name the guitar after himself or did someone name it after him?

I decided to call it Gus, Always found names a bit cliche for guitars but thought it was a bit of a tribute to the guy. 

CloudNine

Wowzer, that is a bold outfit Gus has put together there. Have you considered starting to dress like that also, as an extra tribute?

Cool guitar man, congrats!

designerseye88

CloudNine said:

Wowzer, that is a bold outfit Gus has put together there. Have you considered starting to dress like that also, as an extra tribute?

Cool guitar man, congrats!

Thanks man! 

Part of me was expecting id find his leather trousers stuffed in the case but alas they were nowhere to be foung. I shall just grow a small moustache as a tribute, Well as much as i can grow one 

Iamnobody

Wow Gus looks great!

When I was checking it out on eBay (you snooze you lose) I’d looked at options to tidy it up and the Lollar guard and P90 looks decent. 

https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-other-single-coil-pickups/melodymaker

designerseye88

Iamnobody said:

Wow Gus looks great!

When I was checking it out on eBay (you snooze you lose) I’d looked at options to tidy it up and the Lollar guard and P90 looks decent. 

https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-other-single-coil-pickups/melodymaker

Thanks mate I'll take a look at these 

wesker123

Now that's Mojo 

richardhomer

I like that a lot - a guitar with a story to tell....

bloomer

seriously cool axe, think you'll mod or leave as is?

EricTheWeary

Great story. All I can see online is that record was released on a Spanish label in 1982, although you’d know that from turning the sleeve over. There was one more single and that seems to have been it. 

IvisonGuitars

Vintage guitars with history, the best kind! And that case is a find in its own right, loving some of the stickers ‘Nuclear Power? No Thanks!’

Philly_Q

Nice catch! 

I looked up Gus Eden (also known as August Eadon, Gus Eadon and Ted Yeadon) the other day.

He was in Love Affair (I see there's a sticker on the case) but didn't appear on their hit Everlasting Love, a singer and multi-instrumentalist who seems to have had an interesting career without ever really making it "big".

EricTheWeary

Ahh, right. When I was googling I came up with Gus Eadon and thought that was probably a different person to Gus Eden. However, Gus Eadon was a member of The Love Affair in the 1970s and there is a Love Affair sticker on that case so possibly the same person. Gus Eadon toured Sweden as a solo artist so that also ties into the story.
Gus had also been known as August Eadon and before that as Ted Yeadon. He had been in The Elastic Band in the late sixties with Andy Scott who went on to form Sweet. He passed away in 2010 so if it is him that probably explains why the guitar has been sold. 


Lot of information here: 

https://www.mottarchive.com/la/lovebio1.html


This is the late Gus Yeadon singing with The Love Affair, certainly looks similar 

https://youtu.be/Vecn3pLIEVI

bodhi

Lovely!

It always irks me that people profess a love for all things vintage guitar, but will quite happily let their stories die.  So this is really cool to see.

EricTheWeary

@Philly_Q posted whilst I was typing; I didn’t copy my homework! 

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

@Philly_Q posted whilst I was typing; I didn’t copy my homework! 

Don't worry, your essay was better than mine!

He was also briefly in a band called Zzebra (another sticker on the case) which at some point featured three-fifths of the pre-Bernie Torme Gillan band:

https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=4183

designerseye88

Wow thanks guys for all the knowledge and the Wow's. It's a real honour to have this and Im really keen to research Gus's life a little more.
@bloomer - I think im going to keep this one stock, I will get a new pick guard made as the mirror one isn't my cup of tea but I will keep it so it can be put back. Looks like the guitar has pretty much been this way for the past 50 years so I don't want to mess with it, Plus it sounds great just the way it is. The only other thing that It'll need at some point is a re fret so no doubt i'll be asking @IvisonGuitars as I plan to gig this one a fair bit. 

breakstuff

That is one of the coolest looking guitars I've ever seen, and a great history too. 

Huge congrats. 

Sassafras

Didn't they have a single coil pickup originally?

Kittyfrisk

Well done for getting that little beauty.
Given the memorabilia that came with it, you might want to start a thread like " Has it got all the paperwork?" to see if it has any value