Bo Diddley guitar

MartinBush

Hi all

I'm a bit of a fan of Bo Diddley and was just idly wondering what his rectangular guitar would be like to play - I see Gretsch still sell them and I see there's also one that was made by a company called Hoyer.

Has anyone on here played one?

I know there's also a Thunderbird type, which also looks excellent.

I can't afford one, just a bit of lockdown wishfulness! 

Martin

skullfunkerry

I haven't played one, but I imagine that top fret access would be slightly better than on a Les Paul...

steer

Coincidentally, I had a dream very recently that I bought a Bo Diddley guitar body in a charity shop. It had a broken neck, so was very cheap. I put a new neck on and it was absolutely magnificent. In my dream. 

Hope that helps. 

skullfunkerry

steer said:

Coincidentally, I had a dream very recently that I bought a Bo Diddley guitar body in a charity shop. It had a broken neck, so was very cheap. I put a new neck on and it was absolutely magnificent. In my dream. 

Hope that helps. 

I actually did a genuine real world lol at that

hairmetal

I have a Gretsch Billy Bo and that is glorious.... I assume the Bo Diddley would also be good assuming you don't venture too far up the fretboard, and it may not be the most comfortable guitar to play sat down!

MartinBush

hairmetal said:

I have a Gretsch Billy Bo and that is glorious.... I assume the Bo Diddley would also be good assuming you don't venture too far up the fretboard, and it may not be the most comfortable guitar to play sat down!

That guitar does look fantastic actually.

TheMarlin

Never played a Billybo. They look great in any colour, but in Cadillac green with cream bonding, it’s stunning.  Ever seen the Reverse Billybo’s they did a while back?

Gretsch offer (or have offered) the BoDiddly im
the electromatic series. You can pick a used one up for a few hundred. Could be a way of experimenting with the feel before committing big bucks for a Pro Line model. 

Henrytwang

I made a sort of Bo Diddley guitar out of an old photographic slide box and a Telecaster style neck that I had laying around. It was intended to be a chuck away slide guitar but it’s actually quite a nice guitar to play. Perhaps I’ll refine it a bit during the lockdown.

dogload

On the subject of rectangular guitars, I always thought the one Simon Nichol played in Fairport Convention looked rather good


Looks like a bit of an ergnomic nightmare with the knobs on the top edge and as Simon himself says:
"... it's still in the wardrobe and will probably stay there as it's really not that great a guitar to start with and not at all the style of guitar that suits the music we're playing right now. But as I always said when quizzed about it back then, it does have a very low cereal number and a very crisp sound..."

Sassafras

I always thought it sounded a bit boxy.

MartinBush

Henrytwang said:

I made a sort of Bo Diddley guitar out of an old photographic slide box and a Telecaster style neck that I had laying around. It was intended to be a chuck away slide guitar but it’s actually quite a nice guitar to play. Perhaps I’ll refine it a bit during the lockdown.

Can we see a photo of it?

barnstorm

I've had a brief go in a shop out of curiosity, and it wasn't quite as bad to play as I expected.

It's small (top to bottom) so I found it easier to keep the sharp top edge out of the way of my ribs than I do with, say, a Tele. And although a Tele or Strat style waist and bottom horn would always be preferable, the completely flat bottom edge lets the guitar sit better in the lap (for me) than the pinched waist and tiny horn on an LP or similar. It also gets points for no neck binding!

I vaguely recall that the HS Filtertrons were tweaked a couple of years after the guitar was introduced – someone else might be able to chime in with more info. At any rate the one I played sounded great.

Some eye candy…

barnstorm

This is a pretty representative clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5PydIaFbcU