Wandre Wondering

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I got a tip from a friend that there was ‘a cool-looking old guitar’ for sale at an antique store in Joburg, so I went to take a look. Now, I know nothing about guitars, so I was just looking for fun. But the beauty of this one, with its art deco-meets-bizarre feel, struck a (ahem) chord.

I looked it up on the net, and it turns out that Wandre was a crazy Italian who designed equally crazy guitars in the 60s, and that an original Wandre, depending on model and condition, goes for anything from $1,000 dollars upward, with one site claiming $14,500. So I bought this one for R1,900. It needs some repair, but what the hey. It’s beautiful.

Here’s a short bio of Antonio ‘Wandre’ Pioli, which comes from a strange French site called Jacques Stompboxes.

“Born June 6th 1926, Antonio Pioli learned the beautiful art of luthery in his father workshop, a renowned luthier. This succession took place in Cavriago, Reggio Emilia, Italy. Nicknamed “Wandre” by his father —which means ‘go in reverse’ in local Reggio slang—because of his eccentricity, Antonio Pioli was a pure juice luthier, familiar with ancient and classical fine art of making resonant instruments.”

He was also, apparently, an artist in the surrealist mode, if his guitar designs are anything to go by. The one I picked up might be a Rock Bass, from 1963, but I need an expert to tell me. I also need someone to tell me where I can find a guitar restorer in Johannesburg.

It’d be fascinating to know how my Wandre got to Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s very distinctive, so if it was used in a band, someone might recognise it.

Here’s the one I bought, followed by some random pics of other weird and wonderful Wandres (sourced from Fetishguitars.com), including the Wandre Bikini – apparently, the first guitar with a built in amp.

Some knowledgeable people on The Vintaxe Guitar Forum have given me some more insight into this guitar. I’ve included these below, because it’s kinda fun being part of this sort of investigation.

ONE

hi chris,

BEAUTIFUL instrument wow! sorry but i can’t help you re- worth but my instincts tell me your bass is probably worth a very good amount.

personally i wouldn’t mess w/ “restoring” guitar. haven’t looked super carefully at pics but nothing jumped out at me as being a problem. if you’re not comfortable doing it yourself maybe have it set up to play it’s best.

before i knew anything about wandre guitars i stumbled into a guitar center (ie babylon) in florida somewhere. immediately i spied two of the strangest but beautiful guitars i’d ever seen. they turned out to be wandre’s ! gc wanted 500.00 each – considering i was touring and not making that much per week i passed … doh!

congrats to you and enjoy,
mike

TWO

A great find. Those are very rare. The closet thing I can find is that it is the bass version of the Rock 6. It doesn’t exactly match the other bass models on this Guitar Fetish page.

http://www.fetishguitars.com/html/wandre/rock/index.html

I would contact Jack at Guitar Fetish and see what he has to say about it.I’m sure he’d be very interested in seeing it and can give you good info and an idea of what the value is.He’s a nice guy and will respond.

Jack Marchal : jack@fetishguitars.com

I also agree with Mike_C. Leave the guitar in the most original condition as possible and just set it up to play properly. Refinishing, changing hardware,etc. will seriously devalue the guitar.

Spud

1. 

   Arkwife says:

   May 2, 2010 at 10:56 am

   Definitely take it to either Matt’s Music in Little Falls, Roodepoort (they have a few classic guitars already, and do restoring) or to Music Connection on Jan Smuts Road in Rosebank (not sure if they do restoring though).

   Its a beauty, hope you can get it back to its former glory
2. 

   Chris says:

   May 2, 2010 at 11:09 am

   Thanks, Arkwife. I’ll try the Rosebank one first, as I work close by, but I’ll give Matt’s Music a call.
3. 

   The friend who tipped Chris off but really wanted to buy the guitar for himself and is now all bitter but without justification says:

   May 3, 2010 at 12:54 pm

   Rather skip Music Connection and head further down Jan Smuts about another kilometer – after Conrad look for Andy McGibbon’s Guitar World (http://www.andymcgibbons.co.za/) on your right.
4. 

   Anton Marshall says:

   May 4, 2010 at 1:36 pm

   Wow, your were right, it is certainly very unique. I don;t know the places recommended in Joburg, but yeah I’d agree to first check out how to get it operational. restoring may involve having to replace bits that most certainly will not be available anymore, meaning they’ll have to put new sets of bits in. I wonder if those pot dials are originals?
5. 

   Chris says:

   May 4, 2010 at 2:47 pm

   I think the dials are original, they look like the ones on the pics of the guitar version of this.
6. 

   jo says:

   December 6, 2010 at 11:29 pm

   Hi,

   I’m looking for a Wandre Tri Lam (Davoli) guitar?

   Any ideas where I could still find one. Tried Ebay and stuff. Nothing over there…

   KR

   Jo
7. 

   Nicholas "Johnny Mahala" Hauser says:

   May 21, 2011 at 8:21 pm

   Chris

   Love your Pirates, Chiefs, Ajax they all suck piece.
   About the guitar. Get Mervyn Davis to look at it. He’s a decent luthier. Or if you ever converse with Steve Newman, he’ll send you to the right geezer. I have 8 guitars in storage. My life is fucked, so I have no instruments right now. Drums in Uganda, books in London. Horrible. This instrument is bellisimo. Look after it.
8. 

   Chris says:

   May 23, 2011 at 1:43 pm

   Hi Nicholas
   Thanks for the info. I certainly will look after it. It’s a once off, that’s for sure. At least it is now – can’t even find pics of one like it on the net.
   Hope the life pulls itself together. Drums in Uganda? Therein lies a story.
   Chris
9. 

   Chris says:

   May 23, 2011 at 1:44 pm

   Alas, no idea. You could ask the guys at Palm Music to look out for one for you?
   (sorry about late reply – for some reason, I didn’t notice this comment.)
   Chris