Speed sale: very rare Gottfried Uebel 3 pickup Thinline guitar 1965 – luthier made in East-Germany

This is a super rare Gottfried Uebel made thinline guitar, made in East Germany (GDR) in the mid 1960s!

Uebel was one of the luthiers from the Vogtland, the center of the old German musical instruments manufacturing, and amongst others he produced instruments despite all the companies in East Germany being consolidated and basically seized by the government until the early 1970s. After that, there was only one company – Musima – producing guitars, and all the master luthiers either retired or only privately made some custom instruments (like Heinz Seifert).  

Mr Uebel arguably made some of the finest thinline and archtop-style guitars, and among them the most beautiful thinline semi-acoustics.

These guitars are super, super rare with only a few specimen surviving. This is one of them.

As you can see, it features Simeto Goldfoil-like single coil pickups which were used between 1963 and 1973 on about all East German guitars. They are arguably the best pickups that were ever used in East Germany.

The guitar features a thin body, all hollow, made from unknown laminated material (likely spruce, like on a ES style guitar), and probably a maple neck, but it`s impossible to determine since it is all painted. The fretboard might be ebony or very dark rosewood. I think East Germany got imports from communist states in Africa.

The soundboard features two rotary switches that do various combinations of the pickups, it`s not that easy to determine. The other pots do volume.

The vibrato system is all original. 

The tuners are new and the only thing that is not original on the guitar.

String action is at 1,9 mm at the 12th fret, the neck is almost entirely straight and allows for a low string action and easy playability. There is some minor buzz on some frets. All in all, this is suprisingly well playable and enjoyable, acoustically as well as plugged in. Nut width is 4 cm, scale at 640 mm.

Condition:

 – good condition of lacquer, straight neck, frets still do, electronics work.

 – some edges of the body protrude a bit over other edges, the wood was definitely moving a bit. 

 – it seems like the back of the neck has been repainted. There is a fissure in it, that is closed (see picture)

 – the vibrato unit dug itself, due to string tension, into the sides of the guitar. It feels stable and hasn’t moved over the past years. Also it sits likely off, so that the strings need to make an angle going to the bridge and over the neck – that is original, I have seen it on other Uebels as well. Could be corrected by moving the vibrato unit.

 – the bridge seems to be original. Very wild string bending can result in it moving about a bit (like on vintage Gretsch guitars).

 – the wooden tip of the vibrato handle has a small crack that was fixed.  

The guitar has been serviced completely, frets polished, fretboard cleaned and oiled.

I will ship the guitar detuned for delivery in a sturdy cardboard package and lots of filler material. I did not have a single damage with shipping in the last 5 years.