![]() The Rex stock euro-style tuners do not appear to be Van Ghents as found on many European guitars of the period. The core of the body appears to be solid maple with a veneer of tiger maple front and back. Despite the small body, the scale is fairly long at 26″. ![]() The radius is a fairly flat 12″ with a wide 2″ nut. It’s what used to be called a “baseball bat” neck, with a thick, rounded-C profile (to carry those heavy gauge Black Diamond strings…or whatever they used in Australia back then), about 11/2″ thick including fretboard, all the way up the neck. The set neck is three-ply maple (using different cuts) with mahogany divider strips there is no visible truss rod. Based on overall design (which in size and shape is very similar to early-’60s Kay and Harmony solidbodies) plus the tuners, thickness of the neck, pickup designs, and sound, this one dates to ’64, though it could have been made earlier or slightly later. It also has no serial number and the pots have no visible date codes. Presumably, it had a model designation, though none appear. This nice all-koa Rex acoustic from the mid ’30s could have been produced by Gretsch, Harmony, or Kay.Īccording to Frank’s son, Joe Lamberti, the guitar seen here was built in Australia by the General Music Company. This one is from the late 1930s or ’40s the square shoulders, pointed head, and pickguard suggest Kay-made, though some Rexes were made by Harmony. The Aragon (left) sat atop Gretsch’s Rex line. instrument manufacturing at General Music ceased in 1974, due to high labor costs, but importing and distributing activities continue to this day. Cosmetically, they tended to follow a Fender look. Rex amps with various output ratings included the AG-6, Mascot, and Bassking, the latter being the most popular. also distributed instruments by Fender, Epiphone, Ibanez, Rogers, Ludwig, Pearl, Tama, Selmer, and D’Addario. Other instruments, including guitars, were imported from Italy, Japan, and Taiwan using the brand names Rex, Eston, Electa, Canora, and Boston. manufactured amplifiers and guitars at its subsidiary, General Music Company. Eventually, they were involved in importing, selling, and distributing musical instruments, Italian records, home appliances, and televisions. By the late ’50s, the Lamberti empire had expanded to include a retail music store, a music school, and their own record label, Melodiana, to promote local Italian musicians. Frank concentrated on the chassis while Tony finished cabinets. seems to have been on building Rex and Eston-branded tube amplifiers, though some sources mention early banjo-mandolins and guitars, as well. A ’60s or early ’70s Rex Mascot amplifier, “Made in Australia” at General Music Company. After World War II, he joined his brother, Tony, a carpenter, to start the company, Frank serving as engineer, Tony a musician who supervised manufacturing. He got work at Astor Radio, taking night classes in radio engineering at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Details are spotty, but it appears that Frank emigrated from Italy to Australia as a teenager in the ’30s. But this Rex guitar has more to do with Queensland than Queens, the borough (Gretsch was just south of Queens, in Brooklyn).Īctually, this Rex has more to do with Melbourne, Victoria, just south of Queensland, but certainly in Australia! Rex guitars and amplifiers were the product of the Lamberti Brothers company, founded by Frank and Anthony Lamberti in 1946. ![]() By ’56, Gretsch was selling single-pickup solidbody electrics called the Rex Silver Streak and Rex Hawaiian, both made by Kay. On and off from the mid 1930s until the mid ’50s, Gretsch subcontracted construction of Rex instruments to Harmony and/or Kay – most were acoustic archtops and flat-tops. An internet search for “Rex guitars” will turn up a fair – if confusing – amount of information about the brand used on budget guitars and banjos made by Gretsch beginning in the early 20th century. The circa-1964 Rex solidbody, made by Lamberti Brothers in Melbourne, Australia.
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