Famous Monsters, Barbarella
I first saw this guitar in an article about Steve Stevens in Guitar Player, it was commissioned by Steve Stevens to be produced by Washburn and was painted by the incredibly talented graphic artist and painter of many a legendary guitar form the eighties and early nineties, Jim O’Connor.
I have a future interview planned with Jim, who is in Maui, Hawaii these days and will tell more of the story of this guitar at that time, updating the site here with the additional info.
I do know already that the guitar was commissioned with the blessing of the legendary Forest Ackerman, who also personally signed the side of the guitar.
There is a story concerning the guitar which I will detail in the future…
Steve basically gave this guitar away right after receiving it and it resides with EFX wizard Rick Baker in his Monster Museum, which I cannot seem to find out where that is??
Steve wanted others to be able to see what an incredible work of art this guitar is.
It remains among the most rare and unique Washburn’s produced.
Here is the late great Forest Ackerman’s signature in gold on the side of the Famous Monsters SS 80. This was signed at the Ackermansion in Hollywood,California, when Steve and Jim O’Connor the artist visited him:
This photo courtesy of Jim O’Connor, the incredibly talented artist and my favorite painter:
SS with Vince Neil holding the Famous Monsters Washburn
Barbarella
This is perhaps the most legendary SS 80 produced, which I read about it being built in 1993 in the magazine article interviews with SS and he described this unique Barbarella graphic painted guitar, with internal ray gun circuitry designed by Steve. He was quite looking forward to this guitar, this being the successor if you will to Steve’s amazing black metalflake SS-2 Live Aid guitar, which was featured live during the Live Aid broadcast on MTV. Steve was performing the Beatles tune “Revolution” with the Thompson Twins, whom he recorded th track on their album. Joined by Nile Rodgers on stage, this guitar had various colored pickup covers at various times, it had pink covers to match the pink push button switches and black knobs. The Hamer logo and SS signature was in dayglo pink, plus on the upper part of the body was a huge Steve Stevens signature graphic.
This guitar had built in ray gun circuitry, so Steve didn’t have to break out one of his vintage toy ray guns, which he usually actuated over the pickups, to produce his trademark sound.
From the October 1993 issue of “Guitar For The Practicing Musician” Steve remarked:
“Any of the ray gun effects you hear are not electronically induced.
They are all from toys that have been modified and played through the pickup.
Washburn is building a guitar with art work from Barbarella that will have the ray guns built in.
The biggest fun Ron Nevison, the producer (of 1993’s Vince Neil Band’s “Exposed”) had was watching me scramble to try and pickup this toy.
He had great fun watching me be spastic about it.
I have modified the ray guns. They only have a trigger and I put a rate control on it.
That’s how the middle section of “The Edge” gets what sounds like Edgar Winter’s Frankenstein. That’s all guitar, the ray gun stuff.“
Late on he duplicated this with Lexicon PCM-41’s and other outboard gear, but the ray gun has always been an SS staple of his live act, even up until the 1993 VNB tour.
So at some point after Steve had left Washburn the Barbarella guitar was produced.
I received pictures from Jon at Funky Munky Music, after I enquired about if this guitar ever did really exist. It certainly did, so I was so excited and after being offered to make an offer myself for it’s purchase, at that time it also was in Rudy Schlager’s private collection/Washburn museum, or mausoleum, as I would like to refer to it as, these magnificent guitars, basically hung on a wall on display for 16 years, instead of being played, ect.
I happened to post the pics on the Gear Page and it stirred up a lot of interest.
In fact , Steve himself had no idea all these years that the guitar was ever produced.
I have been in frequent contact with the great Jim O’Connor, the famous graphic artist form the eighties and early nineties, who has painted many a famous Hamer, Jackson/Charvel and had painted several Hamer’s for Steve, while he was with them and also painted the Famous Monsters SS 80 upon the suggestion of Steve himself. I have an upcoming interview with Jim who now lives in Maui and hope to tell some more great stories about those golden years.
Jim has painted Steve Lukather’s famous Valley Arts Robot guitar and guitars for many a rock star, including EVH.
Jim was as surprised as everyone else that SS never took delivery of the guitar. The body was sent to him to produce his incredible reproduction of the poster from the famous Sci-Fi movie starring the equally infamous Jane Fonda.
Jim sent the finished body back to Washburn thinking it would go to his friend Steve, whom Jim is a great fan of.
Neither party was aware that Washburn continued with the plans to produce the guitar.
Steve has made this public knowledge when asked on the HRI forum this past year. I have kept in confidence anything I discussed with SS, whom I was fortunate enough to communicate a few times, which was very exciting to a long time mega-fan such as myself.
On HRI forum Steve answered an inquiry about the Barbarella guitar:
That guitar was one i had designed but never played or owned. I think anyone that would spend anywhere near the asking price for that guitar, should have their head examined. I have a suggestion for anyone interested in it. Spend about 3K on a Suhr Modern…and rent the Barbarella film…they’ll end up much happier, lol.
Steve Stevens
Steve is a great guy and has such a good attitude about all of this.
As I discussed at the beginning of this piece, once I learned of these sorts of activities going on at Washburn in those days, I decided that it was better to leave the bodies buried as they say in Las Vegas.
I can say that SS has no interest in ever owning this guitar, which he designed and commissioned, but some things are pre-destined not to be.
To Washburn at the time, if they were selling off SS 80’s, relabeling them as X-80’s, removing Steve’s logos, then building these specialty guitars, with Steve’s name still attached to them is inherently wrong in many regards.
Some may argue if an artist leaves a company, then it is only proper that they respect the former artist, no matter what the circumstances of the split, this is my personal opinion.
So enough about all this, the guitar exists, was for sale and was recently sold.
I would also like to state here that SS himself is a person I regard as of the highest integrity.
Steve is a perfectionist, both with his equipment and his tone, this is what makes him a great artist, with such longevity and the continued success and relevance, he enjoys, continuing to inspire today’s guitarists.
Back to this SS 80, the guitar has extra control covers on the backside and extra controls on the front, including an extra knob behind the tremolo.
It also has a series of LED’s that light up in relation to the speed of the ray gun effect.
This guitar has the conventional hex adjustment truss rod and black hardware.
This is the movie poster that the graphic is based upon:
Here is another poster:
Jim cleverly integrated all aspects of the poster, incorporating these features into the complete, graphic, which I feel is a work of art in itself, not just a copy of the poster…
Judge for yourselves, but what ever karma is associated with this guitar, be it good, bad or indifferent, it is incredibly beautiful…
This picture is courtesy of Jim O’Connor which is the only existing picture he has of the guitar, right before it was shipped back to Chicago.
Jim lost all of his photographs of his work through the years, in a tragic boating accident at sea, losing all his personal possessions, but escaping with his life, though extremely traumatized. That he is of great spirit and still continues to paint to this day, is testament to his great personal commitment to his work and his faith.
I am hoping to help Jim tell his amazing story soon, he has a lot to say and has an excellent memory, a project I am greatly looking forward to!
Jim cleverly integrated all aspects of the poster, incorporating these features into the complete, graphic, which I feel is a work of art in itself, not just a copy of the poster…
Judge for yourselves, but what ever karma is associated with this guitar, be it good, bad or indifferent, it is incredibly beautiful…
One can clearly see the truss rod adjuster in this shot..
Notice the black anodized neck plate, matching the black tuners and bridge, also the control knobs. There are the LED’s which flash in sequence to the speed of the internal ray gun effect.
The clever integration of the movie poster into the whole body of the guitar and seamlessly interweaving with the hardware is a work of absolute genius.
This guitar is since sold to a location I am unable to disclose as the new owner has checked the no publicity box.
That this guitar remained in the private collection museum all these years, it’s existence only known to a few, is remarkable….
I can state that I personally attempted to somehow make this all right and fair again, but this was not destined to be and we move on.
It still remains the Van Gogh of Washburn graphic guitars and no matter what one feels about Jane Fonda, ect., the intricacy of this guitar and the Famous Monsters SS 80, show the work of a true master of the air brush.
We will learn much more from the artist himself soon.
SS80 Purple Quilt
This guitar was purchased by me after I was led to an Ebay ad, from a post I saw on the Washburn forum of all places.
I would check Ebay daily for many years, looking for SS 80’s and SS 100’s.
This one off beautiful looking and even better sounding guitar, is spectacular in person, photographs do not do it justice, at least with my modest camera.
It has a museum grade birds eye maple cap neck, with the amazing looking maple quilted cap on the body, the cap isn’t as deep as say a Les Paul style maple topped guitar, but then again, they are two differently constructed guitars. It is a book matched maple top though and the cap is typical for a Strat style body.
The sides and back are finished in black, with no tremolo cover, the headstock is painted in the body color and the neck is also as spectactular as the body.
This guitar plays and feels amazing and the tone is different from the straight poplar bodied SS 80, having increased bass and mid-range to my ears.
I know maple tops increase brightness in some guitars, but the tone on this guitar is remarkably well balanced, just more of everything.
It is in unplayed condition and is a NOS 1993 guitar, thus not being exactly inexpensive to purchase, but well worth it to me!
The chapter hasn’t been closed on these great tone machines, they belong in the pantheon of the Hamer SS-3’s, the great era Charvels and the EB MM EVH guitars…
These were the guitars given to Steve by EVH whom the Vince Neil Band toured with, so Steve showed up on the ‘Exposed’ tour armed with Peavey 5150 II stacks and the EB MM EVH guitars:
The CNC data still exists at Washburn’s factory, maybe one day the guitar will be reissued in a similar format, not as a SS guitar, but in the tradition of one.
The SS 80 and SS 100 models are exceedingly rare in excellent condition, not as rare as say the Hamer SS-3 of which only a handful were made, but much, much less than the aforementioned EB MM EVH’s and Charvels even.
If you get the opportunity to play one, grab it as they are a unique guitar.
Many updates to come post forthcoming interviews, ect.
Thanks,
Dave