Starr Labs Mini-Zs Guitar owned by Bob Welch - adjacent to SynthAxe (Allan Holdsworth)

Rare early-’90s Starr Labs Mini-ZS MIDI controller guitar, and a genuinely strange/cool piece of guitar-synth history. This particular one was previously owned by the legendary Bob Welch.

If you’ve ever been fascinated by Allan Holdsworth’s SynthAxe but have accepted that actually finding (or affording!) one is another matter, the Mini-ZS is about as close in spirit as you will come across. It isn’t a SynthAxe clone, but it comes from that same period when people were trying to rethink what a guitar-shaped MIDI controller could be rather than just sticking a pickup on a conventional guitar. This kind of thing is starting to once again gain traction

I actually think the comparison is more interesting than with the usual Roland guitar-synth setups. The Mini-ZS feels like a purpose-built controller first and a guitar second, which is a big part of what makes the SynthAxe so fascinating. It has that same slightly futuristic, alternate-history quality.

These Starr Labs instruments don’t turn up very often, particularly the earlier ones, and this one obviously has the added Bob Welch connection.

Comes with its original gig bag and the necessary cables - these are once again being manufactured: MSRP $2200 - so pick one up for a steal.

A very unusual piece for a guitar-synth/MIDI collector, Holdsworth obsessive, or anyone into the weirder corners of early/future digital guitar technology.