SARDONYX 1979 Satin Black

SARDONYX (1979) left handed.
This is a EXTREMELY RARE left handed guitar.  It is most likely the ONLY left handed Sardonyx ever built and I bought it from "We Buy Guitars" on 48th St in Manhattan, in 1980 (the small store on the right hand side of 48th street).  
The Serial number is 791101
November 1979, #1.
There is an original case and I will add it later.
This guitar plays itself and has a wide variety of sounds.  From the thinnest Telecaster you can imagine, To the thickest Les Paul sound EVER.
I used my Sardonyx in recording my now somewhat underground Cult Horror Classic song "Outta Control" that was used in "Sleepaway Camp 2; Unhappy Campers" (1988).  I also used it in my song, "He Qums; Requiem for the Wolf" (2012) and "Street Beat" amongst others.

"John Lennon used the Sardonyx during the making of his last album, 1980’s Double Fantasy.

So what exactly is it?

As it turns out, the Sardonyx is something of a mystery guitar. Its builder, Jeff Levin, was a guitar repairer at Matt Umanov’s guitar shop in Manhattan’s West Village back in the Seventies. He built his Sardonyx guitars at home and sold them through Umanov’s, which is most likely where Lennon acquired his

“[Levin] and I went to Brooklyn Tech high school together on the subway every day,” Umanov told  magazine. “We sold a few through my store and John Lennon ended up with one. He might have bought it from us, as he had an apartment a few blocks away and came through a lot."

From the earliest days of the Beatles onward, Lennon was on the lookout for new sounds, and the unusual design of the Sardonyx most likely drew him to the instrument. Although the guitar looks as if it’s made of a synthetic material, it actually features a wooden body and an ebony fretboard. The matte black finish has a thick lacquer clearcoat that gives the Sardonyx a plastic appearance.

The guitar’s electronics are as unusual as its appearance. Its two Bill Lawrence pickups are connected to a complex, three-output wiring system that allows the player to send completely independent pickup combinations, including different phase-reverse and series-parallel configurations, to two separate stereo outputs or to a single mono output. Other features include Schaller hardware, a pair of stainless-steel “outrigger” bars with anti-skid rubber feet, and an adjustable balance arm on the upper bout.

“Back then, Brooklyn Tech was still based on a Twenties and Thirties curriculum that included a lot of technical stuff, like a machine shop, technical drawing, and pattern making,” Umanov says. “There was even a foundry. You can see all of that training in the design and execution of this guitar. If you look at the work of some of the most famous industrial designers of all time, like Raymond Loewy, who designed the most iconic Studebakers, or Henry Dreyfuss, who designed the Princess phones, the lines are sharp and deliberate, just like they are on this guitar.

Only 15 to 20 of the Sardonyx 800 D II were built, making it one of the rarest guitars associated with Lennon, a guitar legend who remained an original right up until the very end of his life. " [1]

[1]  

 

1970s Sardonyx Model 800 D II (Aug. 23, 2012)

Rare, iconic '70s guitar. Formerly owned by a member of The Blues Magoos.

Perhaps the rarest and most iconic of all the 1970s boutique electric guitars, the , of which there were at most fifteen or twenty ever made, is closely associated with John Lennon, who was photographed playing one in 1980. As far as I know, none have come up on the market in many years though I have often been asked about them, having worked with their builder during the time period that they were made. This rare example came to me from the guitars of an equally iconic 1970s band, The Blues Magoos; he has owned it for many years and used it extensively with another band he led, Balance. Condition is original and appears to be unaltered; 

Price: $15,000 w/ohsc