MICRO- FRETS
SPACETONE
1971.
RARE.
UNDERVALUED.
COLLECTIBLE.
UNAPPRECIATED.
A Guitar Every Collector Should Own.
MICRO-FRETS guitars are, I believe, iconic American built
electric guitars that were “futurist in the past” and true creations of the
genius of their designers and builders.
And they are number 2 on my list of the “TOP TEN Most Unknown,
Unappreciated, and Undervalued” guitars in the vintage guitar marketplace. They
are special and magical and should be in the collection of every guitar lover
and player in the world. But that cannot happen because there are so few of
them left (maybe-but just maybe-less than 3,000 were built). That is
why, early in my collector history, I searched for guitars of this brand and
bought as many of them as I could. Those are the guitars I am now selling.
THE MICRO-FRETS GUITAR
FOR SALE IN THIS LISTING.
OUR ID: 1103
MODEL: Spacetone.
STYLE: Between 1.5 and 2 as defined below.
YEAR: 1971
BODY WOOD: Hard wood. With Sound Chamber.
NECK WOOD: Maple.
FINGERBOARD: Brazilian Rosewood.
NUT: “Micro nut”
VIBRATO: Has The GENUINE “CALIBRATO” Vibrato System.
HARDWARE: Micro-Frets handmade, custom machined.
PICKUPS: Hand wound by former Rickenbacker employee. Enclosed in
white Plexiglas.
CONTROLS: Volume and Tone.
COLOR: Cherry Transparent
CONDITION: Good.
HAS ORIGINAL CASE.
The Micro-Frets Company
The Micro-Frets Company was started by Ralph J. Jones in 1967 in
his Wheaten, Maryland, USA workshop.
These guitars featured some of the most unique features of any
US built guitar.
Among those are:
A. The GENUINE
“CALIBRATO” Vibrato System.
1. Calibrated string movement adjustments.
2. Can adjust system to work with any gauge
of strings.
3. Can modulate pitch.
4. Retain tuning on all strings at all
modulation level at higher or lower pitch levels.
5. Keeps strings in tune at all pitch levels.
6. Makes string tuning more precise.
B. The BODY.
1. Carved from select SOLID woods. Not
plywood or veneer.
2. Has carved out hollow body making it a
true acoustic guitar.
3. Traditional cut with larger lower bout and
smaller upper bout.
4. By carving out the inside of a solid block
of wood with a lathe tool, a “sound chamber” is created that provides unique
resonance and tonal response not available in other electric guitars.
5. No sound holes. The designer of the
MICROFRETS “unique sound chamber” discovered, after a lot of research that a
sound hole actually “decays” the acoustic tone of a guitar.
C. The
NECK.
1. The elliptical shape of the “speed line”
neck is the “finest in the industry” and “immediately feels familiar to the player”.
2. Featured on the neck is a precision scaled
fingerboard.
3. The neck is labelled “Stringbender”
because its shape and design and fret size allow the player to more easily bend
strings when playing.
D. The “MICRO-NUT”
1. Exclusive to only MICRO-FRETS guitars is
the patented “Micro Nut”. It is considered to be the most revolutionary product
ever invented for an electric guitar.
2. The “Micro Nut” makes the Micro-Frets
guitar “the most precise tuning guitar” available.
3. It features FIFTY-TWO (52) different
parts. It is an engineering marvel. (Read more about how it works below).
These are amazing innovative guitars with many unique features
and structural characteristics. Please read more about these guitars below as
told first hand by one of the luthiers in the original MICRO FRETS workshop.
Information about Micro-Frets Guitars from “Guitar Attack”
online.
The Truth about Micro-Frets Guitars
by Dan X, a designer & former employee of the defunct Micro-Frets Co.
There have been a lot of questions over the years about the Micro-Frets guitar
Company on Grove Road, Frederick, Maryland. I have also read a lot of things
about the Company, written by guitar collectors that are not true!
I lived in Rockville, Maryland at the Monroe Street Apartments. I would drive
to Frederick every morning to a job that I loved!!!! I would go to work so fast
that the telephone poles on Route 355 whizzed by like pickets in a fence. Make
a left on Grove Road and pull into the parking lot on the left. (Now called the
Auto Trim Co., but still on Grove Road.
Here was the building layout when it was Micro-Frets : You go in the front
door, to the left was a door that led to the guitar room. That's where we kept
2 of every model of guitar that we made. There have been some very famous
people in the room -- Buck Trent, Carl Perkins, and Mark Farner, to name a few.
You come out of that room back into the hall and on the right was the secretary
`s office. One of the secretaries that I remember best was a girl about 18
years old named Deloris Schrower, We called her Dee! I had a BIG crush on
Dee!!! The next off was where Mrs. Huggins, wife of the head of the company
Marion Huggins worked. The next office was Marion Huggins' office.
You're wondering by now -- where is Ralph Jones? We're not there yet.
Down the hall past Huggins' office you went through a door. Take a left turn
and there was the Machinist. I can't remember the Machinist's name, but Ralph
Jones worked there sometimes. In front of that was the metal buffing booth. You
have to remember most of the parts on the new guitars were Aluminum!!
Down from that area was a hole in the wall by the steps. Billy Boggs worked
there! He did the fretwork. Billy use to pick with Chet Atkins on the road. Over
in front of him was the body lathe, where we hollowed out the bodies. In front
of that was the overhead pin router where we cut out the bodies. Farther back
was the pickguard pin router.
Pete Lagocky, a rock picker, ran that for a while until he just about lost a
finger!! Around the corner was the table saw where the pickguards & Pickup
pieces were cut out. Back to the steps and up the stairs, just at the top, was
the shipping booth. Now this is one big room the whole upstairs was open.
To the right was the electronics area. Do a 180 and you would see the paint
area. A Magician by night, Painter by day -- a guy called the Amazing Tracy!!
He painted the guitars. Beside him was where Mary Jones, the wife of Ralph
Jones worked. She sanded between the coats of paint. A real beauty for her age!
Everyone wanted me to try to talk her into keeping the plant open. Believe me I
tried. I even tried to get out on a date. Didn't work because I wasn't good
looking enough, I guess. But I will tell you this she was a nice lady.
Down from there to the right was the body and neck wood sanding booth. A little
Blond worked there named Linda. She looked like a small child but she was
beautiful 19-year old. Do a 180 and you're looking at the guitar assembly
stations. There were two of them. One of the stations was mine. A Hippy named
Larry worked there also. He was a hard rock picker as well. He quit and I had
them put this female assembler over by me. She was a great person and did her
job well.
Just behind me was Woody Free. Woody assembled the sound hole pickups. His son,
my Boss, was Gary Free. Gary was the plant Supervisor/custom builder/guitar
designer. Then there was me, Dan Electricbanjoman, guitar assembler &
custom builder/designer.
Now who was Ralph Jones and where did he work in the factory? He worked the
whole factory, and he was at every station at some time everyday making things.
He was the creator of the Micro nut, Calibrato, and the FM wireless system.
We made the first FM guitar, called "The Orbiter". It was a Swiss
cheese model -- front & back & white center piece. There was an FM box
that came with that guitar, so you could set the box on top of your amp. The
guitar had an antenna that came out of the upper cutaway. I walked down the
stairs and out the door one day picking one of those, half way down the street
to where the red light is now on Grove Road. It still picked me up through the
metal wall to the amp upstairs.
We had wild names for the guitars but we all helped name them. Gary, Woody, and
I designed the newer bodies, Micro Nut, and Calibratos. We had three different
guitar styles: The Swiss Cheese, The Twin, and The Single.
First were the Swiss Cheese Models. They were really wild looking, like from
outer space, hence the space names like Orbiter, Golden Comet, Calibra,
Wanderer, and Spacetone. Ralph designed these guitars. They had Gretsch guitar
pickups with a metal case. Huntington ( mine), Signature (mine), the Stage II,
the Swinger solid body guitar, the Husky solidbody Bass, and The Spacetone
(Woody and Gary Free) -- those were our guitars of the 60`s
Ralph Jones died and we kept the older guitars there for a while. All of a
sudden the order came up to clean them up and get them out! So we sold those
out fast. Some of those went overseas to England, Germany, France, Japan, and
China. One of those shipments sank in the Atlantic.
These were the guitars of the 70's. At that time we bought our pickup formula
from a guy at the Rickenbaker Guitar Company in California. We made the pickups
out of White Plexiglas, and a few Black ones as well. Mrs. Jones did all the
guitar pickup wire wrappings by hand. She had a booth 8 feet square. It was a
big secret so they kept the curtain closed.
We would work all day and sometimes for no pay on the weekends. We redesigned
the pickups, the bodies, and revamped the Micro Nut and Calibrato units.
The rumor is that the guitar just didn't sell so we had to close. NOT TRUE!!!
We closed about four years after Ralph Jones died. Marion Huggins was the money
man. He wanted to keep the place going, and would have if it were up to him. I
would still be there making guitars! Mrs. Jones wanted the company to close
with her husband. "It's his invention", she used to say. "I
don't want anybody to take credit for it. I want to get my money back out of
it, and I just want this place to just go away."
There was a court trial, I think in Frederick, Maryland. There would be a case
on file. Jones v. Huggins Micro-Frets Corp. It is probably public domain now
because it's been 30 years. Mrs. Jones won the case. I watched people's jobs
get cut one at a time. They cried as they walked out the door! I was one of the
last ones to leave, and I cried too! We made thousands of great guitars, and
were getting to bring out a couple new ones that Gary, Tracy, and I were
drawing up. Our sales were good all over the USA, Canada, and the world. Our
Patent covered all countries. Nobody could make the Micro-Frets nuts and
Calibratos but us! Now I hear that a company in Japan is buying up all the guitars.
They plan to make the Micro-Frets again. So the older USA made ones will be
real collectors now.
We were all musicians in that factory, and we ate across the
street at a 50's style restaurant called the Pontiac Inn. We would
always eat lunch there, and sometimes dinner. We were a very open about trying
new things. If it was weird we liked it. To us every guitar was different --
every guitar was the Batmobile! It was great fun. If you like customizing
guitars, then you should have been there son! Pretty girls and great people to
work with.
Life at Micro-Frets in Maryland was a guitar customizer's heaven on earth.
There was me and one other guy who put the guitars together. During the last
year the other guy quit and I had them hire this nice looking young girl guitar
picker. She was with us until early 1973. I was the last one left. I worked the
last two weeks for free putting the guitars together before the company was
auctioned.
We were all working musicians. I played some with Waylon Jennings and Dottie
West while I was there. Gary Free had his own local Blues & Jazz band.
BODY STYLES (and
configurations).
A. STYLE 1.
1. The older (first) Micro-Frets style had a
3-piece body. Some of those had the Volume & Tone controls under the pick
guard. As we changed the body we changed the pots and position. The Calibrato
and the Nut were also changed three different times. The pickups were changed
twice; The Golden Melodys eventually became the Spacetone & the Stage II.
2. Two piece body with particle board
side gasket. This gasket was screwed onto one half of the body and clipped onto
the other half. The gasket, while eye catching, added a good bit to the weight
and didn't serve any other real function. 3.
3. DeArmond pickups. I've heard that other
types were used but haven't seen any examples (not counting the Style 2 and 3
'Lawrence' pickups).
4. Bi-level white pickguard with volume
and tone controls attached. Controls were adjusted using nylon wheels instead
of more traditional knobs.
5. Guitars without the Calibrato
featured a giant aluminum 'M' on the body.
6. Tuning gears were generally open style, 6
on a plate
7. Cloth was used to cover the sound hole on
many models.
8. Bridge tailpiece combination had shorter
distance between the bridge and the end where the strings attached.
9. Bridges featured aluminum saddles that had
intonation adjustment going through with a spring to keep it in place similar
to Fender.
B. STYLE
1.5. Style 1.5 features all of the Style 1 mentioned details
with the differences: The side gasket is now gone and the two piece
body with visible seams are joined together with clips.
C. STYLE
2.0
1. The second body style was two-piece and we
took out the grill cloth from the (F) hole.
2. Two piece body with visible seam.
3. Bi-level pickguard with clear upper
level and white lower level.
4. Volume and tone knobs are now
located on body.
5. Calibrato version 2 which features a
large leaf spring to provide counter tension. Strings attached to a one piece
tailpiece.
6. Large, white, rectangular 'Lawrence'
single coils pickups now used. These were designed by Bill Lawrence and built
by MICROFRETS in house. These pickups had more output than the DeArmonds and
were substantially larger with a plexi housing.
7. No aluminum discs or 'M's.
8. Bridge/tailpiece combinations had
longer distance between bridge and where strings attached on non-tremolo
models.
9. Bridges now have aluminum saddles
with nuts added on to the intonation adjustments screws. This allowed the
intonation to be set and somewhat locked in place by tightening the nut up
against the bridge. Simple, but practical.
10. Schaller tuners standard.
D. STYLE 3.0.
1. The third style was made two-piece but
glued together to look like a semi hollow body. There were many different body
shapes and names. For example, The Huntington, The Signature, and Signature
Custom, which were my designs. Then there were the Orbiters, Comets , and
Spacetone which were Ralph Jones' designs. The Swinger, Huskybass, & Stage
II were Gary Free's design. The Sound Hole pickups for acoustics were Woody
Free's design.
2. Except for the Swinger guitar and Husky
bass (which were solid body), the inside of the guitar was cut out with a wood
lathe. If you look inside you'll see the cavity was cut out like a record with
the center circle and outer edges of the body. That's what the bridge is
setting on -- a round center.
3. The body is held together with slide
clips. To take it apart you take off the neck, hold the guitar facing you
standing up on the end of the bout, and lightly slam the backside. That will
slip the two parts apart! You put it together the same way only turn the body
face away from you.
4. Bodies are still two piece but are glued
together with no seam that can be felt (though it can be seen on models with
translucent finishes
5. Introduction of the Speedline neck
which addressed the problem of being able to bend notes up the neck that
earlier models often had due to the small, low frets and rounded fingerboard.
6. Introduction of the Swinger model
which wasn't a typical model in that it is was a solid body without the
'doughnut' routing.
THE BODY.
The body was solid on the outer edge, and a 4 to 5 inch center
under the bridge was solid. This was true on all the guitars to make them
lighter except for some of the older Swiss cheese bodies like the Orbiter and
the Golden Comet.
The newer bodies were cut out on a lathe. I cut some of these out as well. We
cut out a doughnut from the inside, with the solid sides and the very center.
This helped in the distortion ability but not much. The hollow body didn't
affect the overall tonal ability of the guitar.
THE MICRO-NUT
Someone asked me," What makes the Micro-Frets guitar
different from the others?" Most other guitars have a tunable bridge that
sets the harmonics up to the twelfth fret. The Micro-Frets has the Micro-nut.
It's 52 pieces of adjustable nut. Each string can be adjusted up or down in
height, which is convenient as the weather changes. This is especially true if
you're very picky about you string height. As for back and forth, the back and
forth is what sets the harmonics above the twelfth fret. The guitar was totally
in tune all the way up the neck. The stainless steel rollers don't roll, but
they let the string slide across without sticking. There are little ears that
stick up just behind the roller that allow you to set the width of your
strings.
THE NECK.
The necks were called Speedline necks because they were the
thinnest around at that time. Made of solid maple, most with rosewood
fingerboards (some with Maple fingerboards), the necks were fantastically
quick! But it was always my opinion that the frets were cut too low. We at the
factory always argued about that.
CONDITION: This
guitar is in good condition. It has various dings, dents, scrapes, scratches,
and paint chips on side, finish cracks, etc. but operational condition is
excellent.
SHIPPING: Free shipping by UPS Ground to any US continental
location. Shipping outside this area
shall be at actual cost and will not include import duties, fees, taxes, etc.
which are the responsibility of the Buyer.
We do hold a CITES license allowing us to ship guitars containing protected
wood species outside the USA.
MY GUARANTEE:
Simple. Buy this guitar,
try it out for three days. If it is not
the guitar for you, please return it for a full refund. No questions. Per Reverb rules, you must pay the cost of shipping
the guitar back to us.