Musima Eterna Jazzmaster - 1970’s Made in East Germany! - The Iron Curtain Jazzmaster! - Killer guitar! -

The iron curtain. Things were hard to get behind that thing. The idea of playing let alone owning a real Fender behind the Iron Curtain was as likely seeming to most people as an invitation to the MET Gala. People knew about rock and roll and pirate radio occasionally floated through the air like a plane dropping leaflets, but that world had to have seemed so prohibitively far away. There were times when you could see it in crumpled 4 month old magazines that were rolled up in the frames of bicycles and hear it faintly washing in the background of static at 3am as it fought with state-run radio, but to actually see one of those bands in person and the guitars they were playing was just kinda not going to happen. So what do you do? You study the pictures and make one yourself the best that you can. The guitars from behind the Iron curtain during the depths of the Cold War have a reputation of looking like someone tried to recreate a western guitar from memory. They say memory can shape the shape of a room, and it can definitely change the shape of a guitar. Some of the designs they came up with that are riffing on Western classics are totally awesome. This guitar rules.

So this is like the Cold War Jazzmaster (which is an awesome name). This was made in the Musima factory in the Markneukirchen forest in East Germany. Markneukirchen has a history of making stringed instruments that goes back hundreds of years, they used to call it the Cremona of the North (Cremona in Italy was where Stradivarius violins were made). Christian Frederick Martin of Martin guitars first learned guitar making at workshops in Markneukirchen before he went to America. The forest shares a border with the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia), and there’s a Czech instrument making city on that side called Luby that has also been making stellar instruments for 100’s of years. The forest is full of prime instrument making woods.

As an instrument, this thing totally rocks. It’s actually a great guitar. It took me forever to get it dialed in, but it’s totally awesome now. It feels like a real instrument. The wiring was a nightmare. There was a rotary switch which kind of switched between phase positions, but it was so toasted and finding a replacement that would do the same thing is a maddening rabbit hole I know not to try to do down, so it’s just kind of setup like a 2 pickup strat right now. The pickguard is cracked in a few places, but it’s held together on the inside and is totally stable. Just don’t deliberately try to destroy it and it’ll be fine haha.

These guitars are funky, so if you’re used to the relative precision of a modern western guitar there is a bit of a culture shock, but they’re undeniably cool. There’s some fret buzzing here and there, but it’s part of the Iron Curtain package haha. The first thought I have when I look at it is that it’s a Sonic Youth/Television type of guitar, but It’s not just a guitar for angular rock though. It has a sensitive side, big open chords sound great on it and it’s a great songwriter’s and frontperson’s guitar.

It rules. They’re kinda rare and hard to find, and believe me when I tell you that you want to get one like this that’s been professionally gone through and made into a working instrument. This one took a lot of work but it’s awesome now. Killer guitar!