# Worst Electric Guitar Ever Made.



## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

I got this for Christmas in 1964 along with a little Symphonic amp. This had to be one of the worst guitars ever made. Wonderful plywood body, a totally flat radius, a trem would pull the string out of tune like nothing you ever imagined. It think the neck was a close relative of balsa wood. Bleeding fingers and Calluses. Action was so high, it would make you feel nauseous if you had a fear of heights. At least I learned to pound out my three cord progressions. 

My brother found in our parents attic the other month. My mum passed away at 91 few months ago. We are still going through their stuff. My dad built cupboards within cupboards. They were well organized pack rats. Also found what was left of my brother's Pyramid 12 String.

Well, here it is, one of the worst guitars ever made.... _*The ZENON...*_


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## puckhead (Sep 8, 2008)

so.... are you going to lovingly restore it back its pristine condition? :banana:
nice to see a piece of your history, at any rate.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Symphonic amp? . Not as good as a Symphony?


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

puckhead said:


> so.... are you going to lovingly restore it back its pristine condition? :banana:
> nice to see a piece of your history, at any rate.


My idea of restore is to nail it to a piece plywood, put a frame around it and hang it on the wall so I could alternately reminisce, laugh at it and curse at it.


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## bobb (Jan 4, 2007)

Put it on CL as rare vintage, great for slide. $750 9kkhhd


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

bobb said:


> Put it on CL as rare vintage, great for slide. $750 9kkhhd


At least.
Marked down because there's apparently no bridge...


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## puckhead (Sep 8, 2008)

Robert1950 said:


> My idea of restore is to nail it to a piece plywood, put a frame around it and hang it on the wall so I could alternately reminisce, laugh at it and curse at it.


great idea. this bass was pissing us off, and is now hanging on the wall of my buddy's cabin 
(as a warning to all other musical instruments that enter to behave)

I'd like to use the 2nd pic as an album cover one day


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

I think this will be plan B if I'm not happy with plan A.


puckhead said:


>


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

puckhead said:


> I'd like to use the 2nd pic as an album cover one day


click, copy image... paste ....done ....kkjuw

Reminds of this video.... @ 2 mins
[YOUTUBE]rkjIPJJqcv0[/YOUTUBE]


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Now this is cool... ice drums and destruction

[YOUTUBE]Ix_11UeGwYY[/YOUTUBE]


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

would make a great slide guitar- want me to fix that neck for you?


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## ezcomes (Jul 28, 2008)

Robert1950 said:


> I got this for Christmas in 1964 along with a little Symphonic amp. This had to be one of the worst guitars ever made. Wonderful plywood body, a totally flat radius, a trem would pull the string out of tune like nothing you ever imagined. It think the neck was a close relative of balsa wood. Bleeding fingers and Calluses. Action was so high, it would make you feel nauseous if you had a fear of heights. At least I learned to pound out my three cord progressions.
> 
> My brother found in our parents attic the other month. My mum passed away at 91 few months ago. We are still going through their stuff. My dad built cupboards within cupboards. They were well organized pack rats. Also found what was left of my brother's Pyramid 12 String.
> 
> Well, here it is, one of the worst guitars ever made....




ok...i'll ask this though...you said it was a POS...but...back in 1964...did you like it?

i used to have this really sh**ty strat copy that i hated...traded it for another guitar...but...every now and then the nostalgia hits...and i would love to have it again...i learned a lot on that guitar...it was and is, a piece of me...regardless of how sh**ty it was/is


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

ezcomes said:


> ok...i'll ask this though...you said it was a POS...but...back in 1964...did you like it?


After a I learned a few three cord progressions and tried other guys guitars (everybody was getting electrics in 1965 thanks to the Beatles) and realize how bad mine was. Once with started gigging ten months later (yes, you only needed to know your three cord thingies back then) I borrowed someone elses every chance I could. Everybody agreed that it really was a POS. However the the slide idea,... hmmmmm.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

My first amp was a Symphonic. I wasn't terribly into the innards in those days. I just remember it had a 12" speaker, 4 input jacks, volume, tone, and tremolo speed/depth. I'm thinking it may have been a traditional 3-tuber (5Y3, 12AX7, and 6V6).

A guitar like the one posted by the OP would have been a cherished possession in those days. Of course, none of us would have known anything of the arts and skills that could have made it a truly playable instrument, the after-market replacement pickup industry was still 5 years away, and the idea of a luthier who could hot rod such things was mere science fiction.


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## Spellcaster (Jan 7, 2008)

I have a one pickup version of the guitar shown by the original poster. Bought it new from Simpson-Sears in 1965. I sold it two years later, but nostalgia got the better of me and I tracked it down and bought it back about 6 months ago. It's at least as bad as I remembered (maybe worse) but I've only now come to appreciate the pickup. I have a much better understanding why there's such a cult following for old Zen-On stuff.....This one's better than anything else I own, including some high dollar pickups. Aside from that, not too many redeeming qualities....More tuner backlash than I've ever seen before, action so high that the atmosphere's thin, and really neck heavy - Although the headstock's vaguely Fender shaped, it's about four inches longer! I solved a longstanding intonation issue by replacing the one piece plastic compensated bridge with a vintage Gibson ABR-1. This is definitely the most high-effort guitar I've ever played.


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## big frank (Mar 5, 2006)

Pyramid. There's a name I haven't heard for a while. In my 1964 world, I had a 4 pickup pyramid with a neck so long it would only fit in a bass case.
It had half a dozen rocker switches and a couple of wheels like a Jaguar and a trem that also was totally useless.
The neck was impossible. Lucky that I was the "lead" player and didn't have to do chords.
My friend had a guitar like your electric, purchased in the same pawn shop that carried new crappy guitars. It had no name on it.
It wasn't long before his was in the trash (he was so upset with the 55 dollar beast that he smashed it).
My Pyramid cost 99 dollars.
Zen-On is another familiar brand from then. Zim-Gar was the brand of a friends drum kit.
Kent's were horrible too back in that day; but not as bad as the above mentioned beasts.


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## Morkolo (Dec 9, 2010)

These old guitars are fun to play if you don't take them too seriously, I know I'm after coming across a few over the years and just about every single one plays awful. The last one I tried like the Zenon in the pictures looked almost identical only it had a Strat style pick guard on it. I'm not one to be bothered by the way a neck feels on most guitars but I'll never forget the neck on that thing. It was like someone cut a baseball bat in half, so thick and like mentioned above the action was almost half an inch at the 12th fret. Too bad the guitar sound awful.


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## pi39 (Jan 12, 2011)

Just too many crappy guitars made to mention. LOL Lucky for us there also lots of good ones.


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## faracaster (Mar 9, 2006)

I had a Symphonic amp too. My dad bought me a Saturn guitar and the Symphonic amp at Eatons in Shoppers World here in Toronto.
Where are all those Symphonic amps now? I just Googled them and there was only two pictures on the web.


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## gregtar (Jan 16, 2011)

and I thought my first was bad. A $29.95, one pickup Zenon. I found it in Ebay's vintage section for $187.00 or so. I should've kept it


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## gregtar (Jan 16, 2011)

*And I thought my first guitar was bad*

It was a one pickup Zenon at $29.95. I found it in Ebay's vintage section for $187.00 or so. I should've kept it


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## bluezombie (May 7, 2007)

shoretyus said:


> now this is cool... Ice drums and destruction
> 
> [youtube]ix_11uegwyy[/youtube]


i love you for posting that


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

gregtar said:


> *And I thought my first guitar was bad*
> 
> It was a one pickup Zenon at $29.95. I found it in Ebay's vintage section for $187.00 or so. I should've kept it


I had that one too. The "gold foil" pickups are quite clear and lively when installed on a guitar that can actually be played.


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## rollingdam (May 11, 2006)

I once bought a Supro ranchero for $25. Lousy guitar-stripped the parts and burned the guitar in the wood stove. 

The parts disappeared in the divorce and now these guitars sell for around a grand.

Moral of the story: If you still have it, keep it.


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## Rozz (Aug 1, 2018)

Robert1950 said:


> I got this for Christmas in 1964 along with a little Symphonic amp. This had to be one of the worst guitars ever made. Wonderful plywood body, a totally flat radius, a trem would pull the string out of tune like nothing you ever imagined. It think the neck was a close relative of balsa wood. Bleeding fingers and Calluses. Action was so high, it would make you feel nauseous if you had a fear of heights. At least I learned to pound out my three cord progressions.
> 
> My brother found in our parents attic the other month. My mum passed away at 91 few months ago. We are still going through their stuff. My dad built cupboards within cupboards. They were well organized pack rats. Also found what was left of my brother's *Pyramid* 12 String.
> 
> Well, here it is, one of the worst guitars ever made.... _*The ZENON...*_


Nice guitar. Looks like it has the functionality for lots of tonal variation. Too bad about the headstock break. ;-)

I found this site by searching Pyramid Guitars. I had one as my first guitar. It was like a white ES 335 body, with a Fender headstock and a tortoise shell pickguard. lol. My first amp was a Heath Kit my brother and I shared, which was more than I needed.

Good post.


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## AlBDarned (Jun 29, 2017)

Nice wall hanger! Sorry about your Mom


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

Robert1950 said:


> My idea of restore is to nail it to a piece plywood, put a frame around it and hang it on the wall so I could alternately reminisce, laugh at it and curse at it.


Sorry to hear about your mom.Great idea to frame it


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## ed2000 (Feb 16, 2007)

My first electric made me work for it.
1964 something Canora and Symphony amp bought at Shoppers World on Danforth. I was so focussed on learning guitar that the poor playability was no obstacle.
ps: I did my first guitar mods on it - moved the bridge pickup nearer to the bridge and adjusted the intonation. This was way before guitar magazines and the wealth of knowledge gleaned on the Internet. Mel Bay, book 2, is all I had.


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## DrumBob (Aug 17, 2014)

My first guitar was the lowest grade Teisco imaginable that I bought for $15, with no idea how to play it. I had my geeky friend Jerry install a kill switch on it, so I could emulate Pete Townshend doing his "toggling" on the early Who singles. I was a major Who fanatic at age 15. I finally would up smashing the crap out of it in the basement one night when my parents were out, and I think I cracked one of the tiles on the floor, which I tried to cover up. I followed that up with another cheapo Japanese guitar, and that got smashed by my friend Mark at one of our gigs in college. I then upgraded to a late 60's Gibson Melody Maker, my first good guitar. I didn't smash that! I sold it, and wish I hadn't. 

Over the years, I have come to appreciate some of those old Japanese treasures for what they are; cheap guitars that can play pretty well, if you set them up properly and maintain the mindset that they're not high quality instruments, but low grade kid's guitars, nostalgia from your youth, a beater with class. I have three of them, and all are used for slide, which is something they do quite well. Just ask Hound Dog Taylor.

Oh wait...he's dead. In any event, Hound Dog loved cheap Japanese guitars for slide. I do too. At this point, I have about six dedicated slide guitars.

I should mention Frank Myers' book, _The History Of Japanese Electric Guitars_. A very good read, and the last word on the subject.


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## tonewoody (Mar 29, 2017)

I'm a fan of 60's MIJ guitars. Sure, many are unplayable in their stock form. Ö. 

One thing that I like about them is their aesthetic concepts. Fun and funky. Lots of chrome, tortoise guards, toggle switches, four pickup models, different body and headstock shapes etc. Just when you think you've seen everything, another oddball model shows up. There are many small variations.

The hardware is often a weak spot. If you are so inclined, installing upgraded parts will improve functionality. How far you take the endeavor is up to you and the particular guitar in question.

The biggest charm is many of these guitars have individual sonic personalities, a different voice and vibe. Variety is good.

At the minimum, I would suggest Robert (OP) to investigate the pickups. If they are working, someone will find them useful.

If you haven't already, check out Drowning in Guitars! as a cool resource.

also the 'Bizarre Guitar Pickup encyclopedia"
The Bizarre Guitar Pickup Encyclopedia


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## Fred Smith (Feb 9, 2020)

faracaster said:


> I had a Symphonic amp too. My dad bought me a Saturn guitar and the Symphonic amp at Eatons in Shoppers World here in Toronto.
> Where are all those Symphonic amps now? I just Googled them and there was only two pictures on the web.


My dad bought me 4 pickup saturn solidbody around 1963 and i bought a 4 inut symphonic amp but cannot seem to find any around.. You are the first that i have heard... Do you still have them?


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## KapnKrunch (Jul 13, 2016)

Spellcaster said:


> ...but I've only now come to appreciate the pickup. I have a much better understanding why there's such a cult following for old Zen-On stuff.....This one's better than anything else I own, including some high dollar pickups.


You are correct, the pickups are wonderful.


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