Jolana Tornado serial #0079, 1963, made in Czechoslovakia

Link: jolana.info | Серийные номера гитар и бас-гитар Jolana

Jolana Rubin Electric Bas Guitar [serial # 2855], 1972, made in Czechoslovakia

Jolana Rubin is one of the numerous semihollow Jolana guitars introduced during the second half of the sixties and the seventies. The first semihollow guitar in this line was Jolana Tornado, first introduced in 1963. Rubin guitar and bass were produced since the end of 1972 at Hradec Kralove and Horovice. Rubin was introduced together with Kolor model and they all (both guitars and basses) had the same semihollow body, which reduced the production costs. The difference between guitar and bass is in the neck scale and hardware, and the only difference between Rubin and Kolor models are headstock shapes. Kolor had all tuners on a side, and Rubin had a symmetrical 3+3 (guitar) or 2+2 (bass) arrangement. 

The owner of the guitar (Jarmo Laine) says "Jolana Rubin is not actually very cheesy because it is quite nice player with low action and interesting sound (well,the circuit is so weird I have not discovered it´s logic yet). Surprisingly well made." 

It seems that Jolana company started to change various small details in the design, each time giving the instrument a new name. In communist reality that seems to be reasonable, because the company could to say that in "this year we introduced a couple of new models", while not doing almost anything: you didn't have to fight for the market, you only had to report that you were working. Rubin was produced during the seventies. Other (earlier) similar semihollow Jolana guitars were: Jolana Tornado, Jolana Special, Jolana Alexandra, and probably several others. 

Here comes a photo of Jolana Rubin neck on Jolana Tornado body. cheesyguitars

Jolana Saphir Pickups Humbuker (for guitar / bass Jolana Galaxis), 1978-1982, made in Czechoslovakia

Link: muzeum | sovietguitars

варитон  + звукосниматели + регуляторы

Jolana Diamant LP 6-string electric guitar, made in Czechoslovakia

Link: cheesyguitars

Specifications:
There were a couple of different modifications of Diamant. We'll mention just a few of them.
Brand: Jolana, made in Horovice, Czechoslovakia
Pickups: two HB. There were at least two types of them: soapbars with closed pole pieces (shown) and opened - with no covers. Sometimes there's a "Spectrum" logo on them.
Controls: two volume, two tone, 3-way switch. A rare modification used a chickenhead switch instead of the regular Gibson-style one. Knobs were usually transparent, sort of LP custom design.
Hardware: chrome
Neck: bolt-on (yes!), 22 frets, trapezoid inlay.
Binding: body (both face and back), neck. The binding is made with a sort of creme - white plastic, although its color is still not creamy enough to match Gibson.
Bridge: tune-o-matic/stop bar. Tune-o-matic is somehow modified and features a 3D adjustment option for each string. Stop-bar is bigger than a standard LP.
Tuners: Jolana standard. It is used on almost all the Jolana guitars - oval heads and oval back covers.
Materials: maple neck, unidentified body woods
Finishes: black, red, sunburst (rare).
A couple of "modifications" : pickguard is screwed to the body, and the lower strap button can be screwed out and it reveals a screwdriver. wow.

Jolana Kolor Bas 4-string bass guitar, 1972, made in Сzechoslovakia

Link: cheesyguitars

By the end of 1972 Jolana plants in Hradec Kralove and Horovice started production of two new models, which were Rubin and Kolor guitars ans basses. They used exactly the same semihollow bodies on guitar and bass, only the neck and the hardware were different to accomodate diffetent scales and other details. The bridge was a new simplified design, with independent saddles for each string. The only difference between Kolor and Rubin models seem to be the headstock - while Kolor had all tuners on a side, Rubin had a symmetrical 3+3 (guitar) or 2+2 (bass) arrangement.

The name suggests some colours, and here it is - a shocking blue finish. Kolor basses were finished in different colors of the rainbow, with painted headstocks, necks and virtually everything. No sunbursts.

Original Case for Jolana Special, made in Czechoslovakia

Jolana Diamant electric bass, made in Czechoslovakia

Link: cheesyguitars

Specifications:

made in Czechoslovakia
body : Les Paul shape, unknown but very heavy wood
neck: bolt-on, rosewood fingerboard, rectangular inlay, 20 frets
pickups: two passive Jolana's
hardware: chrome
controls: volume and tone
binding: neck, body

Jolana Special Electric Guitar

Jolana Special was made at Hradec Kralove Jolana factory since 1970. The design was based on a popular Jolana Tornado first introduced in 1963. The further "modification" (read: downgrade) of Tornado was Jolana Studio with an ultra-original 4+2 tuners' arrangement. 

Special featured different headstock shape and the same Tornado switches. Three single-coil pickups and a large and thin semihollow body with two f-shaped holes was almost the same as on Tornado. The Special's neck is not wide but relatively thick (with a small radius). Originally there was a string damping device on this guitar (see Jolana Tornado), but it's not present anymore. 
In the 70's these guitars could be found in Soviet Union's shops. They were extremely expensive (costing about two times more than Soviet guitars), and were among the finest axes a Soviet musician could find. http://cheesyguitars.com

Jolana Strat

 

Jolana Studio Bass, hollow body electric bass-guitar, 1970, made in Czechoslovakia

Jolana Studio bass is one of the numerous semihollow Jolana basses introduced during the second half of the sixties. Studio bass was made somewhwere at the beginning of the seventies. The first semihollow bass in this line was a Pampero (introduced in 1965), a bass version of Jolana Tornado, a semihollow model first introduced in 1963. 

It seems that Jolana company started to change various small details in the design, each time giving the instrument a new name. In communist reality that seems to be reasonable, because the company had the possibility to say that in "this year we introduced a couple of new models", while not doing almost anything: you didn't have to fight for the market, you only had to report that you were working.
Other similar semihollow Jolana basses were: Jolana Rubin, Kolorbas, and mentioned above Pampero. cheesyguitars

 

Jolana Strat

Production of Jolana Strat started in 1988, 2 HB pickups, maple neck, relatively playable guitar. This is one of the last Jolana models, made during the late 80's when the company produced clones of famous Fender and Gibson models rather than original designs. 

Fender officially introduced 2-HB stratocaster only by the end of 90's, so even here Jolana was ahead of the time - as usual. 

The Strat sounds very thin and stingy - despite the humbuckers. Jolana bridge has some bug in the construction because it breaks strings constantly. During the mid- 90's my band was usually playing gigs with another band where the lead singer played Jolana Strat. I was playing bass and our guitar player used Gibson LP M3. Every singe gig we went through the same scenario: their singer was breaking a string on his Strat during the first (rarely second) song and then borrowing our Les Paul till the end of their set. I still don't know if he did that on purpose or not. http://cheesyguitars.com

or full russian description http://sovietguitars.com

 

Jolana Proxima L bass, 1989

Proxima, Proxima I guitar and Proxima L longscale bass were produced by Jolana in the 80's. It was one of the last Jolana models (the company closed in 1989). In the 80's Jolana mainly made classic designs' copies rather than original stuff. Proximas were made at Krnov factory.

Proxima L is basically a Precision-type bass with one P-type pickup. The standard bass bridge is typical to many of Jolana's 80's models, s.a. Disco, and it likes to break strings. Another feature found only on late Jolana production is that the tuners are not typical Jolana's but rather something Fender-like. Jolana story has no happy ending: a company started with revolutional design of Futurama/Gracioso, gradualy decreased the products' quality and ended up making low-cost Fender and Gibson clones. http://www.cheesyguitars.com

Serial Number: 1421

 

Jolana Rubin Electric Bass Guitar, 1972, made in Czechoslovakia

Jolana Rubin bass is one of the numerous semihollow Jolana basses introduced during the second half of the sixties. Rubin bass was made somewhwere during the seventies. The first semihollow bass in this line was a Pampero (introduced in 1965), a bass version of Jolana Tornado, a semihollow model first introduced in 1963. It seems that Jolana company started to change various small details in the design, each time giving the instrument a new name. In communist reality that seems to be reasonable, because the company had the possibility to say that in "this year we introduced a couple of new models", while not doing almost anything: you didn't have to fight for the market, you only had to report that you were working.

Other similar semihollow Jolana basses were: Jolana Studio, Kolorbas, and mentioned above Pampero. The differencies include headstock shapes, controls' plates, f-holes quantity (1 to 2) and, of course, the logo. cheesyguitars

Jolana Iris Electric Guitar

Jolana Iris was a very popular guitar during the 70's and 80's in Eastern Europe. The Telecaster - inspired design features a semihollow body with one f-hole and a tremolo unit. Pickups are single-coils with rail magnets. The blue one is dated 1974.

Iris was introduced shortly after Jolana Vikomt guitar and bass came out in 1973. Vikomt had only one pickup in the neck position. Iris had two modifications - with AlNiCo pickups and ebony fingerboard and Ferrite pickups with rosewood fingerboard (not sure if ebony and rosewood were the real woods or just different paint color over beech fretboard). As usual, Iris bass was produced together with the guitar. Iris was very popular and the demand was high so Jolana produced Altro guitar and bass later. Altro had a solid body and a better bridge, the rest was similar to Iris.

 

Jolana Galaxis Electric Bass Guitar

80's Jolana Galaxis bass. Made in Krnov, Czechoslovakia since 1980. The red finish was avaliable since 1982. This bass was spotted on ebay with a minimum $99 bid. The pickups, tuners, finish, pickguard, neckplate and woods are similar to those found on Jolana Disco bass and several other 80's Jolana basses. http://cheesyguitars.com


first example: