Jolana Alfa was first introduced in 1965. Together with Star it was one of the first Jolana solidbodys. Several details, s.a. the pickguard, remind of English Burns designs. It is possible that Alfa design is partly inlfluenced by Burns, since in the mid-sixties Burns' high-quality guitars were widely avaliable in Europe (imported American Fenders and Gibsons were much more expensive) and could have been copied by Jolana's luthiers. http://cheesyguitars.com
Specifications:
- made in Czechoslovakia
- body : some unknown light wood
- neck: bolt-on, 20 frets + zero fret.
- pickups: Jolana w/adjustable polepieces
- bridge: Jaguar/Jazzmaster type
- nut: plastic, very deep slots
- colors: red, white, blue, sunburst
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
Production of Star IX guitar started in 1970 in Krnov. Jolana production line at that time included Star VII and Star VIII guitars, but Star IX was a whole new design concept. It featured new, radically reshaped body and pickups. Metallic colors were used on these guitars - probably to accomodate the futuristic body shape. The rest of construction was the same as on previous Star models. Old, poor quality vibrato (the same they were putting on other models for more than 15 years) and the same Star electronics.
Thanks to the ultra-lightweight body this guitar is one of the worst balanced instruments ever made. You simply must keep your hand on the neck othervise it will hit the floor. Playing this guitar seated is out of question.
Keeping the tradition, Jolana also issued Basso IX which is a bass version of the same design. Needless to say that instrument with the same lightweight body and longer neck was absolutely out of control. http://cheesyguitars.com
first example:
In 1963 Jolana produced its' first semihollow guitar, called Tornado. The guitars were made at the new Neoton plant at Hradec Kralove. The guitar had an immediate success and was followed by numerous modifications. The first was Graziela. Tornado and Graziela had both nearly the same body with four-bolt-on necks with rosewood or ebony fingerboards. Tornado had three single coils and Graziela had one or two. Tornado usualy had a bigsby-like tremolo system.
A couple of years lated even more semihollow models were made - Jolana Alexandra, Jolana Special, Jolana Rubin, Jolana Studio, and several others. all of them had similar construction and body shape, the differencies were in the hardware, headstock shapes and logos. Tornados were produced during the 60's and the 70's, alongside with other semihollow models. cheesyguitars
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
Produced at Jolana factory in Krnov since 1979, Superstars were heavy but sounded not that bad. The design copied american Peavey T-40 bass. The humbucking pickups were a new Jolana development and later appeared on many other models during the eighties - see Galxis and Disko basses. The bass was sold with a hardshell case (shown on the picture). Avaliable finishes included natural (pictured), silver (rare) and gold (rare).
This instrument dates to 1986 (according to the manual). This is an export model, which was imported in Soviet Union. http://cheesyguitars.com
Superstar model was produced after 1979 (1978?) in Krnov. It was quite heavy and massive but overall a successfull instrument. Designed after Peavey T60 the guitar featured new humbucking pickups which later appeared on numerous 80's models, s.a. Galaxis. The guitar was sold with a maching hardshell case. Avaliable finishes included natural (shown), sunburst, silver and gold. A Superstar bass' production started together with the guitar, and the fretless version of the Superstar bass was issued a year later. http://cheesyguitars.com
This bass is a brother of Musima Deluxe 25 guitar. They look pretty much the same and made of same materials. The design of Deluxe series is definitely influenced by Fender. The whole bass looks like Fender bass VI, Musima headstock is similar to Jazz bass, and the tuners are almost the same. The output jack is taken from Stratocaster, the body shape is Jaguar/Jazzmaster/BassVI, control knobs look like those on Rumble bass/Tonemaster heads, and the pickups reminds me of Musicman/Bronco basses. What a blend! The only strange thing is the bridge - it's a bass version of the Deluxe 25 guitar's bridge, and it's a tune-o-matic/stopbar modification.
This bass is not bad at all! It looks a killer and has some sustain. One weak point here is a neck heel - there's only two screws holding the neck and I guess if they've put some more screws there it could get much better. The other weakness is the treble pickup's location - it's too close to the bridge and it results in a lack of lows.
There's a little "bug" on the headstock: the E-string tuner's location didn't fell on the string axes. It was probably too late to change it and they put a litle button there. http://cheesyguitars.com
Specifications:
- neck: bolt-on, 22(1!) frets, rosewood fingerboard, zero fret
- binding: neck
- pickups: two single coils
- controls: two volume, one tone - jazz bass scheme
- nut: white plastic
- finishes: three-color sunburst (both neck and body)
Link: cheesyguitars
12 string Orfeus with Fender XII-like head. This guitar is made front and back out of carved solid wood=archtop (so not triplex like most Jolana's and Defil's). Strangely the rest of the guitar isn't that high quality: bad tuners; painted fingerboard with 20 frets(and zero fret); fixed (although four) factory (with Orfeus logo on them) designed pu's and DIN-output. But she resembles Jolana Tornado a lot.
Description: ruskeys
Polyphonic programmable digital-analog synthesizer with built'n sequencer and arpeggiator.
Link: ruskeys
A vintage drum synthesizer Ritm was manufactured in 1976. The rhythm box has 20 preset patterns of various styles (Foxtrot, Swing, Rock 1-4, Bosanova 1-2, Tango, Habanera, March 1-2, Waltz 1-2, Samba, Bayon, Mambo, Cha-cha, Rumba, Begin) making it possible to change a tempo and a general timbre (high frequencies), to turn on/off individual drum, brush, and cymbal individually, and to adjust the main volume. In addition, a start-and-stop key and a button of style variation are available.
On a rear panel is located a slot with a power AC, power cord and line output cable.
Sound:
![Infrequent Sound [sex.tex] technology](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYjsR0yBjx1asXd9RcHaPAqGmfjf3vlwTTJNdkEd5mSGJ9rJWByMDPi2EsfWrHP7UxXHcPrZNpbPrcnBAsAdc8IC2laTcEEtBPU0Sn15W8ej00BbKglgMk3POjsvF9FbhoZXwGGlMdLywV/s1328/1+2.jpg)
