Duesenberg Guitars


Duesenberg is a brand for electric string instruments founded in 1986 and located in Hannover, Germany. Duesenberg is part of Göldo Music GmbH and is widely known for their classic and distinctive Art Deco designs. By 2004, the company opened a new branch in Fullerton, California.
Besides its electric guitars and basses such as its most successful model, the Starplayer TV, the company produces high end music equipment like amplifiers and effects pedals.

History

When first used by the German guitar designer Dieter Gölsdorf in 1986, Duesenberg was originally a brand for futuristic heavy metal guitars until 1989.
Since 1991, Gölsdorf uses the brand within his company, Göldo Music GmbH in Hannover, Germany.

By 1995, Gölsdorf had begun developing a new guitar called the Starplayer, which would be the predecessor of their now most popular model, the Starplayer TV. The brand Duesenberg was taken up again for these instruments.
The guitar featured a semi-hollow flat Spruce top construction, a Maple neck with Rosewood fingerboard, two pickups, one humbucker and one P-90-style single coil switched by utilising unconventional wiring, and numerous Art Deco style appointments.
With its classic designs and mostly unconventional colouring, Duesenberg instruments refer to the craftsmanship in guitar design of the 1950s and 1960s.
Due to the extensive media coverage of Japanese popular musician Sheena Ringo, who regularly used a surf green Starplayer TV, sales figures began experiencing a steady growth.

In 2004, the company opened a new branch in Fullerton, California.
As sales continued growing, the company found itself in need of a new facility and moved from the city center to the outskirts of Hannover by 2011.
Meanwhile, the number of international artists who use Duesenberg instruments as live performance equipment has increased significantly. Over the years, this has resulted in several Signature-Edition Instruments.
Today, Duesenberg has become a small brand with worldwide recognition for high-quality instruments and sound equipment.

Name

Duesenberg is spelled the same as the automobile brand, founded in the 1920s by brothers Friedrich and August Duesenberg. They themselves had become highly respected for outstanding design, performance and luxury.

Just like the cars, Duesenberg instruments are also called Doozy or Duesy, which had become a slang expression for extravagance and enthusiasm in past decades, originally associated with the automobiles.
Rumor has it when Ron Wood, guitarist of The Rolling Stones, first unpacked his signature edition, the Ron Wood Mother Of Pearl in October 2002, he apparently said "Oh what a Doozey!", which may be the actual reason why Duesenberg Instruments came to be called Doozeys.

Design

A fundamental basis of the typical Duesenberg design is its three-step geometry. This is reflected in almost every part of the instrument, from headstock, pickguard and pickup-ring to knobs, output jack and even the pickup switch knob. The typical Duesenberg D also contains this three-step design in the lower bar.
Most of the instruments are semi-hollow constructions. However, the solid body guitars also feature many traditional elements.
Duesenberg combines these traditional shapes with design elements of the Art Déco style, which is expressed in overall designs, as well through the use of rare and eccentric materials. Typical for this style are parallel lines, stepped geometries and extended curves.
The colouring also uses classic elements, some of them typical for Art Déco. Besides standard colours such as Black and White, the colour palette features a transparent Orange, a classic Surf Green, a pastel Red and the glitter finishes Blue-, Silver- and Black-sparkle. Duesenberg designs also feature extravagant mother-of-pearl finishes Ice-, Blue- and Emerald-Green-Pearl.
Traditional finishes such as Gold-Top, Two-Tone-Sunburst, Fireburst and Vintage Blonde are used on specific models as well.

Features

Wood & Neck

is the traditional German choice wood for the tops of semi-hollow constructed instruments - this also is reflected in Duesenberg instruments. The back, bent sides and neck on these models usually are made of Maple which in the case of sides and back is flamed and bookmatched.
Most models feature a neck made of American Hardrock Maple. Exceptions are the D-Caster, Dragster, 49er and 52, which are equipped with a Mahogany neck. These guitars also feature a Mahogany body.
The fretboards are made of Indian Rosewood with dot-inlays for orientation, except for the Starplayer TV Phonic, Artist-, 440-, Classic- and Imperial Series as well as the signature models Starplayer TV Chris Whitley and C.C. John Platania, which have custom fretboard inlays.
Each guitar features a 25.6" scale, a fretboard radius of 12" and a Dual-Action-Trussrod. All guitars are equipped with Jumbo Frets and factory-fitted.10-.50 strings.

Hardware

Every instrument features Duesenberg's own hardware parts which are designed by Dieter Gölsdorf. Due to the classic approach, all standard hardware parts are nickel-plated, as was customary before chrome finishes became popular.
Hardware parts are being constantly developed and improved so that the current tremolo on Duesenberg guitars have been optimized in shape and detail continuously until today.
Duesenberg uses their own tuners, called Z-Tuners, on every guitar. These tuners have a drilled-through shaft which allows for fast string change by putting the string all the way through the tuner and cutting it off at the end to prevent sharp ends sticking out at the back of the headstock.

Pickups

As well as other hardware, Duesenberg pickups are available online.
Each pickup features an open German Silver cover.
Currently, the company produces five different types of pickups for neck or bridge position use.
The Grand Vintage, the Crunchbucker and the D-Tron generally cover the area of humbucking pickups. The Grand Vintage is Duesenberg's interpretation of a classic PAF Style pickup and is used in most instruments bridge position.
The Little Toaster is a humbucking pickup with a lower output reminiscent more of a single coil than a Humbucker and is featured on special instruments such as the TV Rebound.
The Domino is a P90 style pickup with the dimensions of a standard humbucker. It is used in the neck position on most guitars.

PLEK

Since January 2009, every instrument has been processed in the computer-controlled PLEK machine.
The CNC based system cuts and levels each fret within a tolerance of 1/100 of a millimetre. This is done to guarantee optimal setup conditions and playability.

Starplayer TV

The Starplayer TV, often simply referred to as TV, is a semi-hollow electric guitar, featuring a sustain-center-block, maple neck and arched back, as well as a laminated arched spruce top with a single f-hole on the left side.
The standard version of the Starplayer TV is equipped with two pickups, the Domino P90 in the neck position and the Grand Vintage humbucker in the bridge position. The tremolo versions of the guitar use the Duesenberg Diamond Deluxe Tremola as designed by Dieter Gölsdorf.
Depending on the version, every guitar has a distinctive top finish. Neck, sides and reverse of the headstock are usually finished in opaque black. Basic versions feature a black to grey burst finish on the back, decently showing the flamed maple. Most models have a simple cream binding on body and neck.
Over the years, the Starplayer TV has become the company's most successful model within the range, which has resulted in several special versions and signature models:
;Starplayer TV
;Starplayer TV Stoptailpiece
;Starplayer TV Classic
;Starplayer TV Rebound
;Starplayer TV Plus
;Starplayer TV Outlaw
;Starplayer TV Pearl
;Starplayer TV Custom
;Starplayer TV Mike Campbell
;Starplayer TV Chris Whitley
;Starplayer TV Ron Wood

List of Duesenberg Instruments

Semi-Hollow and Full-Hollow-body Guitars

;Starplayer TV
;Starplayer III
;Starplayer V
;C.C.
;Fullerton
;Fullerton Hollow
;Imperial
;The 440
;The 52
;Double Cat

Solid body Guitars

;Starplayer Special
;The 49er
;Dragster
;D-Caster
;V-Caster
;Rocket II

Special Instruments

;Rezobro
;Baritone D6
;Pomona6 Lapsteel
;Mandola

Artist Series

;Dave Stewart Blackbird Signature

Basses

;D-Bass
;Starplayer Bass
;Violin Bass

Duesenberg Effect Pedals

Currently, Duesenberg offers a small range of high quality effect pedals.
The range includes the White Drive II, the Blue Move, the Red Echo II, the Green Comp II, the Violet Trem and the Gold Boost.
All effects are hand wired in Germany, fully analogue and feature a True-Bypass circuit.

Duesenberg Amplifiers

Just as with the guitars and basses, the design for the amplifiers is influenced by the Art Déco style. The amplifiers are hand wired and an all-valve design, combined with modern components. The so-called Doozy amplifier is available in two versions:
;Doozy One
;Doozy Two

Musicians

The following is a list of some artists that use/have used Duesenberg instruments:
The fictional character I-No from the fighting video game franchise Guilty Gear is officially using a direct copy of Duesenberg's "Starplayer II" guitar model as her primary weapon of choice. Visual presentation-wise it's a direct replica of the actual "Starplayer TV" model, albeit made with reinforced materials to withstand heavy impacts such as when I-No is hitting her opponents, directly smashes her guitar against the ground, and etc.