Electric Guitars Made in the USSR. Were Ural or Aelita Guitars Any Good?
Soviet Electric guitars. Electric guitars made in the USSR. Soviet music. Soviet rock music. Ural electric guitar. How good were Soviet electric guitars?
0:00 Intro
1:36 The Soviet Union had its own acoustic guitar production with affordable prices and imported desirable guitars from Czechoslovakia.
4:36 The Soviet Union produced electric guitars inspired by Japanese designs, notably the Ural 650, known for being heavy and awkward to handle.
8:16 The Soviet Union manufactured various electric guitars, including Tonic, Aelita, and Ural, with mixed success.
Recap by Tammy AI
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Пікірлер: 63
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You can notice some of these guitars have DIN connectors instead of the 1/4 jack so you can use your radio instead of a deficit instrument amplifier.
Your last description was analogous for everything in soviet society. Take it, take it apart, replace everything, then you have something that brings a benifit to man.
@UshankaShow
22 күн бұрын
Yes, it's called PERESTROIKA )))
II lived in Yu (Croatia today). And when I went to music school, they bought me a CHREMONA (made in Czechoslovakia) classical guitar, total crap. Otherwise, the traditional instruments in Croatia are fiddles, shargi (BiH, Turkey), tambourines, and mandolins. There were and still are masters who make these instruments. And the guitar is simpler to make. So the electric guitar was not a problem either (little electronics and good buy). A local craftsman will make you a superb instrument. I had the opportunity to play a couple of CCCP instruments, it was really bad. And even professional orchestral instruments.
I love the sound of Soviet instruments. The synthesizers were what drew me to Soviet era music. Most think it’s sounds weird or strange but I really love it.
@nickadams2451
22 күн бұрын
Sergei is there any chance you could do a video on the synthesizers next?
@UshankaShow
22 күн бұрын
Alla Pugacheva will enter the chat
@jayuno3009
19 күн бұрын
Hainbach made a video about a Soviet synthesizer, can’t remember the name, but it sounded incredible
60's Italian guitars like Eko with the accordian style transmission selector switches, colors and paint jobs, trem setup,pickups, are actually pretty sweet players I really like them.
They worked for КИНО they can work for others
@cbetterthanblueprints2349
10 күн бұрын
By the later stages, therefore what you'd hear recorded and what you'd hear on Spotify is played on a Yamaha SG, there's a clip I remember on вечерний ургант where the members talked about the Yamaha SG 200 and they played it, this is what most of the songs you hear on youtube or Spotify played on. Tsoi also owned a Squire Stratocaster E-Series. So they didn't use soviet guitars much.
It was not so much about the music itself, but being able to counter the political propaganda. Same was with art.
This video is a nice surprise! From my personal experience, I have had some cases with soviet guitars where I live, we had Urals and the East German Musima brand. The one Ural that I played, had been equipped with high quality strings. Our teacher said that the really expensive strings cancel out all the effects from the crappy electronics. What I remember, it sounded average at best, but the most annoying part was the fact, that the Ural used to zap me with electricity. Any other guitar, attached to that amp didn't do that to me. The story of most of these guitars were mostly the same. The string space from neck was closer to cello than a guitar.The strings, as mentioned in the video, were piano strings, so if you managed to press down the razor like string to the fretboard and make a decent sound , you could become the best guitarist in the world. Some of our guys even found these guitars abandoned in the streets. Some of our guitarists just tried to make the instruments themselves with better or worse results. Most of the older players I knew, tried to scramble the 1000 Soviet Rubles, to buy Fenders from the sailors, and it was both extremely frustrating, dangerous and as mentioned in the video, extremely expensive. Even then, getting the electric strings for the guitar was not as easy as it now. They did the same old trick, they pulled out strings from old pianos and tried to sand them down as smooth as possible. Nice video, cheers from Latvia!
Great picture of that band playing in front of portraits of Lenin and Marx.
@Free_Russian
20 күн бұрын
Must be having a name like "Lenin's Groove", or "Four Steps to Communism", or "Red Hot Borscht Without Bread"
Interesting as usual. Side note, Scottish singer Al Stewart in the intro to Roads to Moscow makes A 12 string acoustic sound like a balLaika. Late Russian wife was amazed that he had no connection to Rodina.
3:10 You couldn't have sold your childhood guitar in 1985 if your little brother was messing with it since he was born in 1986. 😉
@juavi6987
10 күн бұрын
KGB is watching, I see. 😅
Some of those old guitars are quite collectible now, I see them on ebay! Drevokov was a Czech maker of guitars, one of which called Grazioso was imported to the UK in the late 50s and was the first instrument of some well known players, not the least of which was George Harrison! Great video!👍👍
@shaunw9270
17 күн бұрын
Those Grazioso guitars were also imported to the UK branded as Futurama. The change of brand name didn't improve the awfulness but they are interesting to look at 😊👍
@ARWest-bp4yb
17 күн бұрын
@@shaunw9270 Actually UK importer Selmer came up with the Futurama brand. I've seen a few demo videos that said they play quite well when properly set up, something most players back then didn't know how to do.😄
@shaunw9270
17 күн бұрын
@@ARWest-bp4yb Yes that's right one of many "Importer brand names" . Believe me , I have been playing for 41 years, and in my teens came across several Futurama and similar via local newspaper ads and they were all terrible and a good set up did little to improve guitars that were poorly made out of rubbish. My first guitar was of a similar ilk of bad luthiery , a mid 60's Egmond Scout made in Holland - I still keep it out of nostalgia! 😊
@ARWest-bp4yb
16 күн бұрын
@@shaunw9270 Search 'resonetgear' they're making the original Grazioso/Futurama as a vintage re-issue.👍
The Orfeus Solo out shines all of those mentioned
I’ve been looking for Soviet tube synthesizers, I love their sound!
Thanks for this video comrade ! I first saw a 70's Ural guitar in the 90's and it reminded me of some 60's Japanese guitars. Very interesting video which explained why the electronics look like army surplus components...they basically are ! I have never even seen a photo of that particular double neck before, I can imagine it weighed a ton !
Jermaine plays a Soviet bass in the old Flight of the Concords show
Very interesting. 🎸 🎶
I have a modern Kremona.. made in Bulgaria. Legend is the founding luthier came from Cremona, Italy. I wonder if Czech Cremona and Bulgarian Kremona are related, and if the legend of the Italian Luthier is true
It never ceases to amaze me how almost everything in the USSR was ersatz in nature. Almost as if they couldn't produce anything genuine or original.
Thank you!
I’ve been wanting to get an old soviet-era bass guitar and restore it.
Nikolayevich, can you do a video on Communist Party membership in USSR and how it affected life and opportunities? Another theme is equity and equality in the USSR. In my opinion there was a class system in the USSR that ran along the lines of people in cities vs villages
@Andronicus2007
22 күн бұрын
Oh yes, plus less equal (non party) and more equal (party members) comrades.
"Betty Swunghole"...?!? What a stupid name! 😆 But seriously, thank you for making the vid...it's very interesting. I think maybe one of the reasons why Soviet guitars didn't sound so good was the unavailability of so-called "tone woods"...Western electric guitars are generally made with woods like maple and rosewood, which apparently have good acoustic qualities.
@UshankaShow
22 күн бұрын
You're very welcome!
I remember the guitarist from Gorky Park had a triangular bodied Kramer with a reversed headstock I thought was so cool. It looked very Russian.
You should start the whole topic of videos. What about amplifiers? Drums? Soviet drums, can you play something else than military marches on a soviet snare drum? =) Violins? There were extremely good (in fact the best in the world) violin players in USSR, who made their instruments?
Heh, very cool. I found some videos of people playing the old Soviet Ural guitars... they sound kinda jangly but not bad. More like guitar from the 1950s.
Kino 😎😎
I remember seeing in a guitar magazine a Russian guitar that had an image of St. Basil's Cathedral painted on the body. Don't remember the company name though.
What is the name of the song in the clip at 1:00 ?
Party on Wayne...
@tripsaplenty1227
22 күн бұрын
Party on Garth.
Never having thought about it before. suddenly just like that I am way curious about Armenian electric guitars!
I love Rammstein if its a rep of east German music it rules.
@Eidelmania
22 күн бұрын
I didn't know that Till was East German! Interesting.
It would be cool to see a video about how people saw the Soviet afghan war
Na bezrybiu i rak ryba as we say i Poland as well.
Why did the designers choose the Aelita? I always associate the name Aelita with the 1924 Soviet film. Is Aeltia common Russian female name?
@UshankaShow
22 күн бұрын
I believe, because of the movie the name was chosen. Never met a single Aelita girl in my life
@resrussia
22 күн бұрын
@@UshankaShow Thanks for the reply.
A question, what was the musical education, not in school, a conservatory or what ever, if you know.
Kazakh at the beginning?
The Shovel lol
The Urals are okay. They aren't any better or worse than 60's Teiscos. The biggest problem (Teiscos too) is tgey all have some Rube Goldberg vibrato system.
Allen Watts discribed the USSR as a one company country, and that company also runs the government. I see what he meant now.
So rock wasn't left up to the kids in the USSR. They needed mature, physically and socially, peeps. No LSD or pot needed. Until the lights go out. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ouch. Psycho Commie is a bit strong.
ha ha ... the song at the and of the clip is romanian...
Not interesting.