Wandre Krundaal Bikini II Model Solid Body Electric Guitar, c. 1964, made in Cavriago, Italy, black finish, wood and plastic body, plastic sheathed aluminum neck with rosewood fingerboard, black hard shell case.
While there have been a number of attempts over the last 60+ years to crate a fully portable self-contained electric guitar and amplifier combination, there never one quite like Wandre Pioli's Krundaal Bikini before it, nor has there been a guitar quite like this since! This utterly singular creation is a holy grail among lovers of the myriad products of Italian guitar auteur Wandre Pioli, and one that stands out even in that amazingly eccentric company!
While this combination of a plastic-and-aluminum Wandre guitar with a self-contained but sizable amp/speaker pod seems quixotic today, there was a perceived market niche for such an instrument in the early 1960s. In Italy guitarists were often employed as "strolling" players in cafes or restaurants, and being tied to a fixed amplifier was inconvenient, to say the least. Starting around 1960 Wandre began working with Athos Davoli's electronics concern to create and instrument specifically for this purpose, and this model was the eventual result of that collaboration.
The name "Bikini" is a bit of a linguistic joke, coined because like the then-infamous bathing suit the instrument consists of two separate parts! "Krundaal" was a name used by Athos Davoli as a brand for his extensive electronic product line. The guitar carries more different logos than most; "Wandre" on the headstock, "Davoli" on the pickup covers and alongside "Krundaal" and "Bikini" on the metal control plate. The quixotic body shape with its black-and-chrome livery was apparently meant to suggest the lines of a motorcycle, another of Wandre's obsessions. This ebony example is a "Bikini II" the final and supposedly perfected model available in 1963-65.
The eccentrically shaped body is largely made of plastic with the two original Davoli pickups mounted to a stamped metal plate covering the center of the face. This also holds the amp controls consisting of an on/off switch, lateral rotary volume wheel and three typically Italian pushbuttons offering preset sounds "Normal" "Accompaniment" and "High". Running the full length of the body internally is a long tube holding 10 (!) "C" batteries providing supposedly providing up to 100 hours of amplified sound, with spiffy metal caps on the ends that open for reloading. The guitar can also be played through a conventional amplifier, although in that mode it lacks any volume control. No vibrato is fitted; the strings go over an unusual metal Hofner-style bridge to a solid tailpiece at the end of the aluminum neck extension decorated with Wandre's "W" twin chevron embellishment.
The proprietary Wandre plastic-sheathed aluminum-core neck is topped by a rosewood fingerboard with white plastic dot inlays. The wide-slotted headstock is rosewood faced with aluminum edging and bolted to the neck. The six back-facing tuners are crowned with large metal-framed pearloid buttons. The oval Wandre logo is discreetly stamped into the face and rather inconspicuous.
Hung below the lower body is the oval amplifier pod ("Jettison the pod, captain!") holding the Davoli CT-642 transistor amp and speaker, crowned on the face with a chromed grill. This unit is thicker than the body and held in place by flexible connectors making the whole package a bit less awkward to hold than it might appear. There are jacks on the underside of the pod for routing the straight guitar output to an separate amplifier or, more entertainingly, the amplified output to be fed to another amp. This can result in some riotous overdrive sounds, and may be the Bikini's unsung secret weapon!
Upon introduction in 1961 the Bikini cost 78,000 Lira which was an enormous sum for most Italian players to cough up at the time. Nevertheless several versions of the model were produced over about 4 years up into 1964; they were VERY briefly imported to the US in 1964 as the "Avanti I" by jobber Maurice Lipsky in New York with a $395 price tag. In every iteration this is one of the most visually striking and unique of all electric guitars and one of the most desirable of Mr. Wandre Pioli's fantastical electric relics.
Despite the wildly eccentric look and feel with its twin Davoli pickups the Bikini is a fully playable, cool sounding guitar in both self-contained or remotely plugged-in mode. Kiss' Ace Frehley famously posed with one in 1981, adding a bit of notoriety to the then forgotten model. This clean original example once belonged to noted English guitar guru Paul Day, and was pictured in Tony Bacon's UULTIMATE GUITAR BOOK. A copy of the book and a signed letter from Day attesting to this provenance is included.
Overall length is 44 1/4 in. (112.4 cm.), 16 in. (40.6 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 7/8 in. (4.8 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.).
This is a really nice example of this stellar Italian rarity, original, complete intact and fully functional. There is some light general wear overall but nothing to serious; the plastic body covering has some check lines and minor scuffing, and the neck sheath has shrunk up just a bit with some long lateral check lines. The printed graphics on the body faceplate are nearly all intact with only very minor loss, the metal overall shows mostly light scuffing. The original frets show very little wear, and overall the guitar does not appear too much used.
The amp unit has seen our typical maintenance and servicing including replacement of electrolytic capacitors and any out-of-spec components. The two output jacks on the bottom of the amp pod appear to be labeled in reverse of how they function, but both work. While wildly eccentric for sure (and probably not anyone's day-to-day-gigger) this is a playable instrument and can actually be a lot of fun! It comes in a gigantic later HSC, with the Tony Bacon book it is pictured in, the provenance letter from Paul Day and most amazingly the original two-tone vinyl gig bag, which is likely shrunken up enough that fully enclosing the instrument would be a tight fit (we did not try!) but it is certainly cool to have! Overall Excellent - Condition.
