Wandre Psychedelic Sound Model Semi-Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1968), made in Cavriago, Italy, sunburst polyester finish, Plywood body, aluminum neck with plastic sheathing and rosewood fingerboard, black hard shell case.
The Wandre guitars story is a book-length epic tale of the battle between creativity and commerce, and there is a (unfortunately rare) 2014 book "WANDRE-The Artist Of The Electric Guitar" by Marco Ballestri available for the curious! After some years of unstable company financials and underwhelming export sales, Pioli was pretty much at the end of his production rope by 1967. Over the past half-dozen years he had been repeatedly advised to create an instrument aimed at a broader appeal to young players that might be put off the flashy, exotic oddities that constituted much of Wandre's catalog. The amazingly named "Psychedelic Sound" was pretty much his most "normal" instrument but still embodied many of his creative touches.
Obviously designed for the times, this final model was pretty much Wandres last gasp guitar, his slightly unorthodox take on the hugely popular double-cutaway design based on Gibson's ES-335 series. This was not his first attempt at America-centric marketability, but is definitely the most conventional of his 1960s instruments does not even look like a Wandre instrument at first glance. Many other European and Japanese guitars adopted this basic design, and the hallmark of Wandre's originality is rather lost at first glance.
Take a closer look, though, and Pioli's eccentric genius is still evident. Besides the aesthetics, the most trailblazing aspect of Wandre guitars is the aluminum neck, in this case bolted to the body with no extended centerpiece. Over a decade before Travis Bean or Veleno, Pioli's instruments featured a thin, rounded aluminum neck/body section running from nut to tail, in this case encased in a black plastic sheath with a very prominent volute; this gives more traditional feel than raw aluminum. The fingerboard appears to be made of Phenolic, bound with large plastic dot inlays. Bolted to the neck is a conventional 3-and-3 wood headstock, multi-bound with individual enclosed metal tuners on either side and an aluminum nut spacer on the face with a small Wandre logo stamped in.
The double-cutaway body is 16" wide and 1 7/8" at the rim, built of thin plywood with an arched back, flat top with large double-bound F-holes and multiple binding on the top edge; the back is unbound. This Psychedelic Sound" mounts a pair of late-model thin coil Davoli pickups with the company logo on the top of the plastic casings. These are somewhat sharper sounding then the larger earlier Davoli units but still quite versatile, controlled by a conventional rig with a 3-way switch and single master volume and a tone knobs. The jack is mounted to the rim. The vibrato is the standard Wandre unit, mounted near the back edge of the body under a black plastic cover.
The raised plastic pickguard has abstract script letters on the face reading "Selene 3"; this piece were intended for an updated version of that older model that was never produced. This fitting marks this instrument as one of the very last ever assembled at Wandre's round factory in Cavriago, a sad end to such an amazing creative run. Estimates indicate less than 40 or so of these were assembled, out of perhaps 100 of this model produced at all. Although a perhaps sadly conventional looking end to the amazingly creative Wandre run of the 1960s, this is still a distinctive and very playable instrument, designed for the "Summer of Love" with love by Italy's greatest artist of the electric guitar, Wandre Pioli.
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 "Trippy" Psychedelic Sound model is a truly superb example, fully original and extremely well-preserved for its age with all components original and intact. The original finish on the body is very clean with just some small handling marks and a bit of rub wear along the back edges, and some dings, checks and rub marks to the lower side. The somewhat fragile plastic sheath covering the aluminum neck is nearly perfect, not cracked or peeling at all.
All hardware is original and intact with no cracks or breaks to the plastic and only minor wear, most notable scuffing to the knobs. The electronics are original, untampered with and work as they should; the jack is a standard phone jack instead of the 5mm Geloso piece found on earlier Wandres and appears original. The frets and fingerboard show hardly any wear.
Overall, this is about the cleanest of the fantastic Wandre creations we have been blessed with recently and is a breeze to play, not the most original or striking but still a great sounding Wandre Pioli instrument powered by the later single-coil Davoli pickups and just beautiful to behold. It lives in an old but not original HSC. Overall Excellent - Condition.
