Ashley Pangbourn Lead Guitar

[lambo99]

Hi,

I can only find reference to Ashley Pangbourn making base guitars. I have a friend who owns an Ashley Pangbourn eletric lead guitar - the shape is a bit like a Gibson SG and has my friends name gold plated on the top of the neck where the tuning dials are - I know this is a bass guitar site but does anyone know if Ashley Pangbourn made many Lead Guitars - as this could, potentially, be quite rare?

many thanks

[Chris2112]

I've not heard of there being Pangborn guitars however it is more than possible. That said, pretty much anything Ashley made is pretty rare! Last I heard he was working for Gibson in Germany, it would be amazing if he started building again.

[Musky]

Rare certainly. That's not quite the same as valuable, if that's what you were asking.

It has to be said the Pangborn basses are quite rare themselves, despite the fact that these were the core of Ashley's business. He was never a volume builder, and despite Mark King's usage raising his profile in the eighties his instruments never received the sort of profile perhaps they deserved. Add to that they've been out of production for over 20 years and you get a builder that many people have sadly never heard of. Doubly so when it comes to guitars - as you point out, he's best known for basses.

I wouldn't like to hazard a guess at any possible value and I think the only way your friend may find out is by sticking it up on ebay. Though I suspect he'll probably be hanging on to it.

[Chris2112]

Yeah, I certainly wouldn't expect it to raise much cash, after all:

1) It's an SG body shape...

2) It's a Pangborn. Pangborn fans are bassists, because we saw Mark King using them and thought they looked and sounded awesome. Now, it's just the die hard Mark King fans who know what they are, which is a relatively small group who aren't typically interested in guitars. Even the Pangborn P Bass shape (the Warrior or Chieftain? I can't remember) doesn't seem that sought after, there was one on sale here for ages.

for me, Pangborns always looked a lot like Jaydees with a better headstock design!

[RhysP]

Pangbourn definitely did make guitars as well as basses - we had a lovely black telecaster he built along with a couple of his basses in the shop where I used to help out.

[zigmondo]

I'll add an affirmative: I had a good few goes on an early one about 3 years ago, as my mate picked it up from somewhere local(Cheltenham, Gloucs area). I have to add, rare does not mean good either! It was a double cutaway, neck-through beast with layers of extremely dense wood in the neck and a solid mahogany body...I remember it weighing more than my Yamaha SG2000: a monster.
It looked as if it should mean business in terms of tone, yet it had several dead spots...one of those unfortunate happenings when the resonances of the wood were all working against each other. The pickups had all manner of switching and coil-splitting arrangements going on but sadly the tone was poor. My mate thought, reasonably enough, that putting in a decent set of humbuckers would transform the sound. It did not; he was very happy to be able to sell it online, who assumed the same as he had: as an A. P., surely it would be both rare and toneful...I hope that the one you mention has everything working for it!

[doctor_of_the_bass]

Hi!

He certainly produced a number of guitars - there was certainly a lead version of the Warrior bass and I've seen numerous Strat types that he made! I have four Pangborn basses at present and they are superb!

Cheers!

Nick