A guitar by Musima?

[Robert Dobra]

Hello everyone,

I am sorry for posting in English – I have recently acquired an electric guitar with Rellog pickups that I believe was made by Musima (or maybe some other GDR maker), perhaps during the 1950's. I haven't managed to narrow down the search any further beyond what I can tell from the general looks – any help will be greatly appreciated. I've attached some photos below. Thank you very much in advance

[Dirk Wacker]

Could be a kind of early or special run of the Musima Elektrina, but it´s not a regular model. The shape of the headstock matches perfectly (the pattern-thing on the headstock looks homemade and was for sure not on there when the guitar left the factory), the shape of the body and especially the cutaway matches mostly but I´ve never seen such a sperm-shaped controlplate before. The pickguard looks like celluloid but the regular Elektrinas didn´t had one that looked like this.The control pot, the rotary switch, the tuners, the tailpiece and of course the Rellog pickups are clearly and unmistakeably from the Markneukirchen area.

[Robert Dobra]

Could be a kind of early or special run of the Musima Elektrina, but it´s not a regular model. The shape of the headstock matches perfectly (the pattern-thing on the headstock looks homemade and was for sure not on there when the guitar left the factory), the shape of the body and especially the cutaway matches mostly but I´ve never seen such a sperm-shaped controlplate before. The pickguard looks like celluloid but the regular Elektrinas didn´t had one that looked like this.The control pot, the rotary switch, the tuners, the tailpiece and of course the Rellog pickups are clearly and unmistakeably from the Markneukirchen area.

Thank you! The metal plates were added (glued) later for sure, there is another layer of celuloid beneath the control plate one. I'm really looking forward to getting a proper bridge, restoring it and hopefully finding even more information about it. The Rellogs don't have any text imprinted on the covers. The latest thing I found is a marking on the headstock (still under a layer of glue), but I have no idea if it's of any significance whatsoever:

[Dirk Wacker]

That´s no Musima label for sure, but several other companies used such triangle logos on the headstock, e.g. Alosa
Could you carefully remove some more glues with a razor blade so it´s possible to see more of the letters ?

[Robert Dobra]

I think I got it. I haven't managed to save the whole inscription, but I'm 99 percent positive the letters say "Arcus". Given that I managed to google information about the brand and it's Vogtlandt history, I guess this should be correct?

Edit: Now it's for sure: https://www.ebay.de/itm/164877373574?mk ... olid=10001

[Taylor_T5-S]

Arcus Elite was a brand of violin maker Gustav Schindler in Bergstrasse in Bad Brambach, who also had his own store.
Some info here (in German): https://www.janecke.name/lebenslaeufe/janecke-chris-1

Stefan Lob gave this info:
http://lacquercracks.dk/arcus/

This is a year 1959 Arcus catalog: https://www.ebay.de/itm/113877416615



Ralf