Headstock showing Odyssey Logo Carved Hollowbody Archtop
Body
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Some history I found on the web:
Product: Attila Balogh Odyssey
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 02/13/2006 at 09:53am by Ken
Email: klindemere at gmail<dot>com
Features : No Opinion
In doing some research on guitars the other day I ran
into this web site and thought it might be worth shedding some light regarding
the postings here. It was a long time ago, and some of the details and timing
are a bit hazy in my mind, but here are the basics.
Odyssey Guitars was a
Vancouver based company started in 1977 by Ken Lindemere (me), Joe Sallay, and
Attila Balogh. Joe and I had a retail music store in Vancouver and Attila ran a
small guitar repair shop. We did repairs on site and used Attila, who had
previously worked as a finisher in a high-end furniture factory, for any
refinishing work. Over a period of a couple of years we became friends and
eventually decided to start Odyssey. Basically Joe handled sales and Attila and
I did most of the design and production. By 1979 we had another 5 people working
for us and were producing an average of about 50 guitars/basses a month.
The Hawk guitar and bass were
lower-end instruments ? natural maple with a flat finish, very basic electronics
with low-cost pickups that Larry DiMarzio wound especially for us, a 3 piece
maple neck (lacking the veneer stripes), lower cost machine heads, rosewood
fingerboard, plastic covers instead of brass, etc, and a different body design ?
but used the same basic neck-through-body construction as the higher-end
Odysseys. These retailed at CDN$595.
There were 3 basic Odysseys in
both guitars and basses, all the same body shape and electronics (Dimarzio PAF?s
on guitars and Bartollini on the basses, 2 tone, 2 volume, pickup selection
switch, phase switch) but made from different woods, and generally with either a
red or tobacco sunburst high gloss catalyzed lacquer finish. Since we also did a
lot of custom work the electronic configuration and finishes sometimes varied,
and we also made several with active electronics and built-in 6-band graphic
equalizers. We used Schaller machine heads and machined all the knobs, strap
buttons, cover plates, bridges, and tailpieces from solid brass. The bridge sat
on a brass block imbedded in the body.
All the guitars had 24 frets and a 24-3/4?scale. The necks were 5 piece laminated maple - basically 3 3/4" maple boards separated with mahogany veneer strips.
The Model 300 had a flat-faced mahogany body, unbound ebony fingerboard, and retailed at CDN$895.
The Model 200 had a carved ash body, unbound ebony fingerboard, and retailed at CDN$995.
The Model 100 had a mahogany body overlaid with a carved figured maple top and ebony fingerboard. Both the fingerboard and body were bound. It retailed at CDN$1295.
We also made a few semi-acoustics with basically
the same design as the Model 100, but with a hand carved (hollow) spruce top.
The pickups and tailpiece were mounted onto the through-the-body neck and the
bridge was an ebony archtop style bridge. The arrangement stopped any movement
of the pickups and therefore eliminated feedback problems at high volumes, and
the floating spruce top and bridge produced an archtop type sound.
I sold out my shares in 1981
to take advantage of another business opportunity and Odyssey closed its doors
the following year. Attila went to work for Ayotte Drums and was killed in a
freak accident in 1987 when a sanding machine fell on him as he was working
alone late one night. Joe started a small wholesale musical instrument company
and is still living in Vancouver distributing guitars, strings, etc. After
spending 20-odd years managing an industrial distribution company in Vancouver I
now live in Santiago, Chile.
It's nice to know that some of
the instruments survived are still being played and enjoyed.
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/product/Attila+Balogh/Odyssey/10/1
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted 03/17/2005 at 02:11pm by Alex Gombos
Email: ikarus<at>sympatico dot ca
Features : 10
The semi-acoustic Series 500 spruce top binded TS/WS finish and Series 600 are with choice of noble hardwood with heringbone binding with TS/WS finish and both model with 7 band graphic equalizer. All of these guitars are made as 4 string bass guitars also. The Series500 bass model is fretless. All the models are neckthru constractions. All of these guitars are fantastic and priceless treasures.
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/product/Attila+Balogh/Odyssey/10/1