Specifications:
There were a couple of different modifications of Diamant. We'll mention just a few of them.
Brand: Jolana, made in Horovice, Czechoslovakia
Pickups: two HB. There were at least two types of them: soapbars with closed pole pieces (shown) and opened - with no covers. Sometimes there's a "Spectrum" logo on them.
Controls: two volume, two tone, 3-way switch. A rare modification used a chickenhead switch instead of the regular Gibson-style one. Knobs were usually transparent, sort of LP custom design.
Hardware: chrome
Neck: bolt-on (yes!), 22 frets, trapezoid inlay.
Binding: body (both face and back), neck. The binding is made with a sort of creme - white plastic, although its color is still not creamy enough to match Gibson.
Bridge: tune-o-matic/stop bar. Tune-o-matic is somehow modified and features a 3D adjustment option for each string. Stop-bar is bigger than a standard LP.
Tuners: Jolana standard. It is used on almost all the Jolana guitars - oval heads and oval back covers.
Materials: maple neck, unidentified body woods
Finishes: black, red, sunburst (rare).
A couple of "modifications" : pickguard is screwed to the body, and the lower strap button can be screwed out and it reveals a screwdriver. wow. |
Jolana Diamant
Jolana Diamant is a copy of Gibson Les Paul. Altough it's bad, it's still good enough to kick all the other cheesy axes' butt - it can be called 'playable'. There's a sort of Gibson custom shop "diamond" inlay on the headstock, Jolana usually don't put their logo there. If you want, you can write "Gibson" up there and get a "custom shop" LP copy for $50 (some 90% of all Diamants are black, so it might actually look like so-called "Black beauty" - Gibson custom shop LP; the guitar pictured here features somewhat rare sunburst finish).
Diamant is one of the most popular 70's Jolana
guitars and probably the best of them. It's
not as heavy as Les Paul custom, but it stll
weights more than a Strat.
Jolana tuners
(don't even dream about staying tuned with
those), two humbuckers - I've seen a couple of different types, all Jolana-made.
The controls are the same as on LP. Jolana
version of the tune-o-matic bridge that tends
to break strings. Chrome hardware, bolt-on neck.
The sound is not as poor as on the other
Jolanas, maybe thanks to the classic LP
construction. The guitar really likes to feed
back, unlike Gibsons. The action on guitars
I've played was low and it was really playable
(!). All the electronics are real crap, but I knew
people who replaced it with
something better and used their Diamants live
and in the studio.
Approx. price: not more than $100.
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Credits:
Studio 1525 (USA)
Amit, Israel
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