Italia Maranello Speedster II

Buying a guitar off ebay is a dicey gamble, but once again the music gods smiled upon me.

I saw this Italia Speedster. I'd never even heard of the brand, but it's looks caught me, and a little research determined it was by Trev Wilkinson. I couldn't find a bad review anywhere and, after watching it a few days, I got a little obsessed and then I had to have it. They normally retail for $500 - $600, but I won this for $250. Mint, flawless, never played, it still had the $500 sticker on it.

I'm trying to dig up some more info, but I think I might have a "transitional" model between the Speedster I (single vol, no tone, no pickguard) and the current Speedster II (2 vol, 1 tone, fugly pickguard thing). The dealer indicated this was a limited production, so maybe that's the case, I don't know yet.

[Edit- I checked with the dealer, and this was his response: We deal directly with Italia Canada and that was brought in just for Canada. From what we were told there is approx 12 of each colour made.
Of course I have to take this with a grain of salt, but maybe it'll be worth something someday, and it may explain the differences from the advertised model. -R]

Couple of pics:


Here's the specs:
Body Korina
Neck Hard Maple
Joint Set-in
Finger Board Rosewood
Radius 304/12"
Neck profile Italia "C"
Scale 634mm(25")
Frets 22 medium jumbo
Inlays Split pearloid mini-block
Nut Graphite
Nut Width 42mm(1.6535")
Head Machine Italia Die-Cast
Bridge Wilkinson wrapover stop bar type
Pickups Wilkinson WHHB vintage-voiced humbucker
Controls Volume, Master Tone
Switch 3 way toggle
Jack 1/4" Mono Jack
Hardware Chrome

I can't say enough good things about this guitar. It's got a great vintage sound clean or distorted. It feels absolutely wonderful to play. Pretty thin neck, like my Gibson L6, but with that C shape. Feels really good to me. Action was all set up, very low, very smooth.

I was a little concerned about the fixed bridge as I'd never had one that I could not intonate myself before, but the intonation was perfect.

Pick ups sound darkish. Not so trebly on the bridge as some, which suits me, too. Good sustain, compares favourably to the L6 in all ways actually.

Finish, as mentioned was just flawless. I fully expected all sorts of bad things, but I have 0 complaints. I would definitely buy this guitar all over again and may look into some other Italias in the future. They are priced much lower than they sound or play.

Now, if the racing stripes can just make me play faster.... ;)

Like that retro look. Korina body eh? I'd like to hear a Korina body guitar. If i'm not mistaken that's a tree from Hawaii yes? Seems as though I read that the Korina wood is supposed to have the same type of properties as the mahgony, but covers the high frequencies a little better.

Sounds like you made a good score my friend. When you're wife gets mad at the new purchase and she makes you get rid of something, you can send that something to me.

The Korina was a definite selling point. I was thinking of the old Explorers and Eddie's Shark heheh.

I begin to understand what somebody said about a guitar, if it doesn't sound good unplugged, it probably won't sound good plugged in. This has crystal clear sound unplugged. No messy harmonics, noises or vibrations or anything. And plugged in, well... :)

Originally Posted by: RickBlackerWhen you're wife gets mad at the new purchase and she makes you get rid of something, you can send that something to me.

Fortunately for me, we budget for play money, so I'm good. She doesn't understand why I need so many guitars, though. :D

"Korina" is not the term for Hawaiian wood. The correct term is "Koa". The wood is definitely harder and denser than mahogany, and definitely more scarce (=$), as it comes from the Hawaiian Islands. It is the wood of choice for Hawaiian ukuleles because of it's resonance. A very few commercial guitars are made from this wood. Martin comes to mind. However it is not in their top of the line models. Choice koa guitars, as well as top of the lie ukuleles, are usually made in the islands by master luthiers for their particular sound and applications. Check out some of the master slack-key players such as Keola Beamer, as well as Brother Iz for his signature uke sound for this particular sound wood. As far as looks, choice koa is comparable to what we call fiddle-back here on the mainland. The main difference is that is definitely more red in color. Don't mean to step on any body's feet in this discussion... Just want to share and open up some possibilities...

Originally Posted by: Born Toulouse"Korina" is not the term for Hawaiian wood. The correct term is "Koa".

Interesting. I never thought much about wood sources or origins or even wood types beyond oak, pine & maple before getting into guitar building (and aquisition). My previous experience was what I called "cabin quality furniture" and "earthquake proof house renos" :D.

So... yer saying that Korina's a valid name, but it does not come from Hawaii? Where does it come from? (I want to say Africa., I suppose I should Google that, but discussion is good, too.)

According to the PRS website "Korina, also known as Limba, is an African wood known for its legendary tonal qualities that add mids to the usually more mellow mahogany sound. The result is a very light guitar that is rich in tone."

I personally do not have much experience with the wood... IMHO it looks like bleached out Mahogany (in a good way). The grain is tight and makes the finishes really good.

Thanks for getting back to this post. I looked this up, but I prefer to hear independant results to compare with my own :) I would have to concur with the strong mids. I'm still finding my EQ sweetspot with this guitar (I'm like a snail when it comes to tweaking: make a little change, play it for days, make another change, etc...)

Anyway, that's the conclusion I've come to after playing EQ "flat" with various modelling for a while. Strong mids, and I'm going to have to boost up the bass a little. Highs are pretty strong already.