Gemelli 195-4-v Diamond

It's a 1964 Gemelli made Diamond "wildcat". the guitar has had a new neck built by Michael Gardner of Gardner guitars.
It has four Mini Humbuckers, 6 pushbuttons, one volume and one tone.
It has a bigsby meets Jazzmaster type of vibrato unit.
The Guitar was orinally blue but I had Mike refin it "fiesta red".

This guitar has probably one of nicest tones I can ask for. I have three guitars I swear by in the studio and this is one of them. my other two are a '64 strat with a '68 neck and a '59 LP Junior.
This guitar has a beautiful rich sound much like an es-335 but also has the capability of getting that "quack" of a strat. I often when recording like running this guitar staight into the board for rhythm tracks. It has 6 pushbuttons which are as follows: ALL,T, (Bridge pick-up) B+T, (neck and bridge pickups) M, (Middle pickups)B, (Neck Pick-up) and "O" which would be off. My favorite selections are "all" "B+T" and "M" the bridge pickup by it's self is just a tad too bright for my tastes but it is quite useful for leads and chord voicings. The All position is really full and rich and sounds freaking huge through a bigmuff and a fender bassman. I really can't find any tone that dosn't inspire me out of this guitar. the B=T almost reminds me of a gretsch. it deffinately has that jangly bite but still maintaining the tight low end. The "M" setting has the full on strat "quack" like you'd get on postions 2 and 4 on a strat's 5 way switch, but still maintains it's jazzy undertone.

I had this guitar restored quite a few years ago my Sacramento Guitar luthier and longtime friend Mike Gardner of gardner guitars. when it went to him, it had "Aria" neck on it that had been on the guitar since the late '60s or earlt '70s after the original "wildcat" neck was broken. It also had years of paint underneath the previous refin.
Mike copletely stripped the body, and buit a custom neck for it.
Mike did a beautiful Refin job painting it "Fiesta Red".
The Neck is Birdseye maple with a rosewood (22 fret) fingerboard. It's very comfortable, the frets were dressed just how I like them, It plays like butter! He also installed a set of gotoh vintage style keys on it as well. I've never had to do a truss rod adjustment in all the time I've had it. the neck is still as straight as the day I brought it home. The guitar is really great about is staying in tune even using the "wammy bar" or tuned in odd tunings.

It's pretty solid and I've never had any real issues with it. the only thing I really ever had to do was replace the 40 year old output jack and the leads because they were just really worn out, other than that, It's always been extremely dependable. The action always stays just how it should be regardless of climate or seasonal change.
I've never had any problem using it live or in the studio. it's pretty stable.

If I ever had any issues with the neck, I know mike would fix it.
as far Gemelli, I'm pretty sure all the people that worke for Gemelli back in the '60s are in nursing homes by now. haha

If This guitar were ever stolen or lost I'd probably flip. It has a great deal of sentimental as well historical value to me. It was actually used by the band "The Music Explosion" on their hit "Little bit o' soul".
Out of everyone talk to that knows about the Diamonds, I'm told this is the only one they've ever seen like this, because bascally it's a Gemelli 195-4-V that bears the Sam Ferri Diamond Logo It's part of the "wildcat" series. most with four pickups were from the ranger series which seem a bit more common. I was told this was either a special order or it's some form of a proto-type. either way, it's a rare gemelli. I just love it for it's tone and it's fun to play. I could never replace this guiat. hell I don't even Diamonds pop up that often at all.

really weird strat style body bigsby style trem 4 mini humbuckers 6 pushbuttons and 1vol and one tone. this was made in Italy by gemelli for Diamond Accordian co. It was made in 1962. Ive never seen another like this.

Very 60s Es-335 meet strat and ricky tone very full and sound real jazzy.

Being restored

being restored

its a guitar Im restoring but when its done it will scream.