Norma Sparkle

1966, MIJ, purchased over ebay for $180.
I recieved this guitar in beautiful condition, hardly ever touched. Very heavy, plywood guitar. Orange sparkle finish, huge tortise shell pickguard, 3 single coil pickups, GIGANTIC fenderesque headstock, about 3 inches longer than a strat. The tuners all broke when i tried to tune the guitar, the old plastic buttons had become too brittle and the gears too stiff. The neck is kind of square, and you can tell it is 3 pieces laminated together, i think it is mahogany because it has a very open grain (the black finish on the neck sort of fades into a sunburst in the middle where you can see through) 3 rocker switches, 3 volumes, 1 tone. I dont think the middle pickup is reverse wound either. The bridge is a bigsby copy with a roller bridge.

This is the strangest guitar I have ever owned. The guitar is almost as loud as a small acoustic guitar, despite being made of plywood, which i would had imagined wouldnt be that resonant. Its heavy too. The pickups and electronics are as strange as its appearance, the rocker switches let you combine the pickups as you wish, making some cool and useful lead and rythm tones. The pickups are huge and kind of noisy, but the pole pieces are only small screws, making for a very unique tone. Very Lo-Fi.

The finish on this guitar isnt smooth. it seems to be some sort of sparkley plastic sprayed onto the plywood, which i could tell it was made from without before i even took off the pickguard. that said, it looks incredible for being a 38 year old sparkle guitar, and the sparkle is still vivid and none of it has chipped or flaked off. the frets on this guitar are TINY! I couldnt believe it when i recieved it, i never knew guitars were made with such thin wire. It isnt that short i guess, just incredibly thin. I am worried i will wear it out quickly. fortunatly for me its previous and only other owner hardly ever played it and it sat in a closed for most of its life.

I didnt buy this guitar to be a workhorse or anything, just as the beginning of a bizarre guitar collection, so i dont imagine i will be subjecting it dangerous situations very often, but it does actually seem like a sturdy enough chunk of laminated hardwoods that if zombies were chasing me, this would be among my first choices for self defence.

This model guitar was manufactured by the tombo company in the late half of the 1960s under the norma brand name. I dont believe they are still in business.

This guitar is ultra cool. It's design at first inspection appears to be a fender jaguar mixed with a '56 chevy. but its design definately takes more from italian guitar makers like eko, with its giant headstock, pickguard and garrish sparkle finish. I have been playing guitar for 10 years and this is my first guitar that was made before i was born, i hope to have many more though. I play blues and countryish lead guitar, I usually reley on a jay turser ibanez artist copy, but i want to expand my sonic palatte.