The fun part about writing this column is learning a guitar’s back story — where and when it was made, who played it — and assessing its playability and sound.
But sometimes you get a surprise, as I did with this 1961 Watkins Rapier 3 electric. Its creator was Sid Watkins, whose company — Watkins Electric Music, or WEM — played a fascinating role in British musical-instrument engineering. Sid was not just a luthier and woodworker but something of an electronics genius as well. He designed the electronics for the Vox Phantom Synth guitar as well as the echo units used by Hank Marvin and the Shadows.
As the company grew and its product lines expanded, WEM became nearly ubiquitous in the U.K. In addition to guitars, WEM made amps and PAs used by groups like the Who, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. The company even made Vox guitars to help the brand keep up with manufacturing demand during the guitar boom of the ’60s.
Watkins launched the Rapier line in 1959, and it continued until 1970. As for the surprise I mentioned earlier: There are photos of George Harrison playing a highly modified Rapier 33 that belonged to his friend Del Mandel at the Beatles’ Apple Studios in 1971, while he was producing the Radha Krishna Temple album. That’s right — a Beatle touched it!
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WEM also became known beyond the U.K. through exports. At one point the company was shipping 500 guitars a month overseas, most of them to the United States.
At the risk of sounding snarky, the Rapier 3’s weirdo factor is that it’s an early British guitar that actually sounds and plays great. If you’ve ever played any of Vox’s clunky guitars, you’ll know what I mean.
The Rapier 3 originally sold at the bargain price of 29 guineas, or $85, about a third of what a Fender Stratocaster cost at the time. But don’t let that fool you. These are well-made instruments.
At first look, this is an inviting glossy fiesta-red guitar not unlike a Strat, with three pickups, a vibrato bar, offset cutaways, a toggle switch and three knobs. As it turns out, there actually is something weird here, and it’s hiding in those knobs. Their functions aren’t as straight ahead as you might think.
The first knob is a rotary pickup selector with four detented stops. The next two are global volume and tone controls. As for the toggle, used in conjunction with the rotary knob it allows you to employ only the middle pickup. But depending on what setting you’re using, it also can act as a tone bypass and/or a kill switch. It only took me about an hour to figure that out.
But my patience was rewarded when I discovered a bunch of cool sounds and switch combinations along the way. This guitar is deep! It goes from rich-sounding jazz tones to really cool phasey rhythm guitar sounds and the thinnest banjo-like setting I’ve ever heard on a guitar without active EQ or processing. I’m not sure what you’d use that for, but I couldn’t stop playing the Status Quo song “Pictures of Matchstick Men” with it. The middle two pickup settings are where this guitar really comes to life, with usable clean tones that sound great with overdrive or distortion.
The maple neck is skinny and fast, and has a rosewood fingerboard with 22 frets, plus a zero fret. The neck is relatively straight, but the truss rod seems to have plenty play left on it. In addition, there’s a Hi/Lo vibrato that works cleanly and offers little resistance. But while it’s great for playing surf rock, there will be no dive-bombing on this guitar.
Note that the sticker on the pickguard is right in the strum path. The original one disappeared years ago, but I replaced it with an aftermarket sticker that I’ve already managed to scratch up.
In sum, this guitar is light, easy to play and sounds great.
Despite its features and history, the Watkins Rapier 3 never really achieved cult status. They can still be found online for well under a thousand bucks.
I bought the guitar shown here from its original owner, Francisco, whom I met on Facebook Marketplace. He and his brothers played in bands all through the ’60s and ’70s and this was the guitar he used.
When I showed up at his house to pick up the guitar, he and his brothers were in their garage amid drums, keyboards, guitars, amps, mixers, exercise equipment and a man-fridge. Classic. The guys were so friendly, and Francisco gave me a great deal on the guitar. My thanks to Paul Connet for getting the stickers off (sorry Francisco) without harming the finish.
Contact me with questions or pics of your whack jobs. I may even write about them.
