Tantra Hamsa - a very rare electric guitar from France

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's an email from Maxime:

Hello

I'm French, sorry for my bad English.

I have a guitar brand "Tantra":

Model: Hamsa
Color: Red
Dates of manufacture: 1981 to 1983

I wonder if you could give me an estimate of the price at the time and now. Thank you,

Maxime BAUCOUR

Rather than try to make uninformed guesses about a little-known French guitar brand, I decided to ask Hervé Le Garsmeur, one of the founders of Tantra guitars, who just happens to be a Guitarz reader and who has sent us info on Tantra before. Here's his response:

This is a very very rare model. We only made 5 of those. The fretboard is painted (though being in purple heart) there are sparkles in the varnish and it's kind of "basic sunburst". The pickup is the first generation we made, single coil with a grey touch in the middle. So I can assure that this guitar is one of the very first ones of our production (1981). The latter models had two single coils in the same box you could switch either in parralel or series, in or out of phase for humbucking or "Dire Straits" type of sound (but the real big sound was in parallel), the fretboard was natural and had round dots and wider frets.

By the way Hamsa means "swan" in Sanskrit; it's the shape of this bird that inspired this guitar. Concerning the price I really have no idea. If it still plays well I'd say 1500 € because of the rarity, maybe more for a real collector. We stopped making "painted" fretboards because it was really fragile on the edges. There were also two types of wood used. Without looking under the pickguard, you can tell by the weight; if the insrument is really stiff and rather heavy it's made from oak, if it's lighter and you can slightly bow the neck, it's made from mahogany.

Hope you have all the answers you need.

I'd like to thank Hervé for supplying the above information, and also Maxime for showing us these photos of this rare guitar.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

Exclusive: Tantra electric guitars brochure

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Hervé Le Garsmeur, one of the founders of French guitar manufacturers Tantra, has kindly shared with us this Tantra catalogue, the original of which is apparently disintegrating and, he suspects, may be the last one on the planet. So, here it is for prosperity:

Thank you for allowing us to share this, Hervé. It's very much appreciated!

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

The truth about the Tantra Suryah guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Here's a follow-up to last September's blog post about the Tantra Suryah guitar. The following email should explain all:

I saw this guitar on "guitarz" and since I'm trying to send you some words about it.

My name is Hervé Le Garsmeur, Iive in Britanny and was one of the founders of "Tantra guitars". At the very beginning Tantra was a rock band that decided to build its own guitars and P.A equipment. We ended by building a little factory in Bréhant-Loudéac (Morbihan). We worked very hard during 3 years (1 for settling down and designing the guitars an 2 to product them) and had to quit in 1984 (thanks George Orwell!) because being very young at that time (the youngest was 19 , the oldest 23) we had some difficulties to find a bank that would follow us. We sold a little les than a hundred insruments so they are very rare and I'm glad to see that some of them survived.

The model "Suryah" presented on "guitarz" is one of the first we ever made. Suryah means "the sun" and the first idea is an egg shape (very symbolic). Those "beasts" were made to last forever. I've got one of those at home and I play it daily since all these years and it's still a very reliable and sounding instrument. Body and neck are carved in the same piece of very old oak (yes!) reinforced by a central piece of amarante (very hard wood from Brazil). The fretboard is also in amarante that turned from purple to brown with time. The pickguard is in stainless steel (cut with a laser) and NOT ALUMINIUM.

Pickups are home made (Huge alnico 12 wrapped with 10 000 turns of thread) we wanted very large single coils. It explains the steel pickguard that shields perfectly the electronic devices. It's indeed a very quiet instrument when plugged.No truss rod in the neck, just a hollow square stainless steel bar all through very much like old Martins.

There's a true connection with singer Johnny Halliday as we made him a special model (axe shape) for his show "Le survivant" at "Le palais des sports" in Paris 1982. This guitar in by now on sale for about 10 000€. You can see it on internet if you type "Johnny Halliday guitare tantra". We also made electric harps for Alan Stivell and many other strange instruments.

Thanks for the information, Hervé. It's very much appreciated.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Tantra Surya from 1983

guitarz.blogspot.com:
For the guitar enthusiast such as I, there is always something "new" to discover. Yes, the guitar world is extremely conservative and set in its ways, but that doesn't mean there have never been any mavericks. You just have to look a bit harder to find the more unusual stuff.

This French seller currently has this Tantra Surya guitar from 1983 on eBay. It looks for all the world like a very curvy Flying V, and has an almost Sci-Fi/flying saucer feel to it. The pickguard appears to be made from alumunium and has an integral bridge with the saddles attached to an up-turned lip at the rear end of the plate.

Unfortunately I can tell you very little else about this model, and the seller doesn't seem to know much about it either, but mentions a possible connection with French superstar Johnny Hallyday.

As ever, if anyone has any more info, please use the comments below!

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!