Duesenberg is what happens when a German engineer decides Art Deco was right the first time.
Dieter Golsdorf started Rockinger Guitars in Hannover in 1978, created the Duesenberg brand in 1986, and then in 1995 built the Starplayer TV, the guitar that defines everything the company has done since. Ingo Renner runs the daily business alongside him. Thirty years on, the Starplayer TV still looks like nothing else on a stage, and it still does the job.
Guitar Freaks is an authorised Duesenberg dealer, a real boutique in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, run by the team behind Bass Freaks, shipping worldwide. If you came here for the Konami arcade game, wrong shop entirely.
The Duesenberg range
| Model |
Type |
Character |
| Starplayer TV |
Semi-hollow, centreblock |
The signature model. Laminated spruce top, flamed maple back and sides, Domino P90 at the neck, GrandVintage humbucker at the bridge, Diamond Deluxe Tremola, 25.5 inch scale. Standard, Deluxe, Velvet, Phonic and Custom. |
| Fantom A and S |
Solid body |
Solid mahogany with a carved top, 24.6 inch scale, ebony board, Crunchbucker at the bridge and GrandVintage at the neck. |
| Starplayer CBR |
Semi-hollow |
The Starplayer with a different voice. |
| Caribou |
Solid body |
The more stripped-back Duesenberg, without losing the look. |
| Senior, Julia, Double Cat, Paloma, Julietta, Falken |
Various |
The wider catalogue, each with its own body and its own pickup pairing. |
| Alliance Series |
Signatures |
Mike Campbell, Joe Walsh, Johnny Depp, Bros. Landreth, Tom Bukovac, Paul Sidoti, Dave Baksh, Chris Chaney on bass, Paul Franklin on lapsteel, and the David Arnold James Bond Edition. |
| Basses and lapsteels |
Starplayer Bass, Triton, Kavalier, Kalico, Fairytale |
Same design language, different job. |
Duesenberg questions we actually get asked
Where are Duesenberg guitars made?
Bodies and necks are CNC-machined and painted in Croatia, then the Plek work, the assembly and the final setup all happen in Hannover, Germany. That is the honest answer and Duesenberg has never hidden it. There is no Asian production line, whatever a forum told you.
What is the Starplayer TV?
The model that relaunched the brand in 1995 and still carries it. Semi-hollow with a centreblock, so it has the air of a hollow body without the feedback tantrum. Laminated spruce top, flamed maple back and sides, a Domino P90 at the neck and a GrandVintage humbucker at the bridge, on a 25.5 inch scale with the Diamond Deluxe Tremola. It does country, indie, rockabilly and classic rock without ever sounding like it is trying.
What is the Starplayer TV Phonic?
A Starplayer TV variant fitted with Phonico covers, which changes both the look and the voicing. Same platform underneath, different personality on top.
What is a Diamond Deluxe Tremola?
Duesenberg's own vibrato, running on needle and nylon bearings with a 360 degree rotating arm. It is subtle rather than a dive bomb unit, and it comes back to pitch, which is more than can be said for most of what it looks like. The Radiator Tremola is its evolution, and yes, the Radiator is a vibrato, not a pickup, whatever the internet says.
What is a Multibender?
Duesenberg's pedal-steel bender system, two levers giving bends of up to two half-steps each, priced around 310 euros. If you have ever wanted the B-bender sound without owning a pedal steel, this is the shortcut.
What pickups does Duesenberg use?
All their own. The Domino is their P90, the GrandVintage is the humbucker, with a GrandVintage II in Alnico II. The Split King is a genuine full-size single coil with an added coil, not a splittable humbucker, which is a distinction worth getting right. Then there are the Crunchbucker, the Alnico Blade and the Pearlito depending on the model.
Fantom A or Starplayer TV?
The Fantom A is solid mahogany with a carved top on a shorter 24.6 inch scale, with a Crunchbucker at the bridge, so it hits harder and sits closer to a classic solid body. The Starplayer TV is semi-hollow and more open, with more shimmer and more room around the note. If your band is loud, the Fantom. If your band has space in it, the Starplayer.
Who plays Duesenberg?
Mike Campbell, whose signature is the best seller in the Alliance Series, plus Ron Wood, Joe Walsh, Bob Dylan, Johnny Depp, Billy Gibbons and Keith Richards. Not a bad list for a company from Hannover.
If you are also looking at
The usual cross-shop is the Suhr Classic S, which does vintage voicing from the solid-body side. Chapman Guitars covers similar territory at a very different price, and the SAR63 is the semi-hollow of that range. If you want the guitar that turns heads for the opposite reason, Mayones guitars. Everything else is on the electric guitars page.
Buying Duesenberg from Guitar Freaks
Authorised dealer, physical shop in Louvain-la-Neuve, worldwide shipping from Belgium. A Duesenberg is a guitar you buy partly with your eyes, so come and look at one in daylight. Photographs do not do the finishes justice and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
