Death [Metal Rock] is Upon Us...

1982 Barry Collier Rebeth Gothic Cross with Ram's Head.

This is probably the most unusual 'custom' guitar we have ever offered for sale… featuring a specially shaped 2 inch thick, 19 1/2 x 19 1/2 'Gothic Cross' body of 'ancient' mahogany with a laminated maple top. One-piece bolt-on mahogany neck with a nut width of just under 1 11/6 inches, a medium to thick profile and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Ebony fretboard with 22 original jumbo frets and rhombus shaped maple inlays with ebony circles as position markers. Gothic-shaped headstock with brass 'gothic' shaped (false) truss-rod cover with two screws. Individual Schaller M6 machine tuning heads with kidney-shaped brass buttons. The neck is secured to the body by a metal plate with six screws and two rivets. The body and neck of the guitar are finished in black with feint gold pinstripe around the body and the headstock. Three DiMarzio D Activator Humbucking pickups with brass surrounds and outputs of approximately 4.33k each. Specific brass six saddle, individually adjustable bridge and specific brass tailpiece secured to the body by ten screws. There are also three matching brass plates complementing the Gothic design, one either side of the bridge pickup and one behind the bridge. On the back of the body is a seven inch diameter brass plaque engraved with a pentogram encircling a goat's head in the center. The total length of the guitar is 41 inches. There are no controls for the electrics and the input jack is mounted on a gothic-style brass plate to the lower bass edge of the body. There are three gothic-shaped brass plates on the bass, treble and lower edges and also eight bras plates on the four 'cut-outs'. Although there are no controls, the three pickups have been wired together and this is a fully functional axe with surprising playability (apart from the action being a little on the high side) and a very full sound. This piece was built to look 'old'  and is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. Housed in a black gig-bag (9.00).

"British luthier Barry Collier clearly had the occult-obsessive metal guitarist in mind when he designed this instrument. The ornate woodwork and the brass fittings found on the body have been given a deliberately crude finish that creates an almost Gothic effect. "Little is known about Collier's Rebeth brand name other than he used it on a very limited number of custom guitars produced during the early 1980's." (Terry Burrows. Guitar: A Celebration of the World's Finest Guitars. Pg. 165)

REBETH GOTHIC CROSS "Barry Collier made this in Britain in the early 1980s. It has a strong occult character (there is also a goat's head and a pentangle on the rear plaque). Deliberately crudely finished woodwork and brass hardware add to its primitive spirit." (illustrated in Tony Bacon. The Ultimate Guitar Book. p. 117.)

The pentagram or pentacle is probably the best known and used of all occult symbols and is considered to be the most potent means of conjuring benevolent spirits. The inverted pentagram, with the point of the star is downward, is used to conjure up the powers of evil. As the circle is believed to enhance the powers of a particular symbol it is usually added to the pentagram. The ordinary (point-up) pentagram is the symbol of witches, warlocks and Wiccans in general and which they call "The Great Rite," whereas the inverted (point-down) pentagram is the symbol of Satanism. The point-down pentacle is also the symbol of Masonry and the Eastern Star.

Masonic writer Manly Hall writes:

"The Pentagram is used extensively in black magic, but when so used its form always differs in one of three ways: The star may be broken at one point by not permitting the converging lines to touch; it may be inverted by having one point down and two up; or it may be distorted by having two points of varying lengths. When used in black magic, the pentagram is called the "sign of the cloven hoof" or the "footprint of the devil". The star with two points upward is also called the "Goat of Mendes" because the inverted star is the same shape as a goat's head. When the upright star turns and the upper point falls to the bottom, its signifies the fall of the Morning Star [Jesus Christ]".