Classic Buck Dharma playing not a Hamer Standard, but a Bulestra Vulcan

[HamerCustomEr]

I was watching a live TV performance of Blue Oyster Cult's "Burnin' for You" from 1981 hosted by an unenthusiastic Charles Grodin when I noticed Buck's Explorer-themed guitar.  (Why no Hamer?) It turns out that this is actually a Bulestra Vulcan!

 

From http://www.buckdharma.com/Guitar/pic04.html :

 

New York luthier Juiliano Balestra created this Gibson-Explorer-inspired "Vulcan" guitar. The Vulcan features 2 DiMarzio humbucking pickups. This guitar was played on "Mirrors," "Cultösaurus Erectus" and "Fire of Unknown Origin." and used extensively live. Buck had two Vulcans, one was given to a former crewmember. The other was stolen in 1980, and in June 2002, resurfaced again after all these years for auction on eBay.

Back in the day, you could even order a copy from nobody's favourite guitar dealer, Ed Roman.

https://edroman.com/detail_sheets/abstract_vulcan_d762.html

[Disturber]

Looks like a Hamer Scarab. Cool. But it needs a Floyd..... 😅

[ARM OF HAMER]

                                                     I remember him playing that guitar at several BOC concerts I went to..........................it was later stolen was it not? That lower "HORN" by the controls would look better IMHO if it was just a tad longer and rounded off on the end not squared off. He is such a great player.

[Steve Haynie]

I saw the original Vulcan in 1979.  It would be nice to try out one of the copies to see what it feels like, but I have a Vector and a Standard that cover either side of the Vulcan's body shape.

[singlehum]

Discussed starting at 4:53 here:

 

 

 

[Steve Haynie]

About ten minutes in Buck talks about being influenced by Roy Clark's playing technique.  Who'd a thunk it?  A connection between Blue Öyster Cult and Roy Clark exists!

[kizanski]

I used to go to Juliano's in White Plains, NY almost weekly back in the day and the Vulcan was hanging on the wall there for sale for years.

[HamerCustomEr]

40 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

About ten minutes in Buck talks about being influenced by Roy Clark's playing technique.  Who'd a thunk it?  A connection between Blue Öyster Cult and Roy Clark exists!

Buck has said that he was also heavily influenced by Chuck Berry and popular music from the 1960s.  He started out in a Ventures cover band.

[cmatthes]

I remember seeing Buck with that one when I saw them back in '81, with Foghat opening.  I thought it was a Firebird at first, but eventually got a better seat and was like..."What the...?!?!?!?"

[HamerCustomEr]

I saw Blue Oyster Cult in the early 90s.  They were great!  Hard to believe that was 30 years ago!!

[HoboMan]

Pretty sure he used that in the video for the song.

I saw play it live in concert.

Buck was the guitar hero but Eric Bloom brought the cool factor.

[Jakeboy]

On 4/1/2022 at 1:14 AM, cmatthes said:

I remember seeing Buck with that one when I saw them back in '81, with Foghat opening.  I thought it was a Firebird at first, but eventually got a better seat and was like..."What the...?!?!?!?"

I was at that same concert in ‘81, Chris!

[Brooks]

I remember that guitar from this movie, I thought "what's that?".

PS- Sabs @ 6:06... As great as he was, RJD just sounds wrong on the Ozzy tunes, methinks. I remember seeing this at the midnight movies in Jr High and thinking "where's Bill Ward?!?"...