My love of weird electric guitars has helped me meet many people who share my fascination for these instruments. Around the time I began contributing to Guitar Player 25 years ago, I met kindred spirit Mike Robinson, who ran the site MyRareGuitars.com. It was from there that he eventually started Eastwood Guitars, where he has been re-creating some of the vintage guitar world’s hard-to-find classic whack jobs.
The La Baye 2×4 was the first guitar off his line way back in 2014, and it is still in production. The example shown here is from the second run, in 2024, and is the second piece I’ve bought from Eastwood.
Originally made in 1967 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, by luthier Dan Helland, the La Baye 2×4 grew out of an idea Helland had developed around 1964 or ’65 while working at Henri’s Music, an area music-store chain owned by Henri Czachor.
Around the same time, Holman-Woodell Inc. of Neodesha, Kansas, had begun making guitars for Wurlitzer, the piano and organ manufacturer, but that arrangement fell apart in 1967 when the guitars’ finishes began to flake. Helland entered the picture soon after, combining his unconventional two-by-four bodies with Holman-Woodell necks in an attempt to keep the company in the guitar business.
Unfortunately, the La Baye 2×4 was an absolute flop, selling only about 45 instruments, including 12-string and bass models. But 10 years later, Devo’s Bob Mothersbaugh (a.k.a. Bob 1) used one in a couple of the group’s videos, most notably the quirky and jerky rendition of the Stones’ classic “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” which helped cement the guitar’s cult status.
The shape recalls Les Paul’s Log guitar, the crude two-by-four lab guitar that was the basis for his experiments with solidbody guitar design. (Helland’s son says his father wasn’t aware of the Log.) But whereas Paul’s design was essentially a neck-through design, the La Baye 2×4 features a two-by-four body bolted to a neck, similar to the original design.
Due to the lack of space on the front of the guitar, the control knobs are located on the upper bout, which proves to be pretty convenient. But other than the look of this guitar, there’s nothing weird about it. This is a quality build, with modern and familiar components.
It’s not the easiest thing to play while sitting, but the La Baye 2×4 is really meant to be onstage anyway. Some players find the guitar a bit headstock-heavy and opt to move the strap pins around to compensate for this, but I find it’s quite comfortable to play while standing just as it is. The neck is fast, the medium-jumbo frets are dressed beautifully, the action is low, and the neck contour is quite reminiscent of a modern Fender, Charvel, Ibanez or Schecter with a modern C-shape.
The original La Baye 2×4 came stock with Holman-Woodell pickups, just like the ones used on the 1960s American-made Wurlitzer guitars. Eastwood fitted this baby with a pair of nicely voiced P90-style pickups, each with its own set of volume and tone controls. In the spirit of P90s, these single-coils are bright and loud, but the neck pickup offers plenty of jazz mojo with the tone dialed back a bit, so it’s a versatile-sounding guitar as well.
There’s a three-way pickup selector, Kluson-style tuners, and a Tune-o-matic intonatable bridge. As an option, I was able to order mine with a “Les Trem” vibrato that works very smoothly. The 22-fret maple neck has a rosewood fingerboard and cream binding with mother-of-pearl dot inlays.
I bought mine new, from the factory, for about $800; the tremolo was an additional cost of $200. That seems like a bargain considering that original La Bayes from the 1960s are fetching from three to six thousand online.
Obviously, it rules because of its looks, but it’s also a great-playing and great-sounding guitar. I’d be more than happy to play this for a whole set. Weighing in at around six pounds, it’s light and versatile. And man, what an attention-getter!
Thanks to Mike Robinson at Eastwood for walking me through the order process. Important to note, I didn’t identify myself as being from a guitar magazine; I wanted to be treated just as he’d treat anyone. I was not disappointed. The guitar is a great value; it shipped in a gigbag just when they said it would, and I received email updates with shipping status. Nice job, guys!
