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Return of the Jaguar

(the 40 year journey of an Australian guitar)

Martin Cilia is guitarist with the legendary Australian surf band  The Atlantics. He is also regarded as one of Australia's finest.

Around 2006 Martin got a phone call to demonstrate some guitar sounds for ABC’s The Collectors TV show. He had original versions of all the guitars they wanted to demo, except for one - a Fender Jaguar. Steve Jackson of Jackson's Rare Guitars sent over one of his Jaguars to use.

After the recording was completed he returned it. When he watched The Collectors show he heard one of the samples and thought, "what a great guitar sound, how did I get that?". He looked up his notes and realised it was done with the black Jaguar. He called Steve Jackson and asked him if he still had the guitar. It was still available, so he bought it and used it as the basis for his Revenge of the Surf Guitar album. Martin had never owned or used a Jaguar in the past, preferring to stick to a Stratocaster. The shorter scale neck of the Jaguar limited his playing, which he used to a creative advantage.

Wally Buczma was a guitarist in the 60s band "The Wanders". From 1963 to 1970 the band performed at venues on the south coast, far south coast, southern highlands and country areas of Eastern Australia. They became widely known due to appearances on channel 4 and 2WL coverage. They won a few Battle of the Bands competitions and appeared at Melbourne's Festival Hall.  

In mid 2009 Martin did a video interview for Australian Guitar Magazine (watch it here ). He talked about his various guitars, including the Jaguar.

Wally saw the interview and thought he recognised the guitar. When Martin mentioned that it had the same finish as on surfboards he realised that it was the guitar he used to own.  He had bought it new in 1963 and refinished it with black surfboard resin. He engraved his name on the scratch plate - this is still visible today.

Wally approached Theo Penglis, a member of the original Atlantics who put him in touch with Martin.

He emailed Martin a photo of him playing the guitar in 1964 with the note "is this your guitar?" They arranged to meet and in November 2009 Wally came down to an Atlantics gig. He was reunited with his guitar over 40 years after he'd sold it.

You can find out more about Martin here www.martincilia.com.