A cool Soviet guitar, produced through the eighties. Bigsby (not original though), three single-coil pickups (what is that special shift of the middle pickup towards the bridge? nobody knows, but at least it looks more like Teisco, not some American guitar), and lots of electronics. Two knobs and two switches above the pickups are the built-in effects' controllers.

Formantas were made in Belorussia (see also BL tag on the neckplate), at Borisov factory. You can check out Solo II - a guitar from Borisov, made after Formanta in the late 80's.

Read the original Formanta manual here!

Notice the replaced output jack - not the original 5-pin.
The neckplate says "price 230 roubles". An ordinary citizen in Soviet Union might have been earning about 140-170 roubles per month. The majority of the population were "ordinary", and this expencive guitar was out of reach for most of the Soviets.