Guitar Info

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Here's quite a glorious Tokai Humming Bird from the late 1960s way before Tokai had gotten into the swing of producing such accurate and well-made replicas of Fender and Gibson guitars that those companies became seriously worried by the Japanese competition.

The Humming Bird is a guitar of its age. It has the same generic pickups that we see on other Japanese guitars of the same era, plus a very basic sub-Bigsby vibrato arm. The body horns are quite pointed which again brings to mind various of its Japanese-made contemporaries (e.g. Yamaha's early solidbodies, the SG-2 and SG-3) and the body has some German carve contouring around the top edge. The front pickup is angled a la Mosrite guitars. (Mosrites were famously used by The Ventures, a band who were seriously BIG in Japan).

I admire the seller's honesty when he/she says that it is "not the best playing guitar ever made by far, but more of a desirable collectors item". There's no BS and no hyperbole, it's just telling it like it is, and I wish more eBayers would take a leaf out of this seller's book.

Likewise, the pricing is not out of this world. The starting price is £250 and the Buy It Now price is £375 (currently listed on eBay UK).

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Joshua writes:

I recently saw your post about the JVC Balladeer and I was surprised to see that I have a Guyatone in this (I think) same body/headstock design. The major difference is the pickguard configuration and it is certainly of a lower level model with no tremolo system. The pickguard is still of metal construction, just a flat finish and the controls on top of the pickups, which is actually quite comfortable. I have looked and looked all over the web and I've yet to see any Kawai/Teisco/Guyatone Japanese guitars with this same exact body design.

It has model number of LG-11W, which falls in line with Guyatone model numbers and of course has a 'Made in Japan' sticker, but unfortunately it no longer has its headstock badge (just a sticky residue of where one used to live).

In fact, I'm in the middle of refurbishing the neck and fingerboard due to too much lovin'! This thing was played to death and I'm certain whoever attempted to refret the fingerboard was not a pro, as there where large chips in the dried out rosewood. I decided to refinish the black neck paint while I was at it, which showed large stress cracks through the finish. I'm by no means a "pro" luthier, but I am an inspiring luthier who has made his own guitars. And as some may think this is sacrilege, I've decided to turn this 24.5" scale into a 25.5" scale and move the bridge/tail back that extra inch. I liked the feel of 24.5" but it was way too narrow for my liking. If I had any intention of selling the guitar, I would have of course kept it to its original scale.

Joshua

Here's a YouTube video of Joshua demoing the guitar. It just goes to show there's life in some of those old Japanese "pawn shop" guitars, although some of them might need some resuscitation.


We're always happy to see readers' guitars - the more interesting or unusual the model, the better - so please do keep sending in your photos and stories. Contrary to widely held belief, we at Guitarz can appreciate a nice Strat, Tele, Les Paul or SG the same as the next man, woman or dog; however, I think all our readers already know what they look like and what they can do, so we would prefer to see something just a little bit different from the run-of-the-mill guitars you see everywhere. Having said that, if you do have a Strat, Tele, Les Paul, SG, etc, with a particular story to tell, or an unusual variant or finish, then we wouldn't rule out including it on the blog.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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It never ceases to amaze me how many vintage guitars from little known manufacturers and brand names there are to discover outside of the usual arena. Here's yet another 1960s Japanese guitar, the JVC Nivico Balladeer #SG-16 (its interesting but probably just coincidence that it has a Yamaha-like model number). I'm guessing that's the same JVC as are known for their domestic stereo equipment here in the West.

Here's how the seller describes the guitar:

Up for auction is a vintage JVC Nivico Balladeer Electric Guitar (model #SG-16) which appears to originally be intended only for Japanese distribution but has mysteriously been re-branded for US sales. Information on this guitar is conspicuously absent from the internet (a feat in itself) but in-depth research has shown that these guitars, along with a related deluxe model and electric amplifiers, were marketed alongside Japanese "eleki" beat groups (http://www.geocities.jp/a104gs/jvc.nivico.html). This, along side its extreme rarity, support the idea that this guitar was either not intended for distribution outside of Japan or is part of a very early attempt to market Japanese guitars in America. Despite the intial similarities one might find between this guitar and the dirge of Japanese guitars that were soon to flood the US market, such as a surplus of chrome and an overall amoeba-like shape, this guitar has appointments that one does not find on any other Japanese import. Not to mention it plays better than any other Japanese guitar from this era that I have ever laid hands on, weighs twice as much, and has an attention to detail that surpass as well.

It does have a Kawai/Guyatone look to it, but I can't find another guitar that is similar enough to make the comparison with more conviction. It's an interesting guitar for sure, if a bit of an ugly duckling.

This guitar is currently listed on eBay with a quite reasonable Buy It Now price of $400.

By the way, for those interested in Japanese "eleki" music and the development of rock music in Japan, I would heartily recommend the book Japrocksampler by Julian Cope.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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We seem to be in a blue mood these last couple of days on Guitarz, and today's guitar is a 1960s Silvertone-branded "Phantom" which according to the seller is correctly designated as a EV3T. It's obviously inspired by the 1960s Vox guitars - as is further evidenced by the headstock shape - but the body shape is symmetrical as opposed to the offset lozenge of the Vox Phantom. If anything, it's somewhere between a Phantom and Vox's Mark series teardrop-shaped guitars.

As with anything stamped "Silvertone", you can guarantee this is another manufacturer's guitar, re-badged. It has a Domino look to it, although I don't think I've seen a Domino of quite the same design. The neck bolt plate confirms that this guitar is "Made in Japan".

This guitar is currently listed on eBay with what I'd call a slightly optimistic Buy It Now price of $975.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Our friend Greg Cadman (who sent us these photos of his Kapa guitar collection a while back) is interested in the Yamaha SG3C guitar as pictured above and asks:

"Does anyone out there have one of these they would be willing to make a full size tracing of the body for me?"

Which seems a fair enough request. Please respond via the comments below and I'll see to it that Greg gets your message.

The Yamaha SG3C is indeed a cool guitar, and was introduced a year after my own beloved Yamaha SG3 (similar model number, very different design), about which I have written plenty already. Both guitars have the same three singlecoil pickups arranged with one coil at the neck and two in the bridge position. However, the SG3C adopts a much simpler switching system than its slightly older sibling's Jazzmaster-like setup and functions only as a two pickup guitar with the two coils at the bridge being wired together in series. For those who are interested this video gives quite a nice little tour around the insides of the guitar.

This guitar is currently listed on eBay Australia, with five days left to run on the auction and bidding currently at just under AU$300 (Australian dollars) at the time of writing.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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In our previous blog post here on Guitarz we were looking at a Jolana Disco bass that had its body shape modified and cut down to size by a previous owner. That, in effect, is what has happened to the guitar we are looking at today, although in this instance the cutting down to size happened in the factory where it was built. Even with the modifications and the almost "monkey grip" body horns, there's little disguising the fact that this Sanox Sound Creator has been based on the world's most copied guitar, the Stratocaster.

If anyone out there can shed any light or has any concrete information on the Japanese brand "Sanox Sound Creator", please get in touch, as I would love to find out more and there is a dearth of information about this brand on the internet. In fact, most of the references you will find in a Google search will be about my own see-thru Sanox Sound Creator acrylic-bodied Strat that I purchased from an eBay seller in Germany back in 2005 (and that is all I know about it).

These guitars do not come up for sale very often which would imply that the brand was short-lived. The example seen here is currently listed on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £225 which, I think, may be a tad optimistic seeing as - from what I can make out in the photos - it doesn't appear to be in the best of condition. The nut is broken, the tone knobs are missing (possibly the pots themselves, it's hard to tell), one of the tuners is missing its rear cover, and as it is pictured without strings I have to wonder how long it has been stored like that and what condition the neck might be in now. It definitely would need a good setting up.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Something about this Teisco EP-93T hollowbody electric guitar makes me think it would play like an absolute dog. I'd imagine it would be boxy-sounding and the cheap hardware would make it rattle and buzz, and sure, there's three pickups, but did you ever try those pickups? They were hardly the best; "muddy" is the word I'd use to describe the tone. However, despite all that, I can't help liking the guitar. I like the shape and the general design of the instrument, not to mention those crazy slider controls - you just don't see stuff like that on guitars any more.

Perhaps I'm letting my prejudices have too much say, and maybe - just maybe - this is a great player. Still, I wouldn't like to be the one to shell out the $549 eBay Buy It Now price so as to find out one way or the other.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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We've looked at a 1960s/70s Japanese-made Mustang copy before here on Guitarz but this Memphis-branded example currently listed on eBay is a bit more interesting. The body shape  on the Memphis is still too crude and slab-like with not enough rounding over of the edges, and the pickguard looks like it should belong to an even-waisted guitar rather than one with an offset body like this. However, the guitar has been converted to fretless and this is what makes it interesting. Whoever has done this conversion seems to have made a nice job of it. They haven't merely lifted out the old frets and filled in the slots; it would appear that the whole fingerboard (you can't call it a fretboard on a fretless!) has been replaced. Note the discreet fret position markers along the bass edge of the fingerboard.

I understand I might be confusing some readers out there. In the previous post I was complaining about the desecration of vintage guitars with thoughtless customisations, but here I would seem to be applauding it. It's a very difficult topic, I guess, and we need to remember that often when such "customisations" were carried out a long time ago before the guitars in question could even have been considered one-day potentially "vintage" material by anyone. In my eyes the Japanese Mustang copy, being a real cheapy and not a particularly good "copy", would have been fair game for modification. If I wanted to customise a guitar today, I would avoid what were obviously quality instruments and choose something generic and commonplace from China or Korea perhaps. I guess that back when the Yamaha SG-12 we looked at yesterday was originally modified it wasn't considered to be a guitar of any particular importance or rarity because it was only something "Made in Japan".

But there's Made in Japan and there's Made in Japan. There are the quality guitars and then there's the cheap rubbish. Sometimes it can take some finesse to spot which is which as it is not always screamingly obvious. For example, some early Japanese Telecaster copies are not copied too accurately but are very nice players. (I wouldn't be too surprised if someone comments below that these Memphis Mustangs are also "nice little players", but I still wouldn't consider them the most exciting of "vintage" finds.) In fact, nowadays, I would be wary of butchering any MIJ guitar, because it seems that even the lowliest unplayable Teiscos (or Woolworths guitars as we used to call them) have their fans and now can fetch more money than they originally retailed for.

There are, I'm afraid, no definitive answers about which guitars are ripe for modification; which of today's guitars might be future classics, highly sought after "Holy Grails" even, and which will be considered firewood. I guess it all boils down to the fact that the owner has paid money for the guitar and it is theirs to do with as they  please; some people will like it, others won't.

I have to wonder if in 20 or 30 years time, guitar enthusiasts will be searching vainly for an unadulterated Squier '51 and bemoaning the fact that this guitar was a favourite for modification and that an example in original factory condition is near impossible to find.

I suppose that on the Memphis Mustang, if a collector wanted it badly enough in near to original condition as possible, it would be possible to re-fret it. The fingerboard wouldn't be original but it would almost certainly be of better quality than the original! Anyway, this guitar is currently listed on eBay - the auction finishes later today and bidding is at $142.50 at the time of writing.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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I'm going to be lazy and lift the details about this Kawai guitar straight from the seller's description on eBay. When it's already been said so well, why re-write it?

The downright weirdness of this guitar may be lost on most of you, but for those collectors of 1960s Japanese vintage, bizarre and lawsuit guitars, this thing is so bad it's good. What we have is a 1968 Kawai knockoff prototype of what was at the time one of the strangest and most novel pieces of guitar technology out there: the Ovation smooth-bowl Glen Campbell model. You gotta give it to the Japanese, they didn't waste anytime. But not only did they copy what is now perhaps the rarest and most sought after Ovation, they one-upped them as well in the strangeness category. First off, the smooth FRP resin bowl is LIME GREEN! On top of that, the neck is triple-bound, the headstock is pointy and devilish and capped with three-ply laminate and an awesome Kawai emblem, and the fingerboard is inlayed with upside down Teisco Spectrum 5 inlays (makes perfect sense as the Kawai factory was turning out those Teiscos at the time). And if that isn't cool enough, the tuning keys have CLEAR enclosures. Talk about space age tech.

Currently listed on eBay with a $400 starting price and a Buy It Now of $600.

Thanks to Jaimie Muehlhausen for bringing this one to my attention.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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We've previously looked at that most desirable of all Teisco guitars - the Teisco Spectrum 5 with its split pickups and stereo outputs - here on Guitarz before, and I would have thought that was about as good as it gets, but look here, Henry Kaiser owns one of apparently only 100 built in plexiglass! Read more here.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Following on directly from our previous post here is another vintage Japanese-made Domino guitar from the same eBay seller. This one is a Domino Baron 12-string electric solidbody which, again, has more than a hint of Hagstrom to its design.

Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $549.99.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Regular readers may remember this collection of Dominoes that was being offered for sale on eBay back in September 2011 with a Buy It Now price of $11,000.

Unsurprisingly the collection of 12 Japanese-made Domino guitars and one Domino Combo King electric organ did not sell, and now it turns out that the seller is trying to sell the guitars individually. This 1967 Domino Dawson is a semi-hollowbody, obviously designed after the Gibson 335 although with a bolt-on neck and perhaps a touch of the Hagstrom Viking about it with its Fender-esque headstock.

This is listed on eBay which a not unreasonable Buy It Now Price of $525.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Before the guitar synth there was the guitar organ. We looked at the Vox V251 guitar organ before (and there's a fantastic picture of one in the 2012 Guitarz Calendar - there are still a few left so buy your copy now before it's too late to post in time for Christmas).

Most guitar organs had the guts of an electric organ shoe-horned into a guitar body while individual frets for each string across all the fret positions were wired up so as to trigger the notes. This Japanes-made Univox M340 guitar orgran is thought to date from the early 70s (I guess it could be later 60s) and is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $2,000. An organ expression pedal is included, and apparently the guitar organ is in working order althugh a couple of the fret triggers are not working. I wouldn't fancy being the one who had to fix those.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Whilst on the whole I am a fan of Japanese guitars, that is not to say that everything with strings produced in Japan was of high quality. Some of the more budget instruments from the 1960s and 1970s were quite shocking. I fear that this 1960s Kawai might well fall into that category. Despite the attractive Fender-esque Daphne Blue finish (or an approximation thereof) it does look remarkably similar to some of the Kay-branded Teiscos that in the UK were stocked by shops such as Woolworths and which were quite gruesome when it came to playability. The seller claims that the guitar has a great action and tone, and that he used to use it in a professional band, so maybe this one was quite a player or maybe that's just eBay selling hype.

The guitar is currently listed on eBay UK with a Buy It Now price of £199.99 which, I think, is four times what it is worth. But who knows? Perhaps it IS an amazing tone machine.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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We've looked at guitars based on comic book superheroes before (e.g. Superman and Batman) but this Spider Man guitar is official Fender product. Issued by Fender Japan, the Fender MG Spider-Man is a Mustang with basswood body, 2 singlecoil pickups with on/off/phase switch settings for each and the now legendary Dynamic Vibrato for which the Mustang is famous. But most obviously it has an in-your-face Spider Man finish which may be a little too pink for the tastes of some sensitive souls. It even has a competition stripe of sorts, a "Spidey" competition stripe, I guess.

If you want one, you'll have to be quick because this is a limited edition of only 50 examples; also it's my understanding that these are being produced for the Japanese market only, so good luck in trying to track one down. (Why is it that Fender Japan always seems to have the most exciting range of Fender guitars?)

Thanks to Keith McCreary for bringing this guitar to our attention.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Bertram

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's an email from Tyler:

Today I've got something kind of special to me. My first serious guitar was my Electra Phoenix X-140S. While perusing eBay yesterday, I saw a matching bass, a Phoenix X-630S. I thought I'd just be dreaming, until I noticed it was at a local shop. There was a bit of a frantic search when the employees couldn't locate it, but eventually it was found.

It's pretty basic, one pickup, volume and tone. Maple neck/fretboard, ash body, brass hardware.

My one complaint is that it is setup with flatwounds. I'll be getting some new strings promptly.

Tyler

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

OK, it's the 11th November 2011, that is 11/11/11, and as such today has been designated Nigel Tufnel Day. To celebrate this day of Maximum Elevenness, we here at Guitarz - for this day only - will be posting an unprecedented ELEVEN blog posts! So, keep tuned throughout the day for eleven weird and wonderful guitars!

I have a soft spot for semi-hollowbodies and I have a soft spot for vintage Japanese guitars, so this 1960 Electra 2228 ticks both those boxes. It is equipped with a brandless Bigsby-a-like vibrato; it's nice to see that still in place on an old Japanese guitar of this age. I like the way that the finish has crazed with age, which makes the guitar seem all the more venerable somehow. I can imagine it might sound a little bit boxy, maybe a bit rattley, but that does not stop the appeal for me.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

OK, it's the 11th November 2011, that is 11/11/11, and as such today has been designated Nigel Tufnel Day. To celebrate this day of Maximum Elevenness, we here at Guitarz - for this day only - will be posting an unprecedented ELEVEN blog posts! So, keep tuned throughout the day for eleven weird and wonderful guitars!

Here's a 1980s Hair Metal-style ultra-pointy Explorer-derived guitar design in the shape of this Mako Exotec XP-4. This is a guitar about which there is very little information out there, and what there is can be contradictory. It looks to be Japanese and indeed some have speculated that this is a Matsumoku product, although others have reported that some examples were Korean-made. There are also references to these having been distributed by Kaman (the company behind Ovation guitars) which seems a little at odds with the supposed Matsumoku connection, although not impossible.

It certainly looks to be a guitar that was jumping on the Hair Metal bandwaggon. Despite the ultra-pointy body shape, the headstock design is quite conservative, the pickups are a pair of Strat-like singlecoils rather than the humbuckers you might expect on such a guitar, and the trem is also a vintage Strat-like affair rather than some fancy Floyd Rose or Kahler-esque locking jobby.

The guitar is currently located in Los Angeles and is listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $685.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!