Fujigen (FGN) MIJ, Recording King, Dowina, Hipstrap

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Hey guys,

I distribute these brands in the UK and wanted to see if anyone would be interested in getting them into a dealer local to them:

FUJIGEN (FGN) guitars

Heritage factory set up in 1960 based in Matsumoto, Japan and responsible for MANY of the larger brands most successful guitars – think MIJ Fender strats from the late 80’s to mid 90’s, Yamaha artist basses, Ibanez Prestige.  Wanting to have a little more control over their futures they are focussing more on their own brand FGN Fujigen electric guitars & basses, which are all 100% hand made in the same factory.  Great history, great guitars, great price points.

 

DOWINA guitars

Established just outside of Bratislava, Slovakia near the banks of the Danube in the 1970’s as a violin luthier, Stan leads Dowina acoustic guitars and spends the majority of his time travelling the world sourcing woods and hand selecting top material.  Three distinct product levels – Antique, where the solid tops are selected by Stan and then sent to the Cort factory for glue work before being returned where Stands team then finishes the necks, fretting, electrics & set ups.  Then you have Vintage, 100% solid, 100% made in smaller batches by the craftsmen in Slovakia.  Select woods, beautiful attention to detail and competitively priced with some great Hybrid classical models and finishes.  Finally, the Master range are all hand made by Stan from the best woods available and highlight the workmanship that comes from this workshop

 

RECORDING KING guitars

Vintage 1930’s brand reborn and brought up to date with modern manufacturing techniques but designs that focus on the 1930’s heritage.  Great value folk instruments all with a real sense of ‘Americana’ – Parlour, 000 and Dreadnaught guitars, mandolins, resonators, banjos and lapsteels all at keen price points.

 

HIPSTRAP straps

With such awesome guitars available it made sense to get something equally desirable to hang them from – enter Hipstrap, 100% handmade to order in Buenos Aires Argentina.

Has anyone had any experience with these brands at all? If so, whatcha think? I have demo stock available and first shipments have already started to land, let me know where and I can get something sorted out.

Thanks guys,

Amit 
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Comments

  • Winny_PoohWinny_Pooh Frets: 7731
    Recording King are ace
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  • teradaterada Frets: 5113
    Recording King are ace
    +1. I think they are stocked by hobgoblin 
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  • Recording King are defintely awesome for the price, especially the small Parlour's and Resonators. My company is the official UK distributor now so any previous dealers would need to come to us. Hobgoblin probably did have them at some stage, will have a gander. 
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  • earwighoneyearwighoney Frets: 3489
    I think Hobgoblin used to carry a few of their acoustic guitars at one stage, but not any longer AFAIK.  I remember playing a RO-26 in their London shop a good while back. 

    A shame Recording King really cut back their catalogue, there were some interesting models like the 13 fret model, the 12 fret 000's and a few others including the Nick Lucas one in particular. 


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  • I have a Fujigen guitar. Its not branded FGN, as its one of those 'other brands' they make for the Japanese market. Its a CoolZ, and its a tele style model. 

    I opted for one of these mainly because Fender tele neck's string spacing is too close to the neck edges for me. I tend to push E and e strings off the fingerboard. The Fujigen models give a little more fingerboard real estate.  

    I bought it 'used' earlier this year and posted pics here (& elsewhere) at that time. It needed fret leveling to make it play at its best. Other than that I have replaced only one part; the string-T, with a Tusq one. 

    The tuners are reported to be Gotoh (according to the seller). They look like them, and more importantly hold tuning every bit as well as the Grovers, PRS locking, and various Schallers equipped guitars I have.

    Pickups sound classic to my ears. I have no intention of changing them. The neck shape has become my favourite. It feels like a kind of compound shape with modest V at the neck ending with a flat D at the heel join (C shape in the middle). Its very comfortable.   

    It has my favourite 'voice' at present. It was formerly my Ric 650 and Fingerbone (uk custom build) Strat with BKs. 
    So I like the Fujigen v much indeed. 

    This is it (with original string-t)


    I would certainly like to try one of the Fujigen Strat builds in future.
    I sometimes think, therefore I am intermittent
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  • Ah nice man! They will definitely be GOTOH tuners if they came from the Fujigen factory. 

    The strat style FGNs (Odessey) and the Tele style (Iliad) are all awesome. I could get some demo models to a local dealer to you if you wanted to check them out, just let me know where. 


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  • prlgmnrprlgmnr Frets: 3964
    I've been sort of sideways looking at one of those Iliads with the extra inch of scale and the EMGs for a while.

    If you could get some down to Wildwire in Selby that would be nifty.
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  • pigfacepigface Frets: 213
    Perhaps not especially relevant to the OP, my synth/MIDI guitar (Casio PG 310) was made by Fuji Gen Gakki. I got it new in 1992 and it is still my number 1 guitar. It may not be to everyone's taste but it's well made and a pleasure to play. And J.J. Cale used the PG 380 version.
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  • metalmohanmetalmohan Frets: 7
    edited July 2019
    prlgmnr said:
    I've been sort of sideways looking at one of those Iliads with the extra inch of scale and the EMGs for a while.

    If you could get some down to Wildwire in Selby that would be nifty.
    Oh yes, the white Iliad DE664 with EMGs is an absolute beast, I gig with it myself. 

    Cool, I'll hit them up and see if we can do anything. 


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  • TTBZTTBZ Frets: 2873
    I've played an FGN semi hollow and a weird Les paulish shape, both great guitars especially the semi!
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  • I have an FGN Strat type, few years old now. Think I got it in 2010ish & it was used then. It has a rosewood fretboard fretted with the Circle Fretting system, no idea if it's that, or it's just had an exceptionally good set up, but it's one of the best playing guitars I've played. The bridge is nicer than the MIJ Fender ones & it has all quality electrical parts.
    If they still make these I hope they'd sell well. All the best with getting them out there.
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  • I have an FGN Strat type, few years old now. Think I got it in 2010ish & it was used then. It has a rosewood fretboard fretted with the Circle Fretting system, no idea if it's that, or it's just had an exceptionally good set up, but it's one of the best playing guitars I've played. The bridge is nicer than the MIJ Fender ones & it has all quality electrical parts.
    If they still make these I hope they'd sell well. All the best with getting them out there.
    They really are amazing quality, just need to get the brand out there and people speaking about it and playing! The CFS fretting system really does make a nice difference, so easy and smooth to play. 
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  • prlgmnr said:
    I've been sort of sideways looking at one of those Iliads with the extra inch of scale and the EMGs for a while.

    If you could get some down to Wildwire in Selby that would be nifty.
    I’m heading there on the 13th August with some demo models if you happen to be around? 
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  • prlgmnrprlgmnr Frets: 3964
    prlgmnr said:
    I've been sort of sideways looking at one of those Iliads with the extra inch of scale and the EMGs for a while.

    If you could get some down to Wildwire in Selby that would be nifty.
    I’m heading there on the 13th August with some demo models if you happen to be around? 
    Completely weather dependent as I'm a farmer but I'll try and make it down if it's either too wet to harvest or it's so sunny and dry between now and then that we've already got everything in by then.
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  • GJK1959GJK1959 Frets: 53
    I bought a Recording King parlour direct online.
    It was a lovely guitar which I loved - unfortunately within a few weeks the bridge started to lift.
    I contacted them and sadly they didn’t have a replacement, so they refunded me.
    Are they still selling direct online?

    previously 'retsacotarts' on music radar forum
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  • Nope not direct anymore, I think they had a few issues in the past so they changed the structure and quality control has totally changed. I could get some in local to you though if you have any dealers close by? 
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  • allenallen Frets: 699
    I have a FGN strat. It's one of the Neo-classic NCST models with 24.75 scale.

    Superb guitar.

    Here's a video where I upgraded the pickups to fishman fluence.




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  • PonchoGregPonchoGreg Frets: 764
    My recording king 000 is still the best bang for buck guitar purchase I've ever made. £269 new for an all solid acoustic with nice V-shape neck, that looks and sounds at least twice that? Yes please.

    Had it for about 8 years now, nothing ever went wrong with it.

    Those FGNs sound interesting too, like the look of the Tele above
    Click here to see me butchering some classic solos!
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  • GJK1959GJK1959 Frets: 53
    Nope not direct anymore, I think they had a few issues in the past so they changed the structure and quality control has totally changed. I could get some in local to you though if you have any dealers close by? 
    John at Peach Guitars..?

    previously 'retsacotarts' on music radar forum
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  • Amit,

    I just had a glance at the Fujigen website. Models numbers differ from the few (older?) that appear elsewhere.

    From FGN, I like the semis. Ie: MSA-HP (and MSA-HP-C) and MFA FP.

    I live in Portsmouth area. Nearest dealer is PMT Farlington
    I sometimes think, therefore I am intermittent
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