Teach me about vintage Japanese guitars

Goatbhoy47

Goatbhoy47

hi guys im a new member and i am looking for some info on this guitar i have. it says LEGEND on the headstock but bears no other marks bar a symbol on the inside of the rear pup cover plate and the same on the body on the bare wood.

Goatbhoy47

Goatbhoy47

Goatbhoy47

any help on its origins/manufacturer would be much appreciated.

stufisher

Possibly a tad out of kilter with this thread but just wondered what MIJ guitar(s) @YellowLedBetterMan opted for?

FYI ... on the recent thread about 'the one guitar we wouldn't part with' I posted my Westone Spectrum DX ... I just wondered how far you'd got with your quest.

Stu

Cookiemonster

hassleham said:

Kind of related: I was in a ‘vintage and rare antiques’ sort of shop in st ives the other day and they were selling a black CSL les Paul copy for £1250!   

That's insane. How are they justifying that

Cookiemonster

vonLayzonfon said:

My first electric was a second hand Westone Thunder 1-A.  Bought for £100 in 1987, it beat out a brand new Marlin Sidewinder.  I still have it and it plays nicely, although the pots have gone a bit scratchy and despite having built a few guitars the active circuit is scary enough for me not to want to dabble with (I'm still not great with a soldering iron).  And, as mentioned, it's heavy. Really heavy.

Recently I've caught myself looking for Marlins on the bay/tree. Being tempted by the nostalgic draw of "the first guitar I never had".  Utter nonsense, of course.  So far I've managed to resist...

Definitely resist. They were awful. I did the same with a Sunn guitar as it was my first.  I managed to get one cheap. It really wasn't great. 

stufisher

I had a 1979 sunburst CSL LP copy from new ... I loved it. It was a proper chunk, great sustain, comfy neck, easy to play ... exactly what every skint lad, Zeppelin/Lizzy fan wanted.
I know that 40 years on the technology and build quality are far superior but for £75, just for a while, I could be Jimmy Page or Brian Robertson ... the stuff dreams are made of.
I agree that £1250 is a stupid price ... if the 1 wasn't there it'd be a bargain.

Stu

brojangles

I don't know anything about vintage Japanese guitars but I want to commend you for not writing 'school me'.

bertie

OilCityPickups said:

There was some very good stuff and some absolutely awful stuff ... ignore the 'lawsuit' garbage spouted by some folks online ... old Shaftsbury, Columbus, Avon etc were mostly garbage. Some old Ibanez and Antoria guitars are excellent ... but probably not a patch on say a good second hand Epi Les Paul. 

this in buckets

YellowLedBetterMan

stufisher said:

Possibly a tad out of kilter with this thread but just wondered what MIJ guitar(s) @YellowLedBetterMan opted for?

FYI ... on the recent thread about 'the one guitar we wouldn't part with' I posted my Westone Spectrum DX ... I just wondered how far you'd got with your quest.

Stu

In the end I didn't get any - lockdown hit and I wanted a project so I took a Pacifica off eBay and spent ages getting it all nice just to find out the neck was warped and there was mould infesting parts of the body due to water damage.

Still keeping one eye open for a Spectrum though, funnily enough.

Fozz

I've recently picked up an old Westone Session 2. It looks lovely, but currently pretty unplayable. The tailpiece was fitted off-centre, which on a floating bridge is causing all sorts of issues with the strings being pulled off centre. The original owner must have just put up with it. Different times I suppose, today guitars get returned for pretty minor cosmetic blemishes.

It also needs re-wiring as the pots have gone scratchy, and somewhere the ground has failed.

It should be lovely when it's all done, I've had a lot of fun restoring it so far and it's a good learning experience. It's a bit of a money pit though, and wouldn't have been worth paying for. I'm not sure whether this is representative of the quality of vintage Japanese guitars - it's from Matsumoke, so should be up there, but recent Squier bullet Mustang I set up for my nephew was leagues ahead in build quality.