Seen a lot of ads on Facebook recently for Japanese guitars from the 70s and 80s. I've owned one of these before - a Shaftesbury 4003 Bass, which was nice but had issues from previous owners including a "old brush and crown emulsion" paint job.
So I'm looking at these guitars for around £200 (and lots under that) thinking are they any good? Anniversary with Ms HB is upcoming and she's asked me whether there's any guitars or anything I've seen that I want, and some of them look tempting.
Are there specific brands or factories (seen the names Fujigen and Matsumoku mentioned a lot) that I should look at? Specific models even?
Cheers
Just so people are aware. I have no idea what any of these words mean.
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Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
Never knew they could be that bad lol, I'll do a thread when i get round to it if he hasn't chucked it in the bin
I think an epi 335 would've been a much better option
I've had 2 grecos that were great, bit heavy but played and sounded really good
(formerly customkits)
A lot of that old Japanese stuff, Matsumoku or otherwise, is often a bit rubbishy.
Sellers often give extraordinary claims and potted history to go with it but IMO you'd be better off looking at used Squier classic Vibes or similar. Most modern stuff is very well built.
The good Japanese stuff is usually priced a fair bit higher than £200.
There are some very good old Japanese guitars around but these have become prized.
There's no shortage of rubbish ones that are being touted as collectable, they're not. Unless you collect firewood.
Prior to that and again as an overview, many copies and original models had character, but the quality is a bit like that of an Austin Allegro - At the right price, the budget bolt on neck models are excellent DIY projects, with lots of character and I recall such guitars are were I both learnt to play on and learn some basis guitar set-up skills
I effectively agree with the comments above made by @scrumhalf
And I say that as someone who does like the also-ran Japanese 'copy era' guitars too - providing you accept that they usually need a fairly complete rebuild to be genuinely playable and good-sounding, and are only ever a quirky and interesting alternative to real high-quality guitars even after that. And that's what you're really looking at for £200...
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