I was expecting the body to be ply due to the black of the sunburst pretty much covering the forearm body curve but it doesn't appear to be. Love old Japanese stuff like this.
Another great Japanese import, Dunsy! You’re certainly doing your bit for global trade. Enjoyed the tear-down, as always. You could make a video of an abandoned shopping trolley sound interesting, to be fair 😉 🎸👍
I do indeed. Cracking shop - I guess the factories were building thousands of these and shops would order a batch with their own logo? Same guitars with dozens of different names!
I remember seeing these in second hand shops for peanuts compared to used Fenders in the late '70s early '80s, I couldn't afford the £50 to £60 they were priced at then though as I was saving for a Telecaster, although I did learn to play on my dads 68 goldtop and Burns Vista Sonic, both of which I inherited and still have, friends who played guitar usually had one of these Japanese copies or if they were flush they had a Gordon Smith model, they are extremely well built guitars, If I come across one I will probably buy it, Im a sucker for nostalgia!
Yeah, these would have been kinda budget Fenders at the time. I have to say though that the only thing that feels budget on it are the tuners. Great sounding pickups.
I think this must have been made by the same factory that makes the Burny guitars. The R's look very similar. The logo on the Burny guitar I've got looks like Bunny (the R looking like an N).
Could be the same manufacturer? Pretty sure that they would badge the guitar depending on who ordered a batch. I think there may be some UK importers who got the same instruments back then too.
Nice, have a few greco but not a strat. Those pick-ups sounds great, I thought that was a cheaper model? I read that for the 5 digit pick up codes the structure was; 1st number a production line code, 2nd number year of manufacture, so 3 means 1973, 3rd digit month 1=Jan ... 9=Sep., 0=Oct., X=Nov., .(dot)=Dec so that would be April, and finally day of the month, so 02 So that would make the pick up 2nd April 73 so its either a 73 or a little later if they had old stock! Of course that could be total crap! Edit - just finished watching your video and see you have already noted this... must watch to the end before commenting!
I've got a near identical Columbus strat I bought in a terrible state from a charity shop for 8 quid - after many hours of work and 80 quid on some parts and having it rewired, it's kind of OK - not great but certainly OK
I think it’s a lot to do with the overall quality of materials, fit and finish. When the Japanese first started to mass manufacture electric guitars in the early 1970’s they could sometimes be a bit variable but standards improved quickly and they were often regarded to be better made than their American counterparts 👍
