New guitar thread

[Shuie]

Before I quit noodling around with music i tried several times to buy one of these guitars from a local amp maker. It was the only one Id ever seen in person and he refused to sell it for any price. I called every vintage shop around the country to buy one and found nothing.

Im really starting to get back into playing. I hadnt played a guitar for any length of time in years until a few weeks ago. I brought a few pieces into my local builders shop last weekend to be cleaned up and asked if he knew where I might be able to find one of these. Low and behold he knew where the exact guitar was that I had tried to buy several years ago from the amp builder.

Im sure someone here will know what it is. No headstock pics until someone guesses what it is. Its not what it seems



Sorry for the bad picture. Im still learning Photoshop

[Por_sha911]

Well, based on your comment, its not a Les Paul but it sure is pretty.

[Shuie]

Nope, not a Les Paul

Ive owned a lot of Les Pauls. Never one of the real burst guitars, but a few really nice ones. The nicest Les Paul I have ever owned was a '58 historic reissue from the custom shop. The feel of this one is honestly on par with my '58 historic. The neck is right and it rings like bell. Just a hair under 9lbs on the scale. Its heavier than my '58 was, but almost as resonant.

[Por_sha911]

Stacked Humbucking pickups?

[Don 944 LA]

Samik ,
they are made in the valley here in Cali

very nice sound...

am I correct ???

[Don 944 LA]

Here's the ones I have handy:

First off a ESP Ltd 207 . It's a 7 string and VERY heavy with sustain like crazy as it has a stop tailpiece and the strings go through the body. I love playing this guitar.



Next is a Schecter 7 string that I rarely play. It's light as hell and sounds OK, but compared to my other 7, it's night and day.


Next we have a Heartfield EX-1 (on the left ). Heartfield is a sub of Fender. They came out with this in the late 80's and it was one of the first to have active electronics and pickups. People found it hard to use while plugged into solid state amps, but plugged into tube amps or true processors, it's great.. One downfall is it has a 9V battery.

Next we have my BABY ... ( on the right )
I had to sell my old baby ( Ovation Custom Legend ).
This is an ESP Ltd H-100. It sound GREAT and has tremenous feel. I was astounded by the quality of this guitar compared to ones 5 times the price.




In Storage I have a few others with racks of processors all ending up through 400watts and a few cabinets.
@ Home I use a Korg Pandora ( size of a cassete box ) plugged into the P'uter .


Bout' time we had a guitar thread


Don

[jim72911t]

Tell us, is it a glued in neck, a thru-body, or a bolt on neck? I'm pretty sure that Ibanez made a decent Les Paul copy; so much so that I think they were sued by Gibson to halt production.

More clues, please!

[Victor]

Ibanez, Yamaha, Epiphone, Orville (YUM!) or Vantage?

[Les Paul]

Hammer?

[scottmandue]

Don, do you play in a band or are you just a nut job like me with a closet full of guitars?

Re: the Les Paul copy, there was a company from (maybe) Sweden that was selling guitars here for a while... I think they were call Hagstome or something like that.

[Shuie]

Neck through body. Those are standard gibson pickups. They are what the amp maker had laying around when he sold it. When I played the guitar in his shop it had a real set of late '50s PAFs in it. Those are worth their weight in gold so they were replaced with the ones you see when the guitar was sold.

Its not an Ibanez. They did make some great Gibson copies and were sued by Gibson. Negative on the Samick, Hamer, Orville, Epiphone, Yamaha, Vantage guess.

Some hints:
Spec on the guitar is very close to a '58 Les Paul. Probably closer than some of the Gibson reissues. It's a Japanes guitar. The flame you see on the top is a very thin veneer on top of a two piece maple top. This company was also sued by Gibson. And Fender, FWIW.

This is a lower end model. The quality is astounding. Aside from the historic custom shop Gibson R series guitars I would own one of these before any standard production Les Paul. I sold an Alpine White Les Paul Custom to pay for this one and Id do it again if I found another for sale.

keep guessing

[scottmandue]

Hondo?
I have a very nice danelectro copy bass from them.

[IROC]

I'm guessing a Yakima.

Mike

[Don 944 LA]

aria ?

epiphone is gibson right ???


I used to have a Hondo like that eons ago..... but I don't think it had that quality of craftmanship.

Don

@ Scottmandu - Yeah, just another nutjob . Haven't been in a band in alooong time.
If I start workin in LA again, maybe a GTG to jam ???

[Victor]

ESP (Edwards)
Bacchus
Greco
Burny


Comon! How many Japanese knockoffs could there have been?!? Surely we have covered them all by now.

[Victor]

While I'm waiting for an answer - the black one in the foreground is a Jap Vantage. Got it for about US$100 on eBay. Very nice piece of wood for the money.

[Shuie]

nope, nope, and nope.

Epiphone is Korean Gibson, IIRC.

Originally posted by Victor
ESP (Edwards)
Bacchus
Greco
Burny

Comon! How many Japanese knockoffs could there have been?!? Surely we have covered them all by now.

Ahh, getting warmer.

I cant believe no one has guessed it yet either. I think some of the ones mentined so far have been Korean

[Shuie]

Another hint:

Here's a headstock from an earlier version with the name of the maker blacked out. This is an early 'lawsuit' model. Its not hard to imagine why Gibson sued them. The later guitars, like mine, were not called 'Les Paul'

[Don Ro]

I'm thinking P.R. Smith...?

[operationcougar]

im also thinking that that looks like a ESP head, but i thought that was korean