Another guess the guitar thread - Page 2

Shuie · 04:11 PM

Anybody have a guess?

Heres another clue. loooong neck tenon

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

Another Gibson?

Shuie · 01-20-2006, 05:04 PM

Not really, but Gibson owns the company so thats close enough. Its a Japanese clone of a '59 Les Paul Junior. I'll post a headstock shot and a little info about the company momentarily.

stuartj · 01-20-2006, 05:20 PM

Orville or Orville by Gibson.

The OBG's are great guitrs

Shuie · 01-20-2006, 05:35 PM

Stuart wins. Its an '88 OBG. Headstock shot and some verbage about Orville on the way....

stuartj · 01-20-2006, 06:15 PM

Already a fan. I have a very nice OBG 59 reissue LP Standard.

Enjoy.

Shuie · 06:29 PM

Stuart, you have the Tobacco Sunburst OBG Les Paul, right? I remembered someone posting a pic of one in my Tokai thread and I figured he'd be the guy that would guess this one

. Thats a great guitar! enjoy it!

For me, the neat thing about these Japanese clone guitars has always been that 1.) they were at least as good (usually better) than any off the shelf Gibson or Fender guitar that could have been bought at the same time, and 2.) They could be bought for about 1/3 of the price of the Gibson or Fender. Today, the collectors are going mad over them and some of the guitars are approaching Gibson and Fender pricing. They are less of a bargain today than they were even a few years ago, but they are still great guitars.

Anyway, more about this one...

Sometime before 1984, Gibson bought a Japanese company who was building high quality and historically accurate clones of their patented designs in an old factory that a dozen other Japanese companies like Tokai had been using to do the same. This Japanese company was appropriately named 'Orville', after Orville Gibson. Gibson bought Orville for the specific purpose of breaking into the Japanese market after seeing that Fender was successful in a similar venture.

Like a lot of the other Japanese clones built during this time, these guitars were more historically accurate to the original Gibson design and of higher quality than anything Gibson had made since 1960. I dont know when Orville started making guitars, but from 1984 to 1993, both the 'Orville' and 'Orville By Gibson' guitars were made in Japan under ownership of Gibson.

So what distinguishes an 'Orville' from an 'Orville By Gibson'? Not much, other than price. Same wood, same construction, built in the same factory. Ive read that the OBG guitars use better American made electronics components and hardware and have a nitro cellulose laquere finish while the Japanese get cheaper electronics, hardware, and poly finish. Maybe this is true of the Les Paul clones, but this Junior definitely has no above average parts on it. It does have a nitro finish tho, so maybe thats the big difference.

There was a single year where the Orville branded guitars were actually made in Korea. These were neither built as well nor as desirable as a Japanese Orville or OBG. Luckily the Korean Orvilles are easily identified by the lack of a stamped serial number on the back of the headstock. Serial numbers for these guitars were on a inked on a sticker instead of stamped.

In 1993 the name was changed to 'Epiphone Japan' and the guitars were still built with the correct Gibson shaped headstock for a very short period of time before Gibson killed idea of making anything in Japan. All other Epiphone branded guitars have the non Gibson headstock shape and have been made in Korea since then.

So heres a shot of the headstock on mine:

This is a lot of guitar for $600. Throw the shipping in to get it here from Japan and it becomes less of a bargain, but total damages were still less than half of what a used Historic Gibson would cost.

Japanese Guitar References:
-------------------------------------------------------------
http://guitarsjapan.com/about.html
http://www.tokaiforum.com/

stuartj · 01-20-2006, 06:37 PM

Yep. Best LP ive ever had, and theres been a few. I am abig fan of JPN guitars- been investng a lot of time checking out K Yairi accoustics lately.

Post a whole pic of the Junior?

Stuart

Shuie · 01-20-2006, 07:13 PM

Here are a few more. Closest thing I have to a full shot is the one on the stand against the white background.

and these were from the seller while it was in his shop in Japan....

stuartj · 01-20-2006, 08:07 PM

Looks great. Always liked juniors.

Drago · Drago's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by Jared Fenton
How drunk do you suppose Eddie is in that picture?

Well, it looks like he's still married to Val so I'd say hammered.

Jared at Pelican Parts · 01-21-2006, 09:29 AM

Shuie,

Do you know anything about the Yamaha SA2000? It's a Gibson 335 clone that I own, same dark finish as your Orville. I picked this guitar up as sort of a thank you a few years back, and love it. Plays beautifully, never goes out of tune, even came with a calibration guide for setting up all the hardware. Really rich tone and sustain.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by Drago
Well, it looks like he's still married to Val so I'd say hammered.

No man, they're in divorce proceedings right now.

Shuie · 01-21-2006, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jared Fenton
Do you know anything about the Yamaha SA2000? It's a Gibson 335 clone that I own, same dark finish as your Orville.

No, I cant say that I do. I've owned a few semi hollow bodies in the past, but Ive never had a chance to try out any of the Yamaha guitars. Sounds like a good one.