Guitars Made in Japan

[Arti]

I've two Japanese made Electric guitars from the 70's and 80's (so hard to date exactly) and both have been absolutely fantastic. I also have a number of Acoustics Guitars from a similar vintage (ibanez, Kasuga, Aria, Hayakawa and Takeharu) have to say they are great as well.

But focusing on the electrics, one is an Aria - Les Paul copy Speckled Gold Top, it has a bolt on neck with twin humbuckers. Sounds great plays great and looks great - i cant establish the year but I'm told it is mid 70's.
The other is an Aria Pro II, RS Straycat (production dates puts it between 1984-1986) this is also loaded with twin humbuckers and sounds awesome, has a coil tap, with a push pull selector.

Both are all original, except the les paul which didn't have the plastic nib on the selector switch when i got it, i got one from the music store and it fit like a glove (colour is a bit off - but works).

I have read good things about Japanese guitars but was originally concerned that they were the equivalent of todays Chinese knock offs.

I am pleased to say they are outstanding instruments.

Interested to know what others think about them and their experiences?

[Lacking Talent]

I think you'll discover the consensus is that MIJ guitars of that era -- from copycat/"lawsuit" designs, and eventually on to more original models -- quickly came to equal, if not in fact surpass, the quality of contemporaneous offerings from the major U.S. makers.

[Kit]

I have a 1976 Yamaha SG1500 that I bought new back then from a guitar store in Oakland, CA. It has a mahogany body with an ebony fretboard, dual humbuckers, triple-ply top binding on the body, single ply on the neck. It was built perfect in every way. To this day it is still my favorite guitar. It's been played a lot over the last 40 years but it is still in excellent condition.

[ieso]

I've had a number of Japanese guitars over the years. A couple I would like to have back ... including one I bought in Okinawa in 1984 (an uber rare Destroyer that was only made for the Japanese market. Only ever seen two in the US and one was mine).

[bloodied_fingers]

I have a 2014 Edwards 130ALS (All Lacquer) LP style guitar that is fantastic.

I bought it used off e-bay and when it arrived I was pretty pissed as the Japanese dealer didn't disclose all of it's faults.

Change strings, clean up the frets, plug it in and play some and I don't think there is another lp-style guitar I like better.

[Nubs]

This MIJ tele is my #1. I don't ever plan on selling it.

[Arti]

Thanks for the response everyone, they are some awesome looking guitars.

I think it would have to be a really rainy day for me to move mine on.

I have certainly been impressed with the quality in finish and fittings given they have stood the test of time.

I had to do some work on the Straycat, but nothing significant. the intonation was out, the action was out and the neck needed some relief. but once that was done in conjunction with a new set of strings, the guitar purred.

I see more and more Made in Japan Fenders for sale in Australia and they are at prices that sit in-between the Mexican and US makes. I'm not sure if thats over or under price wise, but i would say they are worth it. I'm just waiting for the right one at the right price before i invest in one but it is on my wish list.

[dhgleaves]

Thanks for the response everyone, they are some awesome looking guitars.

I think it would have to be a really rainy day for me to move mine on.

I have certainly been impressed with the quality in finish and fittings given they have stood the test of time.

I had to do some work on the Straycat, but nothing significant. the intonation was out, the action was out and the neck needed some relief. but once that was done in conjunction with a new set of strings, the guitar purred.

I see more and more Made in Japan Fenders for sale in Australia and they are at prices that sit in-between the Mexican and US makes. I'm not sure if thats over or under price wise, but i would say they are worth it. I'm just waiting for the right one at the right price before i invest in one but it is on my wish list.

Where in Australia do you mean that you've been seeing these for sale? In the shops or Ebay or Gumtree? I sort of keep my eye out for them, but haven't seen too many for sale in SA (although I just saw a Fender bass on Gumtree that I was tempted to buy).

[Crusher]

I have a MIJ Yamaha SA2200. All in all, the best semi-hollow guitar I've played and had - my first real guitar, took me 3 years of savage stashing to get enough money to buy it. I've played more on it than anything I've got, and I will never sell it. Trust me, I've had a lot, from Gretsch Falcon to Gibson ES335, and that one is so easy to play and maintain due to top notch lutherie, it's ridiculous! The neck is so thin and works for my hands! I wish I would have jumped over the SG1802 gold top I saw last year. Regret I didn't bought it, same goes for the SG2000 I saw last month. Now, only thing I can do is hope money will flow again and find a fool who will sell one! Those guitars are amazing. I still regret selling my AES1500. Was one hell of a player, except for the spacing. It was spaced the same as an accoustic guitar, which made me do a lot of mistakes when I was coming back to regular spaced electric guitar - it was driving me nuts. It was absolutely AWESOME for jazz, blues and country though! And it's now of my understanding that it's good to have the accoustic spacing in your hands too. Going from one to the other ain't that bad. But well, you know, beginner's mistake and GAS. When I wanna have it back though, it could be possible, if I hire a hitman to pry the guitar from my cold brother's hands



Regret selling my BB2024x bass too, a real good precision/jazz combo bass! I've started bass on a BB500 and my hands seems to be used to Yamaha necks. One thing for sure : people who say Yamaha are cold instruments didn't tried them or are plagued with cork sniff syndrome... they are absolutely nice piece of work, and alive! Check "Bireli Lagrène" and say the guy cannot play and make you tap your feet

Two really cool LP guitar style I've had were Bacchus from the 90's-2k. One was a BLP-CTM, and the other was a BLP-STD with a bigsby. Both were rock machines, and I sold them, again, because of GAS. But ended with a really nice G&L HH legacy in blueburst (which is now my main guitar) and a G&L L2000 bass, which is now sharing gigs with my Musicman stingray... so no real regrets here, you know. And didn't lost any money over them as they are priced the same used. But they were really really fine guitars. They were on par with most Gibson LP's I've had (well, maybe not, but to be honest, the quality vs the price was awesome... cannot compare a Bacchus with Gibson if you let the price on the side, Gibson is better but they can have some issues with details - and like most guitars, you can find dogs and inconsistency). My Gibson traditionnal and standard are untouchable because of the mucho mucho love they've had. So, cannot have too many guitars or I don't love them enough - it was a matter of choice.

Still to this day, I believe MIJ guitars are made awesome. Only reccurent problems I see with them is fretwork. They tend to have smaller frets, making them easy to wear down. Only exception are Yamaha... they last longer than most. Worst were the Gretsch... 1 year of intense playing and you're bound to have to level the frets and file them (they use pretty quick). Then again, I'm an agressive player, so it's just me... but they offer awesome value (except Gretsch, costing twice the price of a Yamaha for the bling). I would absolutely love to have a SG1802, SG3000 and another SA2200. Feedback is killing me when doing rock on the SA, and weight is killing me on the SG, so I'm not even sure I will dig in, except for the 1802 which didn't had a real bad bone.

But to be honest, I love MIJ stuff... I'm just a bit plagued by the branding (yeah, I am a bit of a gear snob... maybe the prestige, and I know it's lame... but I like to have a known brand on the headstock even though it changes nothing at all). At least I am honest! Well, I still really really love my Yamaha guitars, and they are usually seen as the exact opposite of "prestige"! Talking about the Yamaha SA2200 : it didn't came with a case, just a cardboard box... at 3k, it was really lame, especially since it was snowing outside that day, and it took me 6 month to have due to backorder... I was so damn pissed at the clerk for not telling me! Now you know : Yamaha don't sell their guitars with cases, so if you want one, be sure to order / buy one together with it!

In my view though, nothing beats a good G&L!

[geoff douglas]

Hi Arti and all Just want to add a bit of interesting Ash to the chat,, one piece, Japanese crafted, inlaid with Rosewood and Maple. Plain sawn it appears from the back with an almost 2 wavelength grain wave rippling through the body ,, its nice to look at and plays as good as it looks,,

[unsafe dropbox.com links removed by Admin]

[GeorgeB]

Currently, I own two japanese made guitars made by Fujigen, a 1994 Sqier Strat and a 2011 FGN LC-10 (Les Paul Custom). Both are superb. The Strat has one of the best necks I've ever played and the LC-10 is my favorite non-G&L guitar at the moment.
https://www.musiker-board.de/attachment ... jpg.313259
https://abload.de/img/fgn_lc10_fullviewmzssq.jpg

[Nubs]

Here's my other MIJ I picked up a couple of months ago. Alpine white lefty Tele Custom...you probably won't see another one of these in this same color:






Bonus pic of all my guitars as of now:



From left: MIJ Tele in Blonde, MIM Strat in Agave Blue, MIJ Tele Custom in Alpine White. I'm thinking a Doheny would fit in VERY NICELY with the gang.

[goatofballstreet]

My Edwards(ESP) SG made sometime within this decade is one of the best guitars I own. I don't practically care for Gibson, humbuckers, or 24.75 scale but the craftsmanship on it was flawless and it's maestro trem is extremely stable, more so than any Gibson I've tried. I don't think well made guitars are exclusively a USA thing and seeing all the great stuff coming from shops overseas now I have no hesitation on purchasing one from Japan or any other country with a history of manufacturing guitars.

[Arti]

Thanks for the response everyone, they are some awesome looking guitars.

I think it would have to be a really rainy day for me to move mine on.

I have certainly been impressed with the quality in finish and fittings given they have stood the test of time.

I had to do some work on the Straycat, but nothing significant. the intonation was out, the action was out and the neck needed some relief. but once that was done in conjunction with a new set of strings, the guitar purred.

I see more and more Made in Japan Fenders for sale in Australia and they are at prices that sit in-between the Mexican and US makes. I'm not sure if thats over or under price wise, but i would say they are worth it. I'm just waiting for the right one at the right price before i invest in one but it is on my wish list.

Where in Australia do you mean that you've been seeing these for sale? In the shops or Ebay or Gumtree? I sort of keep my eye out for them, but haven't seen too many for sale in SA (although I just saw a Fender bass on Gumtree that I was tempted to buy).

Hi dhgleaves, sorry for the late reply.

Yep on all of those places. there are plenty in Sydney and Melbourne. The earlier ones are the ones i refer to rather than some of the later ones. The only thing that you need to be cautious about with these is the fact the neck and body are often swapped out and you risk buying a bitsa. There is 3 that saw the other day on ebay that range between $500 - $700 which is actually around the price of a mexican guitar.

[Danley]

I'm alone... But I'm not a huge fan of Japanese Fenders. They were fine when I could find a Japanese Jaguar/Jazzmaster/Mustang for around $500 used; their value seems to have inflated in the last 15 years, and they're as likely to go for $800 - $1000 which is too much for what they offer IMO. I believe those values reflect people seeing "Fender Japan" and thinking of the early 80s MIJ Squiers, which were better quality; but that quality hasn't been attained by Fender Japan since the 80s. In my experience 9/10 times a Mexican Fender is a much better guitar for 50% what Japanese Fenders tend to go for.

Among my Fender Japan gripes:
-Very thin chrome and cheap/lightweight zinc hardware; inc. loose Kluson tuner copies for which US are not a direct replacement, and poorly made Jaguar/Jazzmaster vibratos that have improper string alignment, and often click and are unstable (bought two brand new MIJ vibratos that required filing of the pivot to even work)
-Quite cheap electronics/switches and pickups on many models; microphonic pickups being a particular pain point
-Soft fret material; had to get a re-fret on my MIJ Jaguar way too early. My dad's hard played F100 from 1981 is on its original frets.
-Very shiny, thick, plasticky finish that just doesn't feel 'real;' and on at least one Japanese Fender neck I owned, it was very irregularly applied and wavy
-Often "not-quite-right" in specs. like pickguard shapes, and especially body contours shallower (less for Strats than for Offsets)
-Sometimes poor quality, very open grained rosewood necks with more frequency than other brands and Fender factories
-Features evaporated over the years; no more brass shielding among other things, newer guitars have ugly black shielding paint

The positive side is they're built very well; but in my opinion they're built wrong. A Mexican Fender might come with every screw cross-threaded and every piece of hardware mis-aligned, but still translates to feeling more like a Fender to me typically. For the prices MIJ/CIJ guitars go for nowadays, and with so many fixes and upgrades necessary out of the box, a made in US Fender is a better deal. I got a used American Deluxe for $500 after all, and Standards go for $600 all day. Hell, I've played Squiers that seemed 'nicer' than recent MIJs; VM Squiers are much better guitars for the money, and overall.

[joker222]

I own a fender prophecy iii I love it apparently it's a rarer model of bass.. Type: 1993 Prophecy III pretty sure this the one. Serial #: O025643
a good site on this model in case your intreasted http://heartfield.guitars/html/prophecy.htm

[JagInTheBag]

Well G&L is now making guitars in Japan- for the Japanese market.

[Danley]

I know they did but thought they stopped.

[Craig]

Well G&L is now making guitars in Japan- for the Japanese market.

I know they did but thought they stopped.

I sent an email to Dave to confirm what Patrick said. Here is his reply:

Hi Craig,

No. There were some made in the Fujigen factory from about 1998 on but none for a few years. The MIJ was the original G&L Tribute Series, later called G&L Premium Series.
Same stuff covered on GbL ages ago.

Thanks, Craig.

Dave

Reference post: Are Tribute Series instruments still made in Japan?

The new distributor in Japan has been ordering Fullerton build G&L instruments for just over a year now.
See this post for some of those instruments which have been built and shipped: Some G&L's heading to International destinations in 2017.

Hope this helps.

[JagInTheBag]

I stand corrected:

https://www.instagram.com/glguitars.jp/