The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Looks like a winner Johnny, even if it does have too many pickups.
At 4.4 kg Not the kind of thing I would prefer to sling over my shoulder all night though. (by the way, we Canadian Luddites are metricated, so kindly exclude us from your wrath)

You didn't mention if any of the pots were push-pull. Didn't look like it in the pix, but it is strange how those red wires are just hanging out there. Not like Uncle Mats to put 'em in the pups if they're weren't going to be used??

Glad to hear that you can toggle the centre pup. We had a 3 pup Epiphone LP in the shop last year that was on all the time. Very annoying.

The trouble with gold plated hardware is that it inevitably ends up looking like poo. Any thoughts of replating, or ya gonna stay "vintage"?

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"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
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Yeah, those wires are just floating around in the cavity, and no; the pots aren't push/pull and whilst it would be easy enough to install a coil tap switch, I ain't gonna - it ain't my guitar for one, and I like the simplicity of pickup selection as it is!

Dunno about the gold plating, though. The pickup covers are soldered on and the screws run right through to the baseplate so I shall investigate simple options firstly. I've already cleaned and primed the grotty screw heads and shall hie me forth to my paint guru tomorrow about gold paint...

Lovely looking guitar there but its a bit spooky that I have just snagged a green LC440 and also a PE1500 within the space of a month .......

The PE is in great condition and, as you quite rightly say, is a monster of a guitar.....1 of the pups has been replaced but I haven't had time to check it out properly yet so I'm not sure whats what.

Regarding the red wire in the LC440, I'll have to double check later, but I have a suspicion that the mini switch is in fact a coil tap switch - but only works for the bridge pup.

I thought that there were 3 independent volume controls and 1 tone control which allows for some great sound blending.
Toggle switch up = neck, down = bridge, middle = all 3.

My bridge pickup has been switched out for a DiMarzio some time ago, which certainly adds to the versatility.

Takes a while to find the sweet spot but when you do....wow!!

Certainly one of the best looking guitars I own and its hard to explain but has a great 'feel' to it.

I didn't mean for you to take it home and rape the poor thing

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Nothing in the same class as your collection (but I like em)

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You can never have too many guitars

Not sure if its the right way to do it, but what I do, is bang them down quite hard onto a piece of softwood, back down obviously & the backs usually pop straight out. Some require more effort than others & sometimes they will get a bit caught if they get a bit angled on the way. A bit of poking & fiddling sorts that out.

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My Guitars- http://matsumokuguitars.com/

According to the dealer slick on the info site, it is a coil split, but either this one has been changed at the factory - "specifications subject to change without notice" - or at some stage post sale, but that said, I cannot find any trace of extra solder on any of the pots, and this ones mini switch definately turned the middle p'up on.
The thing was wired with 2V/2T as well with the selector switch engaging neck/both/bridge in the up/middle/down positions.

Rightio, my little flowers .... progress in the Stokes household is - as always - slow but steady and herein the LC440 - which I have named "Don" - still needing a few things to complete it, like tuners!

Personally, I think it looks GOOD in black, though I do think the knobs which are exactly the sort that came off the guitar don't look quite right??



What do y'all reckon??

"Don is Good".........

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My Guitars- http://matsumokuguitars.com/

'Don' is done for the most part; it is now playable, looks bloody awesome and that is about as far as I will go at the moment... Oddly, the intonation was near as darn to being bang on?! Work that one out! Action is as long as snakes' guts with no buzzing anywhere; I'm well pleased...

Gotoh bridge & locking tuners - I couldn't get the tulip buttons for less than a kings ransom so these will do - are a bit of an eye-opener as they are a ginormous step up from the Chinese ones I originally got for this; much, much more positive and solid in feel! The Schecter ones on the Corsair Avenger are pretty good too, but these Gotohs are really good tuners!! (SG301Bk 04)

Everything is black - apart from the strap buttons, which are coming- and the nice, shiny brass nut.... boy; that nut adds brightness in spades!!
I do think that originally the wiring was 3V/1T with the mini switch as a coil split, but someone at some time has altered it so that you could get pickups in combinations, which is cool but at some stage - and with a certain someones' blessing - I'd like to put it back to standard just to see what it's like. Being able to do Shadows stuff on an LP would raise some eyebrows, eh?!

OK, lads....
.... I'm gonna return this to OEM spec wiring, and it's driving me nuts working out the way it should be done.

Received wisdom is that it is 3V/1T, with a 3 way switch and coil tap on the mini switch. Is the 3 way wired Neck/Middle/Bridge, and is the coil tap just sending one of the h/b coils straight to earth?

I see Catalyst reckons the 3way is neck/both/bridge and I just wonder if that's right?

I have to assume that the volume pots are log taper and the tone pot linear, but the values stamped on the casing aren't that brilliant.... well, I cannot read them without sucking ll of the solder off and cleaning them properly!

Anyway... has anyone in here got a diagram I could look at???