The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Since the subject of P-90s has been brought up--& since a question about Fralin pickups was raised on another thread--I'd like to note that, to my ears, Lindy Fralin's noiseless P-90s are very sweet sounding (not recommended for those looking for the raucous, over-the-top hot P-90 sound, though); VERY suitable for a jazz box.
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Maybe I'm biased, but I consider Fralin to be "the man" when it comes to traditional single-coils.

If noise is a problem for you & a good shielding job doesn't fix it, Kinman is "the man" for stacked Str@ & T p'ups, although a couple of the other guys are closing in on him.

Neither are cheap, & for me, "the best" is often too expensive to justify the upgrade from "good enough" (which is why I don't have any--& I'm leery of anybody selling Fralins or Kinmans used).

I know this is an old post, but glad I found it... hopefully someone will still read this. Link to photos of my guitar:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1105543670 ... directlink

This is a Pan that I purchased in the early 90s from Songbird Music in Toronto. I love this guitar, and have been trying for years to find out more about it. Until recently I knew that:
1. Pan was made by Aria as a white label for Simpsons
2. This was a Gibson Trini Lopez copy
3. The guitar is I believe from 1969, and these guys (below link) have a copy of the catalogue, but you need to subscribe in order to see it, which I never bothered to do:
http://www.vintaxe.com/catalogs_japanese_pan.htm

Thanks to this site, I now know that there is a small chance it is a Matsumoku. Also that the non white label version of this guitar was the 5202 model, but it doesn't seem to be clear if those are Mats guitars, and also the dates on the Aria versions are 70-74 and I am 95% confident my model is pre 1970, as much as you can be with these things. It's a goofy serial number, mine is "123" which is cool but otherwise meaningless.

If anyone has anything interesting they think they can add, would love to hear it!

Cheers

Tom, i would say that you probably do have an uncle mats guitar there, how did you date it to 69? Just curious, if theres any way i could figure out the date of my 60s conrad matsumoku es330 copy.....

You know I actually don't have that much to go on. The Songbird folks told me it was from the 60s when I bought it, but to be fair that is pretty anecdotal. At one point I did get a look at a sample page of the 1969 Pan Catalogue, and the Trini Lopez model was in there. That, plus the low serial number are really my only physical clues.So I am pretty sure it is possible to have a 1969 version of the guitar, but less sure that mine is one of them. I have never taken the guitar apart to look for any dates, as I am not advanced with my techie skills, I am pretty much good to re-string and adjust the bridge, but don't adventure much past that... One of these days I need to learn more, as the pots could use a clean-up

So far i have only seen 2 instances of 3 digit serials, both on mats guitars, and it seems that they may have been a limited run, and the short serial denoted that, but thats all speculation on everyones part, it seems plausible to me, but who knows..... Also, if it is 60s, it isnt actually a Mats made guitar... Its an arai, befor mats bought them......LOL

Hi Torontotom! Those pictures of your Pan just about brought tears to my eyes because that is the very guitar I had in my boyhood. Talk about bringing back memories.

I think it was 1969. I bought it new from Herb Tate’s Music in Edmonton and he told me at the time that it was distributed by Chicago Musical Instrument and he further said that CMI was also the distributor for Gibson, and hence because of that association, that Pan guitar was no piece of garbage but a genuinely serious instrument. He also said it was a brand new line that he was just starting to carry, so I may have had a similarly low serial number like yours. I remember it cost $110 back then. Mine was the same colour as yours, a gorgeous deep burgundy-brown. The tremelo on yours is different than on mine. Mine looks like the one in the picture posted by Frenchy in this thread.

The sound was a bit thin through the pickups, but very smooth with very little pick attack. You could play lightning fast and very even legato-like lines on it. Very good for Jazz.

I found the construction a bit on the weak side. I actually could use the neck as a tremelo arm. I was using fairly heavy strings though, 12 or 13's, and flatwounds yet, so perhaps a bit too strong for a lightly built guitar like this. Perhaps 11's or 10's might be more appropriate.

The top and body appeared to be made of laminated birch.

It had a very low action and I could play like lightning on it. The neck was super. A Gibson felt like a club in comparison.

It didn’t balance very well. The strap button should have not have been placed on the end of the rather short horn, but under the heel of the neck like a Gibson 335. Because of that, 3 years later, I bought a Rickenbacker (which balanced perfectly) and so I traded that Pan for a “Randy Bachman’s Herzog”.

Cheers and feel free to ask me any questions.

Just a bit more research. It appears that Pan is a logo of Chicago Musical Instrument Company. Here is a partial description of the 1934 CMI catalog: “Embossed leatherette cover...with silhouette in gold ink of Pan playing flutes”. http://www.musurgia.com/products.asp?Pr ... 4379182011

Now look at the headstock of the Pan guitar. What do you see? Aha! “silhouette in gold ink of Pan playing flutes”. So I am speculating this is a CMI product, manufactured for CMI by some Japanese factory.

Furthermore I found that CMI not only distributed Gibson but they owned Gibson outright!(bought the company in 1944) In which case then, CMI would have owned all the Gibson designs and patents. So that would explain why the Pan guitar is a dead ringer for the Gibson Trini Lopez model.

Now the big question.... who was the Japanese company fabricating these guitars?

Hi yet again. My memory is coming back, albeit in bits and pieces. I can now say with 100% certainty, that I owned that Pan guitar in the late summer of 1969. I still don’t recall exactly when I bought it, my best guess right now is in the spring of 1969.

Regarding the bridge, I had another look at your photo and yes, it is the original bridge.

Here’s another clue that CMI could have had a hand in at least the specifications of this instrument. Looking at the double row of poles, the pickups on that Pan appear to be humbucking pickups. I do recall that it was very quiet, noise and hum wise. If that’s the case, then with the Gibson patent on the humbucking design still active in 1969, anyone who made a humbucking pickup would have had to have permission and a license from CMI. In 1969 CMI was not only the biggest distributor of musical instruments in North America but also the biggest manufacturer of musical instruments as well. I can't see that they would distribute unlicensed copies of their own guitars. It would be like actively aiding their competition.

Regarding the serial number, is it possible that it is on the reinforcing plate where the 4 bolts hold the neck? That’s usually where it is on most Japanese bolt-on instruments. Could it be that the “123” on the label inside the instrument is actually only a model number? On my own instrument I don’t recall seeing that label there, by the way.

All in all though Tom, I think you have a really fine guitar and I can well understand why you really love it. Cheers and I hope all my ramblings here have helped you out and I thank you very much for raising such pleasant memories for me.

Correction. Matsumoku did not buy Aria. Mats made electric guitars for Aria under contract. Mats ceased operations in 1987, Aria still exists today.

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"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
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I'd like to ask the membership a question:

Did Aria ever actually build their guitars? That is did they have their own woodworking shop, or did they always contract out the actual building of its guitars? I am trying to find out who actually built that Pan guitar that forum member "torontotom" has and I am confused by the terminology I find such as "by Aria" or "made by Aria" or "produced by Aria".

When I analyze these guitars I ask myself two questions:

1. Who designed it?
2. Who fabricated it?

That usually tells me the "real" story.