The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Finally moved from NY, lots of unpacking to do. TRIED to give back all the orphan guitars that folks had left in my "I'll get to it someday" pile, I really did try. Three wouldn't go away, and all three are Univox or similar black Les Paul copies in differing states of repair. One, an Aspen it turns out (once I removed layers of stickers from the headstock), actually shows signs of being Uncle Mat-ish, I'll post about that one later.

This one looks like a Univox Custom U1885, needs nut/inlay/toggle repair and other TLC to make it play again, no clue if the pickups or pots work yet. Entire bridge was missing, but I have a chrome bridge that fits exactly. Open-book headstock (Oooooh! Lawsuit! ), no headstock inlay, though. Serial # is 0125901.







Moderators, feel free to delete this if off-topic, just curious if there was any Uncle Mat relation or reactions from the peanut gallery.

Thanks,

je

It's unknown if there was any Matsumoku connection on the earlier Univox guitars but many appeared to have come from the same source Shiro Arai Co. was using during the same period. The pickups look a little odd though, almost Teisco-ish.

Yeah, I'd seen similar pickups before, especially the height adjustment screws being two on one side & one on the other. If they sound unique (especially given the semi-hollow-ness of the dished top) this may get some work done here, if not it may become someone else's DIY project or an organ donor for other Univoxes- we'll see.

I do want to get the Aspen LP completed, though, and odd-sized pickup rings are my only hurdle, I think- spacing between screw holes is not any standard I've seen. I'll have to check this one, maybe it's the donor I've needed.

je

the strange thing with those pickups are that they are single coils (ive got a set laying around), yet there are two sets of adjustable pole pieces.

A lot of the early copy era guitars seemed to have single coils disguised as humbuckers. Obviously they wanted to make the guitars look closer to whatever they were copying, but it would be interesting to know why they didn't make actual humbuckers. Was it really that much cheaper to stick a single coil in a humbucker looking case?

Look what they're doing nowadays with P92 and P94 pickups. P90's in a humbucker form factor. They'd probably be sweet for retrofitting into one of these older guitars. Everything old is new again.

Oh, hell yeah. I'll be grabbing some of those at some point for sure. There's also a dual-coil model with one small coil & one big'un, supposed to sound P90ish when run single-coil. Want one. Maybe two.

je

_________________
...doing bad things to good Vantages since 1985...

1981 AV-320
1981 AV-320
1981 AV-325
1982 AV-320
1982 VS-695-12
1982 VSH-445
1983 AV-330
1995 VST 33 CE TBK

It's a Seymour Duncan P-Rail, basically a hot, P-90, with a blade type single coil stuck together.

Want. One.

je

Maybe two.

_________________
...doing bad things to good Vantages since 1985...

1981 AV-320
1981 AV-320
1981 AV-325
1982 AV-320
1982 VS-695-12
1982 VSH-445
1983 AV-330
1995 VST 33 CE TBK

Only 5 years later, I've finally gotten around to dusting it off (but not actually cleaning it) and photographing it. Some more little tidbits - it appears to have a three-piece neck (that's VERY, VERY slim). Pickups read as ~8K and ~9K, P-90 range. This temp bridge was the one that ended up on Eyebulger's 455, so it's once again bridge-less.

What appears to be scratches in the face is actually checking, probably due to the semi-hollow-ness of the ply veneer on the face.

Feel free to peruse the pics (these are full-size, so if you want a closer look you can download them) and let me know what you think.

https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/5731545 ... m?h=4c8c89

je

_________________
...doing bad things to good Vantages since 1985...

1981 AV-320
1981 AV-320
1981 AV-325
1982 AV-320
1982 VS-695-12
1982 VSH-445
1983 AV-330
1995 VST 33 CE TBK