The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Hi guys I'm after some info on CMI branded guitars. I've got a white strat copy that sounds lovely (esp clean dire straits sort of sounds). This is a little difficult as it has a 3 position selector switch like the origional strats. The black pickup is out of a Bond (small scottish independant maker) but is going to be swapped back for the original soon as it's more in keeping with the rest of the sound. The bond is a bit screaming metal really.
http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/3747/dscf00145eh.jpg
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8778/dscf00167qc.jpg
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/7545/dscf00177lm.jpg
Hope some of you guys can give me a wee bit of history, this is the ultimate resource for jap guitars after all.
Cheers

CMI is a UK brand. It was owned by Cleartone Musical Instruments during the late 70s/early 80s. Early guitars was made by Peter Cook while the later models was made by Fujigen Gakki in Japan.

I've compiled this information from a few sources inclusing The Guru's guitar guide (Bacon/Day), The blue book and some Internet sources. There may be inaccuracies.

Isn't there always in this field, this is one of the made in japan ones and is very high quality in terms of construction and electrics but the neck finish is rather plasticy.Works fine but looks a bit mince.
Thanks for the info gadge

Just done some googleing and it looks like there was two CMIs. One Cleartone musical instruments from the UK who had something to do with Marshall amplification and Chicago musical instruments from the states. It looks like both sold fujigen guitars under the CMI brand, confusing or what? Any idea which I have as I can't find any pics of the respective logos. Also is there a site like this one where I can find more info or show it off?
Cheers again guys

Hi Eccles - I think all the CMIs sold in the UK are likely to be from the Marshall-related concern, and the logo on yours is the one most commonly used by that company.

CMI (UK) also used a variant on the Marshall logo "M", with a small lower case "c" and "i" either side - if that makes any sense!

One of the ways to positively identify a Fuji Gen Gakki guitar is the neck plate - apparently Fuji Gen neckplates have "Made In Japan" stamped on the lower half of the plate.

You might find out more info if you ask the forums at Ibanez Collectors World - they're happy to discuss anything from the Fuji Gen factory.

BTW - do you have the Bond that the pickup came from - wouldn't be a carbon graphite/resin stepped-neck Electraglide from about 1985/6, would it? 8)

Jon.

Don't some Matsumoku guitars also have the same?

yeah, that's a common occurrence (sp) on 60's and early 70's japanese guitars.
From some recent research I've been doing, in the late 60's there were lots of different manufacturers in Japan. there was a lot of smaller parts houses that supplied components to many companies, so there are lot's of crossover parts in that time frame. It appears that some of the early Fuji Gen's had bodies made in the Matsumoku plant, but because of Fuji Gen's growth, they began doing everything internally. a small segment of the early Fernandes guitars were made in the Matsumoku plant too, so multiple manufacturers could have been making guitars for one "House Brand".

DISCLAIMER: of course this is just stuff I've found on the web, and some was through the google translater. Which was interesting at times...

I never had the guitar although I did get to play one in Live music way back when it was on Candlemaker row and used to have lots of quirky second hand stuff. I wasn't much of a player then but remember it being a bit wierd feeling. I got the pickups from a guy I met while busking at The Mound who had a pile of industrial sensors from some machine or another. I think when Bond went bust the recievers sold off every last thing they could to recoup the huge development costs. I recognised the logo and payed him £20 for about thirty of the things still soldered to P.C.Bs. They all got used up in friends project guitars,one of them ended up in my Quest and did the job quite well. I haven't seen a Bond guitar since but I'd like to get my hands on one,a nice wee bit of guitar history that would be.