The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Hi everyone. Stumbled across this gem at a local pawn shop. The internet says it might be Matsu built. I took it to my luthier http://www.mikelull.com/ and he believes it's late 70's Japanese but has never heard of the CG Winner brand.

Other than the CG Winner logo on the head and a sticker on the back that says PB-510 there is no other ID I can find. The original "blade" type pickups were bad/broken so I installed a Bartolini set I had.

Any truth to it? Probably not worth much so I think I'll keep it and enjoy.
Thanks for looking.

Brian

[img][IMG]http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac30/bgholsten/th_full_1.png[/img][/img]
[img][IMG]http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac30/bgholsten/th_head%20close.png[/img][/img]
[img][IMG]http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac30/bgholsten/th_back%20full.png[/img][/img]
[img][IMG]http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac30/bgholsten/th_back%20serial.png[/img][/img]
[img][IMG]http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac30/bgholsten/th_pots_1.png[/img][/img]

Hi bgholsten!

First off... what a gem !

Love your bass... First I see of that name brand.

OK, for the hints as of who made it... The bridge screams Cort made bass... neck thru design Cort, neck truss rod adjustment Cort....

Basically... you got a Cort rebrand in my book... Very good basses and great quality...

Congrats !

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

Ohhh and the sticker with model number screams Cort made !!!

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

Thanks for taking a look! I never thought it could be Cort made but I suppose it's possible as I heard that at the end of the CG Winner run they switched builders to a Korean company.

I did a bit more poking around and found this:
http://www.musiker-board.de/threads/c-g ... AC.605674/

Translation:
"Sell ​​an extremely rare ( never an exact equivalent terms) C. G. Winner Bass . Made in Japan in the almost legendary Matsumoku factory , probably in the 70s . Beautiful wood , Neck through , Fender Precision copy , Model PB - 510 Pre - Lawsuit - headstock"

Out of all the searches I've done, that's the only one that comes even close. Same PB-150 tag.

This is fun! I plugged it in last night, no amp just headphones and was surprised to hear the pots weren't at all scratchy.

Brian

All these bass bridge that I have are on Korean made instruments... But again, that is just my experience.

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

Thanks Frenchy! You're most likely right. To add to that, although I've never owned a real Matsumoku guitar I've been reading that they are of exceptional, dare I say "legendary" build quality. While this one is nicely built, I wouldn't call it that exceptional.

For example:

The forearm contour is cut a little too far and the bridge overhangs a bit. You can also see the bridge saddles are lowered all the way down to get the action a least playable.


While this may have been the result of someone getting a little carried away doing a refinish job, I doubt it. The model number sicker on the back would probably be gone it what were the case. Speculation of course.


And this. Whatever has happened here, it's under the finish.

Yeah, probably not Matsumoku.

Brian

Very nice but I'm gonna say non Mat also. I really have no idea who made it but several things are just a little off to be Matsumoku.

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Quality service since 3:00 last Tuesday

i found something like that
http://www.guitarmaniacs.de/cgi-bin/gal ... ry&id=3217

....one more
Matsumoku
http://www.musiker-board.de/threads/c-g ... oku-vb-280€.605674/

Bass comes from Clarence Griffith - he was a close friend of Leo Fender, with whom he worked as a luthier until the early eighties. When Leo Fender founded G & L at the same time, Griffith also founded his own company and created their own collections of guitars, mainly inspired by Fender and Gibson. They were produced by Matsumoku in Japan (which is where the most famous brands Aria Pro II, Vantage, Ibanez). These instruments under the CG WINNER were exported to the US market while the Japanese manufacture Satelite guided them to the UK market


Sorry for my English