The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

I have this guitar from my father, made by Stewart guitars. It says made in Japan and has a bolt on neck. When I initially asked around I was told that it was made by the Matsumoku factory for Buegeleisen & Jacobson some time around the 60's. So I figured this might be the best place to ask around for any more information, although from what I've seen on here Stewart guitars aren't known to be made by Matsumoku so I have my doubts about that. Still, I'd appreciate if anyone has any other information or anything at all on it really. I tried to attach pictures of the guitar but for some reason it's telling me my 34.3kB image exceeds the 80kB maximum allowed file size, so instead I'm going to provide a link to the pictures on Imgur, I hope that's not an issue.

Interesting guitar and very much a design of the late 60's early 70's. But I doubt very much that it's a Mats instrument.

B&J was a Canadian importer/distributor active in the 70's and was responsible for several "white label" brands so it's quite possible Stewart was one of them. Another common Canadian label was el Degas and I have some experience with that brand and from my activity on their forum.

It's very murky waters when you try and figure out who these private labels were made by but I think we've narrowed the Japanese manufacturers down to Fuji-Gen Gakki for the higher end electrics and Chushin-Gakki for the acoustics. No guarantees that it holds for all white labels but it's a pretty good bet.

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I figured it wasn't really a mastumoku guitar, which is why I posted it here once someone told me it might be. Also just for a brief addendum for what Barry said, from what I can tell, if B&J operated in Canada in the 70's, that would've been during their last years in business, as they seem to have operated from 1904 until sometime in the 70's in NYC. Other than that, everything seems to hold water. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction for who may have manufactured it!

Guitars from this era are very difficult to pin down to maker. Many of the brands like this were sourced from a number of makers. Necks here, electronics there, hardware from somewhere else and assembled somewhere else, some even in the US. Matsumoku did not really come into its own until the early 70s when the began to use modern manufacturing techniques such as CNC machines. The 60 hollows in particular were prone to neck pocket/body warpage and some of the woods became brittle, shrank and warped over time. Fortunately the violin hollows have more support at the neck pocket than the 335 style.