The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Ok, I've seen that version of the bridge on another guitar but I don't remember the brand. I have another guitar with the Washburn version of the bridge except it has the slotted saddles. It's a Matsumoku made Erlewine Automatic from the early 80's:



Normally it's made by Mark Erlewine in Austin, Texas but he had 300 of them built in japan in the early 80's. The guitar was designed by him and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. The bridge on the original Automatics are a bit different though, it seems to be of a wrap around type.

The Washburn type bridge could also be found on Daions, the only difference was that the bridge had the Daion logo in front of the saddles. I bought one of these new in the 80's and kept it for many years, it was a great guitar: http://www.diamondstrings.com/daion%20s ... hite-2.jpg

Mike

... one of my eternally favorite
Very interesting news - till today i don´t know that Matsumoku made a few of them.
My past looks for a well received model was unfortunately unsuccessful, but one day ....
BTW - there are a few nice pic´s on your website

Back to topic : Momentarily there´s an identically constructed project guitar
at ebay germany available - but the headstock looks somewhat differently.

Nikki

That project guitar's a proper Matsumoku Washburn Falcon - check the headstock shape, and particularly the neck-through constructions. Our weirdo Hohner/Morris/whatever all have a set neck.

Interesting project, though!

Jon.

Very interesting! I didn't know about those bridges being used on Washburns. as you say, like many of the parts on these guitars, the same hardware was used by different manufactureres. The 'toilet seat' (heh) bridges are really nice, good quality.

I don't mean to come across as putting this guitar down or doubting- I'm not a "Mattist" who insists that all other guitars are bad. :)

Is that a Hohner Revelation in the background? Had the butterscotch. Pretty cool guitar. IIRC, they were made in the Czech Republic or Poland, one of the two.

There was an identical Erlewine for sale last week in Sweden, the ad seem to be gone now so I guess it was sold almost immediately. I've only seen three of these for sale in the last 16 years! One of them was mine, one that was modified with two humbuckers was for sale some years ago. The one I own has unfortunately had the headstock broken at some time, it was repaired by a previous owner in the 80's. I've owned it since 1990.

Mike

Revelation RTS and the upper class Revelation ATX are made by Elpro Delicia in the Czech Republic.
They have build guitars for a few well known companys like Dean, Epi, Veilette, Höfner, Esh, MTD, etc...
Unfortunately these great company has stopped the production since the end of 2004.

The recommended price for the RTS was between 715-820 Euro (~860-985$) and for the ATX ~1125 Euro (~1350$).
These great guitars are very unpopular in germany, and with a little luck you can get a RTS in mint condition for under 200$.

Nikki

The Falcon bridge isn't completely identical to the Hohner/Morris bridge. You can see in Bassassin's closeup that the edges are rounded near the front of the bridge. I haven't seen this on any Falcon or Eagle.

The Erlewine bridge is as far as I can see identical to the Raven and Hawk bridges. The frame of the bridge is the same as on the Falcon but the saddles have elongated slots instead of the round slots on the Falcon (and the Morris).

No, the Morris/Hohner bridge is different but I've seen it on another guitar before, I just don't remember what brand it was, it was japanese though.

The saddles with elongated slots like on my Erlewine seem to have been used on Washburns as well:

http://images.tradera.com//723/24934723_1.jpg

Mike

For fear of dragging this right off-topic, yes, that's a Hohner Rev RTX in the background, which I've had for about 10 years. It does say "Made In Czechoslovakia" on the headstock, but there are differing explanations of its origin/origins - it's been described as a "Eurofighter" guitar because it seems the components came from all over the continent - Schaller tuners, Wilkinson bridge, UK-made ATX pickups, etc.

According to former XTC guitarist Dave Gregory, who had a 4 pickup Rev built to order, the instruments were assembled in a custom shop facility in Wales.

I don't have any particular fetish for Hohners, but I've somehow ended up with 3 - I also have a 1984 B2A Steinberger bass copy, which I still take out as a spare for gigs. Anyone know where they were made?

Anyway, back to the topic - the biggest difference between the 2 bridges is the mounting holes - and it's little details like these which increasingly make me think these guitars aren't Mat's - you'd think that being made in the same factory at the same time they'd share some common components rather than having broadly similar-looking parts.

OK - here's another interesting detail - anyone seen hex-bodied machine heads like these before, and does the Morris share them?



It may just be my own ignorance but I can't remember seeing them on anything else...

Jon.