The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Hello,

Can anyone help me identify this cat shaped guitar, model name; "The Cat"? I believe that it may be an Aria Pro ll. The head stock has "The Cat, pat pend TM" on it. I cannot find any other information on the guitar or anywhere else. Any help is appreciated. Thank you ross52

[img]http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/7046/thecatguitar0042lg.th.jpg[/img]

It looks like a custom one-off to me.

I could be wrong, for a while in the 80's Mako and other brands made weird novelty guitars shaped like guns and things, who knows maybe they made a cat.

One thing you might do is look for any markings, serial numbers, etc on the back of hte headstock, on the neckplate, or on hte underside of the pickups. If you take out the screws holding down the pickup rings, the pickups will ocme out as a unit and if you loosen the strings you can slip them out. If there are markings on the back of the pickup it'll most likely help the ID

it's cute! how does it play?

X189player, Thanks for your reply. I checked all the areas that you mentioned to help ID this guitar. Came up empty except for the pickups, they have are signed on the back: Mighty Mite MFG. I've never heard of these before, have you? Does this give you any better idea on the mfg of the guitar? Thanks ross52

Mighty Mite is an aftermarket source of pickups and parts- I buy them myself because they're cheap and good quality. I can't think of any manufacturer who uses them, but I could be wrong.

It does lend credence to the idea that it's a handmade one-off.

In the 1980s, maybe earlier, Mighty Mite used to sell complete guitar kits. I built both a V and Explorer. Good solid parts.

If I'm not mistaken Cort bought the Mighty Mite name sometime in the early '90s.

(fainting with the synchronicities)