The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

i was always thinking custom was a brandname used by fujigen but it seems that uncle mat also build guitars with that name.
but the neckplate and build quility says it al, matsumoku, 3 piece mahogany body, with the welknown arched plywood top like a lot of japanese manufacturers did at that time, 3 piece maple neck and built like a tank.
2 days ago i picked this one up for 100 euro.





have to be honest he didn't looked that good at that point, the pickups are clearly not original, the bridge pickup is unbranded but a splittable one, the neck pickup is a dimarzio dp153 fred, tuners are gotoh, so the former owner did spend some money on it.
i replaced the output, toggleswitch, control cavity cover, mounted a new pickguard, and leveled the frets.
i also changed the pickup rings, those on it were the thinnest you can buy, looked like [Foul Language Used] imho.
also smoothend the back of the neck, there were some damages on it and by sanding the finish with grain 800 you won't feel these anymore.
but hell what a guitar, is by far the lightest playing les paul clone in my collection and sounds great, the dimarzio is a little bit too hot for in the neck position compared to the other pickup.
total cost are now 150 euro including fuel, i'm as happy as can bee with this one, and while the prices in europe for old fujigen guitars are going down, the prices for matsumoku guitars are going up, (finaly they are discovering uncle mat guitars have a overal better quality) but this one stays in my collection, he's going to replace the maya .
if these guitar was made of plywood the former owner would have smashed it on stage, he bought it with that intent, but due to the good quality he tought that was a shame.

I don't think that Matsumoku guitars have a "overall" better quality than Fujigen. Matsumoku is very guilty on some real design failures (e.g. the shoddy saddles on the CS series, the instable 12 string tailpiece... and did I mention the fake rail pickups used in the ZZ and some of the Super-Strats). Anyway, both manufacturers made some nice guitars along the way...

ever seen a plywood matsumoku guitar?
i've never seen one, but i've seen a lot fujigen made plywood guitars, my experience is that the matsumoku quality is more constant that the fujigen stuff, offcourse nobody is perfect.

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http://www.wietsesguitars.nl

Hi Wietse, nice Paula !
Looks very much like my Vantage VLP:
[img][IMG]http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/1858/vantage022.th.jpg[/img] [/img]

Any serial number on the neckplate ?

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All vantage-branded guitars were lower-priced instruments aimed at the beginner-to-intermediate market. It has no interest to collectors and very little demand among players! (www.allexperts.com)

I picked up a 1986 Aria Pro II 'The CAT II" recently ( viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5859&start=0 ). And yes, Uncle Mat DID make plywood bodies.

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http://www.GuitarDir.com has been hacked by some mindless fool, destroying years
of gathering info on guitars by non-commercial guitar lovers. Why?

They made quite a lot of them (and not only before 1975).

Me too. Mine hasn't arrived yet but she's plywood as well.

I'm 99% sure Custom was a European (probably Netherlands) importer's brand & they sourced guitars from several manufacturers. I had a lovely Custom LP Jr Doublecut, which turned up at an Edinburgh fleamarket!






I don't think this is Fujigen or Matsumoku - possibly Kasuga but I'm not convinced... Anyway, a great little guitar & one of the few I regret parting with.

And Matsumoku quality? No complaints here - all the time we don't talk about those Gibson type 3-point bass bridges - that's right, the ones that bend & crack under string tension:





Jon.

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLO!!!!!!