The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Hello I have a Pan circa 1960 PD serial # 2295064 electric guitar in pristine condition. can anyone tell me more about this guitar. the local guitar shop here in vancouver canada just raved about the quality and sound and wanted to buy it from me. It was bought original and I have been the only owner.

Hi stacey and welcome to the forums.
You have yourself one sweet looking guitar there, and you've kept her in gorgeous condition! This is a pre-Matsumoku made guitar manufactured by the well established Arai Company (later to be called Aria). PAN is one of many "white label" brands manufactured during this time and sold in Canada. I don't have all the details of this brand, but I'm sure other members will chime in with more info.

Suffice it to say, that if you can get past the supremely silly name, you have a first class instrument!

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"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

Hi Stacey,

Nice Guitar you got there! She is a real beauty What Barry mentionned is dead on.

Also, based on the pickups and headstock that you have on her I would put her in the 1972-76 years and possibly later due to the pickups. That is just my opinion...

Is she a lefty?

P

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

Welcome Stacey. Very nice guitar.
Looks like pics are backward.

thank you for the comments Barry,Frenchy and Jorg. Your correct, I took the pictures on my Apple computer and not realizing they were backwards when published. Also, it is not a lefty. The sound is unbeleivable on this guitar. I am very happy that it has remained in excellent shape. What would the value be on this guitar? just curious? thanks!

Sorry to say these do not get a high amount $, I have several like these and they are still undiscovered in my opinion... I sometimes see some selling for 150.00 and sometimes for 300.00 and so on. The basses seems to fetch higher amounts...

P.

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

Probably the most asked question here. The most often heard answer is, "Whatever someone is willing to will pay for it." Pan is not a household name and most people will have never heard of it, therefore not much demand. And it's not alone. There were many such Made in Japan white label brands circulating in the 70's in Canada, el Degas and Granada are other commonly seen brands.

Aside from niche collectors you are likely not going to find many enthusiastic buyers for these guitars, but that doesn't take away from their above average quality. Count yourself lucky that you have it. If it had Gibson on the headstock you likely couldn't afford it!

_________________
"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

Barry is dead on with his answer..

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

Funny you should mention that...........my older brother has a Gibson around the same year as mine ( mom bought us each one) and I got short end of the stick.........but he said I could have it......better go collect the guitar soon...........I will upload the pic when I get the guitar........thanks again for all the help.........

Lovely guitar in beautiful condition, can't tell you any more about the Pan brand, but I'm inclined to think it's closer to 1970 than 1960 (trust me, early 60s Japanese guitars looked nothing like this!) and very probably - in fact almost certainly - is a Matsumoku guitar.

With a very few detail differences, it's the same guitar as the Aria 5002T Barney Kessel copy pictured here, which this site dates to 1970-74:

http://www.matsumoku.org/models/aria/ho ... g/sig.html

Can I ask where the info that it dates from 1960 came from?

Jon.