The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Q&A, discussion, and information for the labels covered by The Guitar Gallery (Specifically and exclusively guitars made by Matsumoku up to 1987)
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PostPosted: Tue 07 Sep 2010 08:23 PM 
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Virtuoso
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I grabbed the TA60 by the neck and headed outside in the sun today for a strip and clean! Woo hoo!

Quote:
The experience was not without a little eyebrow raising

:rofl:

She's looking mighty nice.


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PostPosted: Wed 08 Sep 2010 02:55 PM 
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Cheers for the positive comments guys!
I played this gal today for the first time since stripping, cleaning and restringing her yesterday (I thought I'd give her chance to rest awhile!). Let me tell you she sounds very, very good! She won't replace my Gibson ES330 but she's a competent little workhorse! I'd have no qualms about going live with her.

Tightening up the tuners, soldering the pup connections, installing the bridge pup correctly, and adjusting the pup heights, has made a huge difference! The bridge has significantly more gain and bite, and the neck is quite mellow and close to "jazzy" sounding now. The neck is awesome...I really like it! And all the pots and selector switch are nice and shmooooooth!

The only continuing clunker is the pivot point on the forward strap button. The bloody neck still dives, big time! :roll:
Sounds trivial I know, but it's a Royal pain. Other than that I'm golden!

Now...I'm not saying that I'm going to, but if I was to consider changing out the pups what do y'all recommend these days? I don't necessarily want to go P90 since I already have that with the Gibson. And keep in mind the word "cheap" :rofl: I can't see the point in dropping in $90 a pop on humbuckers times two! :evilrazz:

edit: I forgot to mention that I strung her with "skinny top, heavy bottom" D'Addario's. :up:

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PostPosted: Wed 08 Sep 2010 04:45 PM 
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If we´re talking humbuckers for a latino i for one am very partial to low or medium output ones.
Old trusted PAF does the trick most of the times in my book as they´re low output enough to let the wood sing.
In general i´m of the notion that the higher the output for a given pup the less of the beutiful wood will shine through.

This is also why i´m very partial to P90s.
Where a true single coil can come off as weak the P90 will not.
Further,they´re more often than not NOT in the league of superdists asf as far as output, rendering a tone that indeed screams of wooden tone.

For instance the MMK75s in my own TA..i friggin just adore what they do and i strongly suspect that any pups of higher output would "kill" the beutiful tone out of that guitar.
The MMK75 being Matsumokus PAF if you ask me.

If you wanna get cheap...you might wanna consider the stock pups out of a later era Epi SG.
Those actualy sound better than one first might consider,and altho they IMO lack a little vs for instance "true" old PAF,or MMK75s for that matter,they get the job done and that at a VERY reasonable rate.
I´d say that used you´d be looking at like 40 dollars a pair.


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PostPosted: Wed 08 Sep 2010 08:59 PM 
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Thanks for the ideas Jesper.
Since this TA is a laminate do you think that would make a difference as far as producing a "wood" tone?
My Gibson's P90's sound amazing, but they're inside some seriously good wood too! They can also be very noisy and the feed back can be distressing at times because of the completely hollow construction, a fact that I did use to effect on occasion...really good for CCR "swamp music". :P

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PostPosted: Thu 09 Sep 2010 06:07 AM 
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We´re on the same page Barry.
Lately i´ve become a feedback junkie,which in turn is why i´ve fallen a ton worth a bricks in love with my TA and why i in general dive into the latino arena as i do.

There´s just something about when you turn the gain up to where you get just a tad more than the sweetest crunch and in return can ride the wave of feedback at will depending on how you place yourself vs the cab.
At that rate of gain you still get string separation et al,and hence why the P90 style pups enter.. :blush: :wink: :love:

Still rich,fat tone...still string separation and a lot of "string" in the soundmix per se,but gained none the less...
Bluesrock heaven in short...think four horsemen asf..

and to go lead...you simply add level over some sort of stomp.
No more gain or anything the likes.Just pump up the signal level to shoot the preamp tubes into orbit... :look: :rofl:

Well Barry....that is papas home turf.. :rofl:

To answer your question tho,i honestly don´t know.
Never played around in a more serious manner with laminates when it comes to pups but i guess you would get the same kind of reaction as you would with a solid wood one.?
See no reason why not.

In general,in my experience,what really sux with the korean guitars is the electronics.
At the time the koreans wouldn´t know how to make pickups if their lives depended on it.
Hence i believe that one of the biggest upgrades you can do to an axe like yours is a pup upgrade.

Much like the Bachs i mentioned in another thread on the subject.
Fine guitars from many respects but suffer from sub par electronics.

Friend of mine had a latino just like yours that i worked over.
Installed a set of more generic PAF copies(believe they were GFS;s) and that worked out fine and in turn made the guitar into a very usable instrument.


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PostPosted: Thu 09 Sep 2010 07:46 AM 
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I'm not in a rush to replace anything just yet, but I think it'll be on my "things to do with my guitars" list. Like I need more to do! :roll:
If and when it comes to that point, it would make some sense to replace the wiring/control harness too. As you say, the electronics are OK but could be a lot better. The selector switch in particular still rattles around in centre position and the pots, while smooth enough, aren't terribly substantial, giving the guitar a very 'cheap' feel. Which is a shame since the fit and finish of the instrument itself is above average.
With the right upgrade I think this can be an extremely good guitar.

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PostPosted: Thu 09 Sep 2010 08:15 AM 
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Well if you are looking for cheap, I have heard good things about Guitar Fetish PAF clones. I haven't tried them myself. As a cheap bastard my other suggestion, since you are in no rush, is to keep an eye out for used and go on chance. You never know what you will find and it is a cheaper way of venting GAS

I have a Yamaha fat strat. It was much the same story as your TA-60, good construction but cheap parts. Over a few months I picked up an mmk 45 for the bridge, two lace sensor silver's and new hardware. I replaced the pots and installed a push/pull volume with a coil cut for the MMK 45. I shielded the belectronics. Did a little fret end dressing and it was good to go. Total investment (including the guitar) was under $200. The real proof of value was when a friend with an American Standard Strat agreed that mine played and sounded better :D

Keep us posted.


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PostPosted: Thu 09 Sep 2010 08:50 AM 
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Thanks, I'll check out the Guitar Fetish PAF's.

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PostPosted: Thu 09 Sep 2010 01:14 PM 
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Well, I spent some time browsing the Guitar Fetish site, mostly at pickups, but I did end up finding a reasonably priced set of chrome mounting rings for my Urchin! :up: If they fit, they'll look a lot better than my resprayed black ones.

The more I studied things, and listened to what Jesper had to say, the more I may have changed my mind about P90's. GFS has some reasonably priced models that I would seriously consider...except for one thing...pole spacing. Now I'm not exactly an electronics Guru :roll: but I'm pretty sure that the pole pieces need to sit under the strings, not off to the side!

Unfortunately not all the online descriptions carry that important measurement (or sound clips for that matter...very helpful when comparing). The one that did, mentioned 2-⅛" at the bridge and 2" at the neck. A quick check of the TA reads as 2" and 1-⅞", or ⅛" narrower.

So, now the question is, "What the...?" Image
Am I looking at having to find an 'import' size or something? Doesn't look like standard American spacing will work. Anybody been down this road already?

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PostPosted: Thu 09 Sep 2010 01:23 PM 
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Barry wrote:
Anybody been down this road already?


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Only you.... :rofl:

First the bridge saddles, now this... :rofl:

P. :D

Thanks.. needed this today.. :lol:

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