The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Hey everybody.....here's an Epi beauty that I bought from one of our favorite sites.....there were two of these on it a few weeks back.....it sure had all the earmarks of an Uncle Matt creation but I cannot find anything about it online......had a hunch and when opened showed MMK45's in both positions. Needless to say, it plays wonderfully and sounds great but does anyone recognize it? No serial numbers anywhere....just the MMK45 stamps on the pups. Any info would be very appreciated!!!

Thanks also to everyone that posts here regularly.....I have learned sooooo much from all of you!!!

Welcome to the forums! I'm not sure what model Epi that is, but it's a beauty .

Nice find!

Yep.
That smells of Mat alright,and then NOT only speaking for the pups.

No idea of model,but i get a Quest vibe from it.

That's very pretty... can't help with ID'ing it, but it's quite elegant, eh!!

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FWIW, an after market esoteric nut is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, and a great way to convert your money into someone else’s.

very interesting....

Would you happen to have pictures of the #s in the pickup holes, picture of the neck plate and the back of the headstock....

That would help greatly....

P.

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

Beautiful guitar, and I agree it has a Mats vibe to it. Jesper may be on to something with the Quest angle.
It's kinda unlikely that 45's would have been transplanted by someone, but you never know.

I make out the first few numbers in the pup cavity as 87-1... If that is the serial number we're looking at an early 1987 build so we're in that era of Mats history when they were on the verge of closing. Does anyone know what years Mats was making Epiphones? This is likely MIJ but only just so, methinks.

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This Epi is indeed a beauty.
The print in the pickup cavity looks to be the same font as all of my Mat guitars and the construction reminds me of my '84 CS-Deluxe.
Not sure the cavity numbers are serial related. My '82 PE-R60 has 39.90 in the neck cavity and 17 in the bridge. I have a feeling the 17 refers to color but not sure about the 39.90. She has 2 MMK53s.

Hey all.....sorry for the long time gone.....been on the road making some bucks.

Thanks so much for all of the replies. As for some of the questions - I have a fairly good pic of the complete number under the neck pup. I'll try to attach it.....it reads "87 - 1 . 794" There was no numbering or writing under the bridge pup. Also, there is absolutely nothing on the back of the headstock - just the usual round enclosed tuning machines....no markings on them either......not like all the Vantage babies that live here with me.

So that's what makes this one such a mystery. I kept a record of the pics from both item listings on the bay and the other one was just as sparse. Both have neck plates that simply have "Made in Japan" stamped (?) - embossed - whatever....but it goes deeper than engraved lettering. I can tell you that it sure is cool having such a great-playing, well constructed guitar that may be extremely rare.....never had anything like this before.

Thanks again, all.......take a look at the pic attached.......still think it is just a production number.....but.....

sidemand

One more thing that I just discovered while stumbling around the Bay - there is, right now, a listing for a true ARAI guitar that sure has the same shape as this Epi. The thing that really made me look was the neck plate.....with the "Made in Japan" stamping in exactly the same position as the Epi. Could it be that this one is older - a product from an early-on Matsumoku run? I dunno.....just thinking outloud. Any comments?

Thanks for your input!

Yeah, now that I see the whole thing and the format, you're likely right.

We've recently made what appears to be a solid connection between a simple grease pencil number in the pup cavity of some Mats and the finish/colour, particularly in the Vantage line. Maybe this is a more refined approach to that "system"? What would help of course is a few more numbers for comparison to see if there's indeed a correlation.

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