Well,the Genesis has landed
.
1st and foremost,this axe has seen some serious service during it´s life,and as with the others lately i´ll take it upon myself to resurect it(NOT refinish it)as best as i can and i ask those that take an interest in it to please be patient for pics.
That the axe should originate from Taiwan...i fail to see that and i´ll tell you why.
First of all the hardware is clearly marked "japan" all over.
Second of all the serial indeed looks very "Uncle Mat" up close.
Third..i took a pic of the front pup pocket that is clearly marked with a set of numbers upside down,and i´ll post these as i get done with this little project.(Numbers are 729 if memory serves me)
Anyways.
From what we,here, have gathered the guitar is built entirely from mahogony.
It´s thick as a friggin brick,and carries the weight to prove it.
A friggin sustain monster for real.
Pups as noted are not the originals but US Gibsons-dunno which tho.
(Altho into Gibsons as well,is there anyway to find out apart from measuring reluctance?)
All in all, findings so far point to that this guitar indeed IS from Japan,not Taiwan,and in that case the natural question would be if it´s a Matsu?
Well boys...did Epiphone get guitars made anywhere else than Matsumoku at the time?
You tell me....
I´ll be sure to post pics of stop bar aso that clearly says "japan" asap.
See NO reason what so ever for the taiwanese to import that stuff from japan seing that "made in taiwan" at the time was labeled all over the place.
Electrics like pots asf has all been changed for CTS units-hence no help there.
Likewise,the split switch isn´t operative anymore and i sincerly doubt that it´s an original article as it looks rather "generic" to me at least.
None the less,i´ll make sure to shoot some pics of the entire cavity and indeed electronics as i proceed to make this into an INSTRUMENT again.