Whazzat? Help me ID this guitar!

[newey]

This is my oldest guitar, which I received for my junior high school graduation from my parents. It's not a particularly good guitar but it has sentimental value to me and I'd like to know what the heck it is- make, model, ay other info.

The problem is that the guitar came originally without any logo or name of any sort. It has a piece of white pickguard material attached to the headstock which looks like it was meant to hold a maker's name, but I got the guitar brand new and it never had a name on it.

I have always suspected that whoever imported these removed the name out of fears of a licensing dispute, probably over the fake Bigsby vibrato.

All I know is that it was purchased in 1971 for $99.95 at a local music store by my folks, it has a paper sticker on the neck plate (long since worn off) that said "Made in Japan", and engaved on the neckplate are the words "Steel Reinforced Neck" w/ a serial No: 0082124. No other markings whatsoever.

Someone told me years ago that it was a Univox but I don't have any other reason to believe that's true. I did a web search for old Univox guitars a few years back and came up empty.

It has a bound body and neck, two Gretsch-style pups witha three way toggle on the lower bout, and 2 2-way toggles on the upper which (I Think- never examined the wiring) split the coils of each pickup. The switch by the V & T knobs is a standby. Output jack is on the side. All original except the machine heads and bridge support (fake Tune-O-Matic bridgepiece is original.)






(fixored, by sumgai)

[newey]

Just realized my photolinking didn't work- I'll have to try it again later.

[mlrpa]

Hey New,

From looking at the pics, and the description you gave, It looks like a Matsumuko. Possibly a Univox, but I'm leaning towards a Ventura. It looks very similar to a Gretch copy I just worked on recently. Is the neck 3 peice, or is it a multi-laminite/gigaply/plywood?

[wolf]

Newey, I tried to link this to your Kodak photo album but I finally decided to download the photo onto my photobucket account and here is your guitar:

[spud1950]

This site is really great for getting these types of Japanese guitars ID'ed.A lot of people here really know this stuff and collect them. Having a picture that includes the headstock will make identifying it easier.

www.vintaxe.com/boards/viewforum.php?f=8&sid=2fe7f47fe1945679938ce979f1608407

[newey]

Thanks to all- I still have to figure out this photo uploading deal here. I have a picture with the headstock which I'll try to post, and I'll check the website as per Spud's suggestion.

The entire neck is finished in the body color so I don't know about plywood, etc. Has an angled headstock.

As I said, not a great player, although changing the tuners has helped a lot with keeping it in tune. And not too many other guitars from that era had coil-split switches (again, assuming that's what they do- from the tonal changes I'm pretty sure that's what's going on, can't really imagine what else they would be doing.

[sumgai]

newey,

I still have to figure out this photo uploading deal here. I have a picture with the headstock which I'll try to post

You almost had it. I fixed the link in your first post, because there were not one or two, but three problems. First, you used a curly brace to close the ending tag, like this: [img/} Second, you put the end-tag backslash at the very end, instead of at the beginning of that tag - it should look like: [/img]

The third and final problem is your chosen host...... Kodak does not play well with other websites like ours. They are in the business of selling pictures (or more correctly, prints of pictures), they aren't in the business (free or otherwise) of hosting pictures for others to display on non-Kodak websites. I made it happen because I take a personal interest whenever someone tells me "it can't be done".

But long story short, I have to recommend that you forego all thoughts of using Kodak's website, and instead use Photobucket or some other site that offers free image hosting. At that point, the procedure is almost ridiculously easy:

1) upload to your Photobucket account;
2) look at your newly uploaded file, there'll be a set of tags underneath it, with labels;
3) beside the one that says "IMG Code", highlight all of what's in the box, and hit Ctrl-C to copy the text to your own computer's clipboard;
4) while writing a message here at the NutzHouse, place your cursor where you want the image to appear, and hit Ctrl-V, that'll put the text in place;
5) highlight the text you just pasted, and go up to the second row of icons, fourth icon from the left - this is the IMG tagger, click it.

When that's done, you should see something like:

[img src="http://this.website.com/folder/imagename.ext"]

When you do a Preview, your image should show up. If not, check the spelling of your link, and check to make sure the beginning and ending image tags are in their correct places. When it's all squared away, you can hit "Post", and all should be well.

HTH


~!~~!~~!~~!~~!~

Oh, and you've got a Univox copy of an early Mosrite.

sumgai

[newey]

Sumgai-

Thanks for the tip on the photo deal, I'll use the photobucket site in the future.

And I won't ask how you knew what it was- Your response sounds definitive so I'll leave it at that.

That it's a Univox doesn't surprise me, since that was what I had been told previously by a non-definitive source. "Copy of a Mosrite" was news, however. I had always sort of assumed they were copying the Gretsch Country Gentleman but with the coil switches in place of Gretsch's master volume control on the bout.

Mosrite guitars were sort of "under the radar" even back then. Everyone knew the Ventures used them but that was about it. I gather they've become sort of a cult item nowadays.

Thanks again Sumgai for the solution to a mystery that bugged me for over 30 years.

[sumgai]

newey,

Well, it's not a perfect copy, it's just close, mighty close.

The give-away is the slanted neck pickup, in the reverse fashion. That, plus the chamfered end of the fretboard to match, those were Mosrite hallmarks, almost from the beginning of Semie Moseley's career. Also, he used a non-secured wooden bridge on nearly everything he put out in those early years, even on some of the early Ventures models.

The switching/control scheme changed many times, almost from one guitar to the next within any production run. That made things difficult for future historians in trying to identify each and every guitar to come out of Moseley's garageshop. The Univox people took a "snapshot" of one point in time, and copied that. It does look like it could launch a rocket, with all those controls, doesn't it?

And yes, there were times when Univox "forgot" to put their name on the unit. I've never seen anyone postulate a believable reason for that, but it has happened, probably as often as not.

HTH



sumgai

[newey]

Sumgai-

How about my postulate for the no-name marketing, that the US distr. was worried about an infringement action by Bigsby? If I recall (never having owned a Bigsby-equipped gitbox) they stamped a patent number right on the thing- enough to scare anyone off

I had a Univox speaker cab back in that era that I used with a beat-up Bandmaster head (Gawd, where are they now and why did I sell them for a pittance?). Thing had the biggest "Univox" logo in the grille you've ever seen. So the company wasn't shy about their name.

Anyway, thanks again for your help.