refret
Member
Whoops, no quote. I was replying to Neal's reference to the pre 1955 acoustics.
When it comes to 33x-style semi-hollow electrics I'll take an Ibanez AS (Artist Semi) or AM (Mini) model from 1981 (AS-200) or '82 (any of 'em). In fact that's what I did! The Fuji-gen Gakki and Terada factories were on it during this period, and the Maxon Dry/Super 58 pickups in these guitars are fantastic. Last year I bought four of 'em, all in excellent shape, and ultimately kept two. Didn't pay more than US$1500 for any one of 'em.
-Dave-
Guess it mostly depends on our personal experiences.How true. I would even expand that up to 1961, I have a '61 J-50 that is quite good. After that they sort of went down the tubes.....
Guess it mostly depends on our personal experiences.
I would happily consider anything up through 1967
It helps that I don't mind the skinny necks!
I've got a Japanese "Mach1" faux-335 from the late70's/early80's and it is hands down the comfiest of the style that I've tried and more or less spot on in design, set-neck and all. My investor has a recent custom shop 335 at his studio, but I still prefer the feel of my MIJ. Tone is obviously subjective, but the pickups in mine are quite good and my playing style has kind of evolved to fit their sound and responsiveness.
This guitar effectively killed any kind of desire I ever had for a gibson electric... and I got it in a trade for a korean epiphone wilshire, so I have very little invested in it ☺
John it almost sounds like you're judging Yamaha because they're a Japanese company. They make FABULOUS instruments (more than guitars) and across many different price ranges. Just because they're not an AMERICAN company doesn't make them bad. We've seen what an American (Henry Jerkowicz to quote Drum Bob, whom I totally agree with) did with the company. I'd like a lot of things to happen and a lot of things to NOT happen but as deals go..... I'll bet you Yamaha could do a stellar job with Gibson and if the employees are happy, where their paycheck is coming from is not really relevant. This is the new WORLD economy and although I'd love to see the Gibson employees revolt and buy the company and save it from ruin..... it's gone too far. So what I'd LIKE to happen, had to happen many years ago to keep this situation from happening.Yamaha has a HUGE pile of dealers they can sell through. I would still choose a USA entity, if it were up to me. I just feel they would treat it like an icon company rather than just numbers in a spreadsheet.
John it almost sounds like you're judging Yamaha because they're a Japanese company. They make FABULOUS instruments (more than guitars) and across many different price ranges. Just because they're not an AMERICAN company doesn't make them bad. We've seen what an American (Henry Jerkowicz to quote Drum Bob, whom I totally agree with) did with the company. I'd like a lot of things to happen and a lot of things to NOT happen but as deals go..... I'll bet you Yamaha could do a stellar job with Gibson and if the employees are happy, where their paycheck is coming from is not really relevant. This is the new WORLD economy and although I'd love to see the Gibson employees revolt and buy the company and save it from ruin..... it's gone too far. So what I'd LIKE to happen, had to happen many years ago to keep this situation from happening.
So while I understand your frustration, I think what we WISH WOULD HAVE HAPPENED is long gone. So now let's save the brand and the employees and make Gibson great again. How about that??
Just one opinion..... :encouragement:
John it almost sounds like you're judging Yamaha because they're a Japanese company. They make FABULOUS instruments (more than guitars) and across many different price ranges. Just because they're not an AMERICAN company doesn't make them bad. We've seen what an American (Henry Jerkowicz to quote Drum Bob, whom I totally agree with) did with the company. I'd like a lot of things to happen and a lot of things to NOT happen but as deals go..... I'll bet you Yamaha could do a stellar job with Gibson and if the employees are happy, where their paycheck is coming from is not really relevant. This is the new WORLD economy and although I'd love to see the Gibson employees revolt and buy the company and save it from ruin..... it's gone too far. So what I'd LIKE to happen, had to happen many years ago to keep this situation from happening.
So while I understand your frustration, I think what we WISH WOULD HAVE HAPPENED is long gone. So now let's save the brand and the employees and make Gibson great again. How about that??
Just one opinion..... :encouragement:
Seems like it wasn't all that long ago when us Guild-o-philes were asking the same question about Fender and how the MIC guitars were affecting Guild USA........So which would be better - have Gibson flourishing under Yamaha ( or some other big company ) - or have no Gibson at all?
"I got mine".Love , peace and happiness with any guitar that makes you happy oh and a Beer ! ��
"I got mine".
AND a beer.
:biggrin-new:
The quality coming out of those shops is still stellar. Terada is making the very-droolworthy Gretsch Prolines these days, I hope to own a couple one of these years...When it comes to 33x-style semi-hollow electrics I'll take an Ibanez AS (Artist Semi) or AM (Mini) model from 1981 (AS-200) or '82 (any of 'em). In fact that's what I did! The Fuji-gen Gakki and Terada factories were on it during this period, and the Maxon Dry/Super 58 pickups in these guitars are fantastic. Last year I bought four of 'em, all in excellent shape, and ultimately kept two. Didn't pay more than US$1500 for any one of 'em.
-Dave-
The quality coming out of those shops is still stellar. Terada is making the very-droolworthy Gretsch Prolines these days, I hope to own a couple one of these years...
John it almost sounds like you're judging Yamaha because they're a Japanese company. They make FABULOUS instruments
Gibson had a number of guitars made by Terada under the Epiphone Elitist label. They had several models: Broadway, Sheraton, Riviera, Riviera 12, Byrdland, Casino, Les Paul, etc. These were all great guitars. Then they stopped making them and had blow out sales to get rid of the stock. Typically, I did not get any but they were great guitars, comparable to Gibsons, maybe better in many cases. Now they have the Casino and Riviera. Maybe Gibson could shift production of many of their guitars to Terada, get better guitars at a more reasonable price.
Yes those Epiphone Elitist models are very high quality guitars and were a steal when they were still available - they released J-45 and J-200 Elitist models that damn near rivaled ones that came out of Bozeman of the same period. They are rare finds on Ebay and Reverb now and get usually get snatched up quick.