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There were certainly some oddballs.

I haven't had the pickguard off in a while, but this is making me want to open it up and fix the dodgy output jack. I recall they looked the same as this?


With the weird little cross bar mod for the two adjustment screws.

plopswagon wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2024 12:25 pm I hadn’t seen a “The Paul” with a burst like finish before. I thought they were all walnut oiled finish

I always think of them as being brown too. I have a Vantage VP-750 "The Ghost," which is the Matsomuku copy.

Don't think I've ever seen one with a pickguard, either. Cool.

There were two official runs I've seen in catalogs / price lists. The earliest had a Standard and Deluxe model, with the only difference being body material as far as I know. (Oddly, the Standard was walnut while the Deluxe was mahogany. Would expect the opposite nowadays). Both were exclusively brown, with the Deluxe coming in a light or dark color.

Then they switched to the Firebrand series, named as such because the Gibson logo was branded into the headstock, instead of having the gold embossed logo. Basically the same guitar except it came in a couple other colors.

But this one is neither. My best guess is that after 1981, the last year they were in a catalog (that I know of), they used leftover stock to do whatever employees wanted. The serial number on mine dates it to 1984. Unlike most, it never had Grover-style tuners, nor a TOM bridge. The color code written in the pickup cavity indicates the finish is original, and I believe the pickguard is, too.

That said, I have seen a handful of others like it. Here's a silverburst one and here's a wine red one, both with 1983 serial numbers, and with the latter having a Firebrand truss rod cover, even though it isn't one.

Anyway, seeing those listings made me realize the pickup I have is a Tim Shaw, not a Dirty Fingers.

I suppose that's '80s USA vs Japan guitar manufacturing in a nutshell. That the nameless factories that were producing copies in Japan were doing deliberate, designed guitars that can now be dated and traced and the American companies they were copying were just sort of doing whatever in an ad hoc way and are now tricky to date and place.

That's not a judgement one way or the other nor a reflection of the quality of the instruments made, I just think it's funny how the copycat companies were run by far more serious people than the original manufactures.

Haven’t done a group pic in a while. Missing a few but these are the main players these days.

Nick wrote: Thu Mar 28, 2024 9:14 pm Haven’t done a group pic in a while. Missing a few but these are the main players these days.

Perfect collection!

Seeing as I'm back I thought I'd post a pic of one of my guitars. This is my Westfield SG copy; that project guitar that came out great. It was given to me pretty neglected, by a friend, who bought it to learn and never learnt to play.

New tuners, new pickups and a complete setup; it's now an absolute beauty. Telecaster bridge pickup in the bridge I picked up on Ebay, and a Seymour Duncan 1/4 pounder from an old project in the neck. It's the cheapest guitar I own and by far the nicest sounding and feeling of my collection. Everyone else who has played it loves it. Definitely the one I play the most.

Woah, weird! I modded a Vintage SG in almost the exact same way several years back.

It now belongs to my pal Marcus, as seen in this video.



Momentarily I thought he must have sold it to you, before I realised yours is a Westfield!

If I remember rightly, this one is wired with just a single volume knob, and the selector switch actually switches the pickups between series and parallel, with them both always on.

Haha, yeah, they do look remarkably similar. Mine is definitely the standard wiring though. Oh, and I changed the strap pin to being on the top horn, makes the guitar far better balanced. Never liked the strap pin placements on SGs. It's still slightly headstock heavy but doesn't lunge forward anymore. Definitely recommend it to anyone who is considering it.

Always loved how these angled singlecoil adaptor rings work aesthetically against the SG design; and obviously angled singles SOUND ace too

Just picked this up as an early birthday present. 1973 Guild S-90.

Plays and sounds amazing. Super light weight, skinny neck.

Compared to what I'm used to the pickups are super high output, really sweet. Very happy with it.

Oh shit, that’s a beaut! Hate to be this guy but… if you ever consider selling it, you’ve got me on Facebook!

Hah, sure thing. It is a nice one.

That guild looks incredible!

A friend had me fix up an old guitar he received in a trade. I took the opportunity for some Matsumoku family photos. I'll post about the guitar properly at some point.

Fuckin lovely

I’m so glad the Vantage ended up with such a good home, love seeing pictures of it.

It's a great guitar. I still feel bad about the price I paid for it.

I think there was a dimarzio and a dimarzio-clone in it when I got it, but I managed to get some MMK-45s a while back, so it's back to spec.

Holy crow, what is that Aria tho??

edit: Aria YS-300, thanks Google Lens