Memphis/greco

[jackass]

OK, as posted before in the 'guitar section', but apparantly no one looks at these anymore

this one should be early 80s apparantly...
I found out that indeed there should be a connection to Fuji-Gen gakki , so this backups the story of Ozeshin.

some more info:

It's kind of a crossover between a standard Les Paul body (double ply binding on the top with cream outside, black inside next to the black finish, none on the back) but not quite as thick, and a custom neck with bound (I guess rosewood) fretboard and volute, bone nut, FEB, and a custom shaped headstock with only a simple ply binding. no inlays or logo on the headstock, and this was quickly (badly) sanded by previous owner. Overall look of the guitar is similar to the Gibson LP custom lites which have been made for a short period.
She's beat up like hell, headstock has chips out of the finish, body has been thrown around over the floor by the previous owner's kids.
Suprisingly (and fortunately)no headstock break. Some tuners were broken off by throwing it around, the binding has pieces broken of, bridge was missing and has been replaced, the tailpiece was broken into 3 pieces, dings and scratches all over...
I do not know what kind of wood the body is made out of, but I think its laminated/pancake body (might be basswood)? Weird looking pickup cavities and (I think, but I'm no specialist) short tennon?

It plays a-ma-zing-ly! It plays as good (if not better) and has a similar neck comaired to my 02 standard goldtop I sold recently, because in need of cash for our rebuilding of the house... It's my new nr2, very close to my Nr1 My 92 Gibson LP classic plus...definately better playability than my Epi LP special and my Epi LP standard (and the Epi LP custom I used to own)
Soundwise: original pickups were double cream, but microphonic as hell, no markings on the back, with new PU's it's in between a real LP and an 'SG, not quite as thick as the LP, and as 'bity' as an SG. Had some tryouts with some pickup combos, and ended up with a Seymour duncan '59 neck and a duncan distortion in the bridge

control cavities: 2 pots only say 500k, and 2 of them also say 'made in japan'
In the neck pick up cavity, the neck has the marking '220A'

original tuners:

original pickups

I'm guessing this is a pancake body? Although these layers are not visible in de pickup cavities?

 

[jackass]

no one who has any info about it?
Comments, remarks?

 

[wulfman]

I'll say those pickups don't look like anything I have seen for Greco/Maxon/Fujigen.

If possible, some clearer pictures of the pickup routing and the control cavity might help someone here make an informed guess.

 

[jacco]

Harold is right, we need more pics; overview of the control cavity & pickup cavities will do.
But for now: this looks like Fujigen type 2 routing. In combination with the dowel tenon this can only be produced in 1980 or 1981.
Type 2 Fujigen is only seen on lower end Greco's. My former 1981 EGC500 had it and was the best LP I ever had (until the body split in 2 during transition..)

 

[jackass]

I'll say those pickups don't look like anything I have seen for Greco/Maxon/Fujigen.

If possible, some clearer pictures of the pickup routing and the control cavity might help someone here make an informed guess.

I'm not a 100% sure these were the original ones, that's what the previous owner told me

 

[jackass]

BTW what's a dowel tenon?

 

[jacco]

Do you see the round holes in the tenon? Those are wooden dowels to reinforce the neck-body joint = dowel tenon.

Do you have pics of the cavities from straight above?

 

[jackass]

I'll try to take pictures from above next time I'll restring it.
Thanks for the dowel-explanation!
This would be a kind of medium tenon I guess?

 

[jmc627855]

Hey. I just picked one of these Memphis set necks up as well. Mine appears to be a little different than yours. I suspect, though it is ONLY a suspicion, that mine is a 70s model. I'm hoping others may have a method of really specifically placing where this came from and how they came to be. There is a lot of faulty speculation out there about "memphis". It seems to me that the ones you and I have, are not all that similar to the bolt on ones that appear more often.

Mine is obviously a poor version of Tobacco Burst. Its more "Root Beer" Burst lol, its all brown and burst to amber. Its in decent shape, no breaks, cracks, but someone carved in the finish, so I think I'm gonna strip it and re burst it. Mine appears through the grain to be a 3 piece "pancake" style, with a very plain maple ???? top, about 3/8-1/2 thick. Its a contoured body, but not as well contoured as my Greco, Orville or Epi Japan. I dont have the original tuners, I have Schallers that someone installed, and the cavity covers and pickup rings are obviously replacements as they are near new.

Does NOT appear to have a lacquer topcoat, but something else, not very thick though.

My pickups are swapped to old Logo matching "Epiphone" ones, not bad, but it will be getting Dimarzios or a Slash set.

I cant tell from your pics, but mine has fret edge binding, which even my Greco Mint COllection and Orville LP Custom dont have. Its a darker rosewood board. Also, my blocks arent pearl, but some other material.

Lastly, my neck tenon is NOT a dowel setup like yours. Its similar, , and even has hand written 3 numbers like yours, but there are definitely not any dowels in there. I find this to be a weird difference between mine and yours.

My bridge and tailpeice are definitely "USA" size, thin posts, same spacings as all my others that are from Japan, although bridge is definitely a different maker than any of mine. (My others date 84, 96, 98 ). My headstock is a near perfect "Open Book" style. In fact, I may change it over to be a fake Gibson with the overlay.

Anyway here's some pics, just sharing info. I'm really curious to see if a knowledgeable person comes out of the wood work on these, and if more surface.

[/img]

 

[Udonitron]

Not a pancake, those are just router "steps" or "plunges" as you will gouge, chip, and burn the wood if you take out too much per pass.
Thus they do it in 3-6mm steps.
Those dowels might be steel as well.

 

[jmc627855]

Interesting. I'm not disputing the dowel setup, but I really see no evidence of any dowels being inserted into this neck pocket.

Anyone out there got some good info for us on the REAL story behind where these set neck solid wood Memphis LPs came from..............

my curiousity has really ben piqued by this guitar.

 

[Udonitron]

I was referring to the OP's guitar mate.
My Greco used steel rods not wooden dowels so just giving the OP a heads up is all.

 

[brokentoes]

I've seen these pop up in Canada in the local rag/classifieds once in awhile. For some reason I thought that they were Made For Canada by some company in Japan (Matsomuko ??) for the Canadian market, now i'm going to have to keep a better eye out for these, i've never played one, might be worth a test-drive.

 

[jmc627855]

@ Undonitron----Oh sorry my bad bud!

 

[Udonitron]

Ha no worries man

 

[jackass]

@jmc: what wood is the body made off?
mine has fret edge bindings too, it's a real great guitar!

 

[jmc627855]

Hi. Honestly I am thinking its a common low end maple. It has a very tight and straight grain, is very light in color, and looks like my maple cuting board in my kitchen lol. I'll post a pic of the top now that its stripped for refinishing.

 

[jackass]

could be maple indeed, but I'm no expert on wood...
I'm very curious about how yours looks scraped down.
is the body of yours also less thick than a real LP?

thinking about refinishing it also...

 

[jmc627855]

Yeah, pretty confident its solid maple. You can see how the pieces are the same from the front of the guitar to the back.
It does NOT look like a maple cap on a mohagany body.
Heres two pics after stripping and prepping with 400 before sealer.

ALso a pic after wiped Reranch brand amber dye, and sprayed Reranch Medium Brown dye application and color sealer.
And finally a pic after 4 light coats of nitro aerosol lacquer, wet sanded w 1500 and handrubbed/glazed. Not bad for a beater fake les paul.
gives a nice "Iced Tea" burst. The brown appears more red in this pic, but its brown.
Also, I have to admit, I added a fake Gib*^n black headstock overlay and clear lacquered over it because I wanted to.
Worst case, I can always peel it off and go back tot he Memphis headstock label, as it was just a thick sticker.

As for the body thickness, its 1 13/16" thick from rear to edge of binding, whereas my LP std is 2".

Random bonus I found after stripping the old finish was that it actually had 2 ply black/white body binding, not just the white.
[/img]

 

[jackass]

whow! nice plaintop...looks like maple to me..
I'm hoping my top is similar to this one!

Mine has a 2ply binding too btw!
I've searched for these guitars all over the www, but this is the first one ever which has so much in common with mine.

any pics of the headstock overlay?

btw, did you see my other thread about this one? http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=9871

and btw, where are you from?