Lyle Guitars, Who, Where and What.

Hi,

My first post.

I recently bought a Lyle strat copy and a Lyle Les Paul copy. I'm impressed with the quality of these guitars and would like to find out more info on Lyle guitars. They seem to be forgotten guitar brand. Anybody here know anything about these or where I can get more info on WHO made these, serial numbers, dates, what types of wood the guitars are made of, etc.
The strat is a tremelo model, 3 color sunburst with a maple neck. Looks to be made in the mid 70's ?
The Paul is a beautiful Tobacco-burst, the neck is ? rosewood? The serial # starts with a 7, is it made in 1977? Might be a one piece body?

Anyone got some answers? :roll:

Thanks,

Chas.

Good luck finding out about Lyles, You're right about the 70's. They were imported by L.D. Heater of Portland Oregan from the mid-60's thru the 70's. Manufactured in Japan by Matsumoku who also made guitars for Aria and the first round of MIJ Epiphones. Thats all I have been able to find in about 5 yrs. of trying. I have an Olympic white Lyle strat thats a nice player, enjoy your rarities By the way , where did you find 2 of them?TG

Sorry Chas04, Welcome to the club! I didnt realize you were new until I saw my post! How Rude! :lol: TG

Hi ! I'm back.

Tokaiguy, Thanks for the welcome.
Here's the lowdown. I'm a gringo from California and I teach English in Colima, Mexico. About 150,000 population. So far I've only found two music stores in town. I had been here a few weeks and was "jones-ing" to buy a guitar. I was walking about 1/4 mile from my house and found a little hole in the wall music store. Funny that I didn't notice it before!
Had the Lyle strat and the Lyle LP hanging on the wall amongst a lot of other stuff. I HAD to have the LP. I went immediatly to the nearest ATM;-)
It was well used. Some dings, no pickguard. I cleaned a lot of crud off the fingerboard. Looks like rosewood fingerboard.. Don't know what the neck is made of though.
It has some cavities in it, not a one piece solid wood body. I thought it might be solid 'cause it weighs 9 pounds! Could be a Maple top but I have no idea what the body is made of. I love this thing. I'll try to put some pic's up soon.
The strat is pretty clean looks to be an "under the bed" guitar. Not used much, not a lot of scratchs etc.

I was jazzed to find these. I LOVE Mexico, all these little out of the way music stores to find cool old swag in.
The best part? I paid only 3000 peso's for both. That's about $270.00 USD

Thanks for the info on Lyle guitars. I'll try to find out more. Their pretty solid guitars. Made back when the Japanese had something to prove, I think.

chas.