MOON/Van Zandt/PGM guitar arrived

in from Japan heres a fine example of another great gtr builder in japan a Very Very nicely used but def not abused Moon strat,...i emailed the company and they sent back some Great info on the gtr that surprised me

Dear Leo

Thank you for sending the picture.This guitar has an Alder body and a
one-piece maple neck.the pickups are Tom Anderson.It was manufactured on
August 24th ,1988.The pegs, which were added later by someone,are
Sparzels.

I hope this information helps.Please let me know if you have any more
questions.





heres a pic of a couple of my mijs

Very nice looking guitar. Good looking grain on the fretboard as well.

How does it play and sound?

Dave

Nice! I always fancied a Moon strat one day.

Love those Bacchus Lesters too.

DaveWW said:

Very nice looking guitar. Good looking grain on the fretboard as well.

How does it play and sound?

Dave

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Thanks Dave & youami,...
the fretboard is a nice flame on it ,...the gtr feels alot more solid than my other strats ,..for comparison i have a fender usa 50 annvsry deluxe (w bare knuckle slow hand pups) and a bacchus BST-54 that i got at the same time as this gtr ,....ive head them now for around a month ,...so the honeymoon is still on,..lol
the guitar def has its own sound it has push pull on both the volume and tone knobs ,...(bassically one of the push pulls is for switching the neck pup on and off ,...the other seems to be some kinda phase push pull switch.
the tremolo has a brass block and the saddles and bridge arent like in a classic design like the BST 54 but more like the modern trem of the fender deluxe i have ,....
sound wise its darker sounding than the BST54 but has a very porfessional sound,....it has no dead spots on the neck ,...the radius is flatter than a typical strat a smaller C shape than the fender and thinner than the bst 54 (which has a fatter profile but still very comfortable),.. ,....with the flatter radius i can bend a string as much as i can and it;ll stay sustaining,...the neck is very very easy to play on,.... kind of reminds me of the charvels from wayyyyy back.
the low e is more defined when playing and tighter than the fender with more definition and less of the note getting muddy def tighter ,...the bst 54 though is very jangly in comparison but nails a vintage strat tone ,.....the moon def has tons of strat tone in it but not as jangly as the bst 54,..the moon has more of a rockin aggressive tone to it i'd say,....more modern in ways .... it still has plenty of that vintage vibe feel and sound that i would want in a gtr,....the gtr delivered more classic rock/blues/funk than modern nu metal,...
the pup cavity is carved perfectly,....
it has a brass nut which is a nice touch ,....has a great trem arm ,....
the gtr def has a definite strat vibe, is solid , and i was able to hit notes and have them scream without the worry that itll fret out than the fender ,.....the fender is a great great gtr too ,....the bst 54 as well,....something about this gtr makes me come back to it again and again.

youami said:

Nice! I always fancied a Moon strat one day.

Love those Bacchus Lesters too.

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+1!

One of the pushpulls will be for a coil tap ,as the Anderson pickups fitted to your guitar are stacked humbuckers. I have a 1980 all walnut body and neck moon with the same pickups. On my guitar the pickups are controlled by 3 mini switches.Each pickup switch has 3 positions. Position 1 is single coil, 2 is off and 3 is humbucking mode.Like your guitar it is a wonderful instrument ,congratulations. Gabe.

Thanks for the post; untill now I didn't know how to date a Moon!

http://www.mk-guitar.com/blog/2008/10/20/pickguard-wiring-of-vintage-schecter-strat/ Moon guitars of the 80`s were fitted with with either Schecter /Anderson monstertone p`ups which were ceramic(if the pickups fitted to your Moon are monstertones they will have a magnet stuck to the bottom of the pickup)or the much more desirableShecter/Anderson F500T Alnicos.These pickups go for nearly $300 each on U.S. e bay!So check which ones you have. My Moon has 3 of these babies fitted to a brass Schecter plate.It seems that Moon bought the whole pickup assembly and trem from Schecter and fitted them to their guitars . Above is a diagram of this assembly fitted to my guitar.Moon also produced Schecter Japan gutars using Shecter American pickups and trems.Gabe.

Here`s my recently acquired all walnut (1piece body,walnut and ebony neck)1980 Moon/Schecter strat.It sounds as amazing as it looks!Gabe.

bluejeannot said:

http://www.mk-guitar.com/blog/2008/10/20/pickguard-wiring-of-vintage-schecter-strat/ Moon guitars of the 80`s were fitted with with either Schecter /Anderson monstertone p`ups which were ceramic(if the pickups fitted to your Moon are monstertones they will have a magnet stuck to the bottom of the pickup)or the much more desirableShecter/Anderson F500T Alnicos.These pickups go for nearly $300 each on U.S. e bay!So check which ones you have. My Moon has 3 of these babies fitted to a brass Schecter plate.It seems that Moon bought the whole pickup assembly and trem from Schecter and fitted them to their guitars . Above is a diagram of this assembly fitted to my guitar.Moon also produced Schecter Japan gutars using Shecter American pickups and trems.Gabe.

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WOW Gabe,... Great great info on the moon gtr's!!!! thanks for posting the info + the pic of your walnut moon!!!,..beautiful moon gtr Gabe ,...soooo nice ,....i dont remember seeing this one on rinkya ,....
my pups are the ones w the magnet on the bottom ,...the tone is HUGE and has a 3d sound to them sooooo full with a meaty tone,....much MUCH bigger sound than the bare knuckle pups that i put into a newly acquired bacchus bst54 v (i took the bkp pups out of the fender deluxe annvsry i had and put them in the bst 54,....looks like the fender will be put on the market soon) ,....(bought the 2 gtrs at the same time)
the moon gtr itself has a growling SRV tone compared to the bst54 (w the bkp pups) ,...the bst54 is a light ash body so the tone is very punchy/glassy/aggressive,.....the moon compared to the bst54 has a HUGE buttery tone that is darker ,....lovem both ,...as sometimes i want that punchy glassy tone ,..and sometimes the srv growl exactly what the dr. ordered.

I`m glad you found the info usefull and I LOVE your guitar.Mine was bought off a Japanese musician here in London and it was his first electric guitar,I was also lucky enough to buy a really nice Duncan tele from the same guy.I couldn`t really afford them but it it was too good a chance to miss as both these guitars are extremely rare and I shudder to think what they would have cost if they had been imported from Japan.Gabe.

bluejeannot said:

I`m glad you found the info usefull and I LOVE your guitar.Mine was bought off a Japanese musician here in London and it was his first electric guitar,I was also lucky enough to buy a really nice Duncan tele from the same guy.I couldn`t really afford them but it it was too good a chance to miss as both these guitars are extremely rare and I shudder to think what they would have cost if they had been imported from Japan.Gabe.

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Great story Gabe!,....unbelievable that the same guy had the moon and a duncan gtr ,...2 Reallly great gtrs,....i wouldnt have been able to pass it up either,....the moon must be unreal,...it looks so cool with the exotic woods used ,....theyre truly great instruments.
the pics of the moon i have def dont do it justice,...it looks amazing in person,....the yellow is unlike anything ive seen....