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Koubayashi

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I have owned around 40-50 Orvilles and ObG's over the years.
One thing I noticed is that more than 50% of them must have been glued badly from the factory cause the inlays fall off or are lose.
anyone else with this experience?

Never happened on my Grecos, Burnys or Tokais.
 
villager said:
always...

only ObG's

they used a glue which becomes brittle with age...

I have experienced it on Orvilles as well. the K-series have this problem as well which is another argue for them being made in Japan.
 
+1 My Orville came minus most of the markers and the rest where ready to fall out
 
villager said:
yes that makes a lot of sense, funny how never happened with the same era Fuji-gen Greco's, same place same time..different glue!!

No other guitar made in Fujigen has this problem.
Darn Orville :evil:
 
barburny said:
+1 My Orville came minus most of the markers and the rest where ready to fall out

That sounds like the typicall orville guitar.
My local guitar shop must make a fortune on me and all the inlays I buy :D
 
Koubayashi said:
I have owned around 40-50 Orvilles and ObG's over the years.
One thing I noticed is that more than 50% of them must have been glued badly from the factory cause the inlays fall off or are lose.
anyone else with this experience?
I noticed the one you got off YJ recently had some fret markers already missing.

I've seen this before, but I must've gotten the other 50% because I've never had that problem with any of my OBG's.

...and I can be pretty rough on my guitars.
 
villager said:
its the bloody filing down I hate, cos they are always too thick....
Yup I had some great fun doing just that but had it mastered by the 12th fret and was missing chunks of fingenail and tips
 
I have owned only the Fugi Gen Orville examples (no letter prefix - 6 digit serial #)

never had a single problem with any position marker on any of them; great quality guitars :)
 
It seems like the inlays dropping out problem is mostly with the Terada made G serial Orville by Gibsons and the K Orvilles from the photos I've seen.
 
japanstrat said:
It seems like the inlays dropping out problem is mostly with the Terada made G serial Orville by Gibsons and the K Orvilles from the photos I've seen.


I thought the OBG models were supposed to be a better quality product than the Orville line :-? ..................
 
In general yes, but Terada would have done the G serial OBG's and K Orville inlays exactly the same way with the same routing and glue and that's why they drop out. The G serial OBG's and K Orville necks and headstocks are exactly the same. There are G serial OBG's with neck heels and K Orvilles with neck heels. Terada was deciding what became a OBG and what became a K Orville from the same basic bodies and necks in a lot of cases. Some bodies that were rejected as not being quite good enough for OBG bodies ended up as K Orville bodies and some K Orvilles have 2 different wiring channel schemes, the G serial OBG diagonal wiring channel scheme and also a overlayed centre wiring channel scheme.

Some of the rejected G serial OBG bodies with the diagonal wiring channel that became K Orvilles were later rerouted with a centre wiring channel maybe depending on if there were any mistakes in the routing of the original diagonal wiring channel but some K Orvilles just have a G serial OBG diagonal wiring channel. The K Orvilles must be the same as the G serial OBG's because of some K Orvilles having a G serial OBG diagonal wiring channel and then also having a centre wiring channel. There is no reason for the 2 different wiring channels except that the K Orvilles that have the two wiring channel schemes must have been originally routed to be a OBG G serial body with just a diagonal wiring channel. When some of these OBG G serial bodies got rejected they sometimes also had the centre wiring channel routed and became K Orvilles. The G serial OBG's got a nitro finish and in some cases a better looking body top with less pieces of wood and a stamped serial number and sometimes fret edge binding and USA pickups but basically in a lot of cases a G serial OBG and a K Orville are made the same way.

Some of the top end G serial OBG bodies and necks would have been selected for just the top end OBG's but the rejected run of the mill G serial OBG bodies became K Orvilles in a lot of cases. A lot of the G serial OBG's and K Orvilles have mixed long and medium long and medium tenons so it's a random grab bag on what tenon you get with a lot of G serial OBG's and K Orvilles. The G serial OBG SG's and the K Orville SG's are exactly the same except for the nitro/poly finish and pickups. The Fujigen no letter serial OBG's and Orvilles are basically made the same way as well.

The Fujigen no letter serial OBG's and Orvilles don't have a diagonal wiring channel like the Terada G serial OBG's and K Orvilles and they have a different down the side wiring channel and their inlays don't seem to drop out as much (like the Fujigen Grecos) probably because of being routed and glued a different way to Terada. Different factories, different ways of doing things. The Fujigen OBG's and Orvilles always have a long tenon.
 
I've got an inlay problem with this black Terada ObG. For those of you in the US, do you know of a good source for single inlays or sets? Thanks!
DSC00519.jpg
 
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