1960s Japanese electric, so far unidentified.

I was driving down to the DMV with my girlfriend last summer and was momentarily blinded by something on the side of the road at a yard sale. I looked closer as I drove by and stomped on the brakes when I saw a battered sea-foam guitar attached to the mirror that blinded me.

I jumped out of the car and asked the woman outside about it, she said her boyfriend bought it at an estate sale years ago and it had been sitting in her closet since (he literally wiped the dust off it, and then put away for another 5 years). I asked her how much she was looking to get for it (expecting the worst and preparing to haggle). I couldn't pull out my wallet fast enough when she said "Eh, give me 5 bucks and it's yours".

It's been sitting on my wall since I grabbed it (severe depression on top of a bunch of other things have left my guitars neglected for the last year) but today I decided to pull it down and see what kind of work it needs. Basically all the pickups are good, as well as the jack, bridge, tuners, and temolo bridge. But all six slide switches need to be replaced as well as the pots. It plays great, and sounds awesome on the one currently working pickup, should be an amazing little guitar once I get the rest wired up with proper switches.

If anyone has any ideas about what this is, I'd love to know, even just guesses would be great. I've found that Domino made a bridge like this, but the rest of the guitar doesn't really look like anything they made (that I know of).

 

I pretty much didn't do anything for a year, I couldn't get motivated to do anything but the bare minimum grind. I ended up seeing a therapist about it last summer, and have been doing a lot better the past 6 months. Thanks for the support though, and I'm sorry to hear about your friend, it's always hard when something like that happens.

Sadly no markings at all. There is a trussrod cover that has "ADJUSTABLE ROD" stamped into it and the electronics all have "Made in Japan" on them, but nothing as to the brand name anywhere.

 

Hagström! That was the other brand I saw that bridge on, I couldn't remember it for the life of me. I tried cleaning out the switches and pots the best I could. Before buying new ones I'll try pulling them completely apart, I would like to use the originals (especially with how hard it is to find white/ cream slide switches now, though I have a dozen or so stashed away).

I remember looking when I got it, and had pretty much ruled out Domino, Hagstrom, Guild and Teisco, I'll have to look into Goya (I've never heard of them).


Edit: Just found this, has the exact same trussrod cover and headstock as mine, as well as pickups and knobs.

http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2011/01/marco-polo-4-pickup-guitar.html

Maybe getting close?

http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19955

But this has the same knobs, bridge and pickups, so maybe I wasn't as close as I thought...

 

http://drowninginguitars.com/2012/0...ars-1960s-crestwood-japanese-electric-guitar/

Alright, last bit of digging before bed, I ran across this guy and his Crestwood. My guitar has the same fret markers, headstock shape/ size, tuners, trussrod cover and string tree/bar thing. It also has a very similar bridge to mine, the same knobs, the lettering on the switch labels and the same pickups.

It looks like mine is most likely a Crestwood or a Domino. I'll probably do some more research tomorrow, I'm also going to stop by a little shop tomorrow afternoon to see about a Tiesco that has been in the front window for the last 4 years. Maybe by tomorrow night I'll have two 60s Japanese electrics.

 

When I stopped I told my girlfriend if she wanted more than a hundred I would just walk away, if it was less I would try to haggle down as much as possible. When I got back in the car she said "that didn't look like a haggle to me, she said one sentence and you whipped out your wallet". I just told her sometimes a deal is so awesome you don't bother haggling. Similar to when I got my 1923 S&C 8-10, they said such a low price I said yes before my brain could fully realize what I was doing (before you ask, yes I have a problem when it comes to buying antiques ).

 

Alright, later tonight I'll try to take a bunch of pictures and get them posted. As long as I can get the camera working. Ironic that a camera collector/ appraiser doesn't have a reliable camera...