Alcivar....CANADA.... what's the story?

[Stefano Biondo]

TOPIC: Recently saw a really nice looking, at least on my computer screen, GIBSON DOVE blatant copy from 80s I think, it was made by Alcivar.... OK? So I looked that up on the mighty net thingy and found a few old forum ( not this forum) mentions of how great their acoustic,resonator, strat copy, LP copy were and how people had bought them 20+ years ago and how they were great. All seemed to mention in what city in Canada they had bought them. So any Canadian bretheren or sisteren out there who can speak to these high end blatant copies??? There are vague references to maybe an Ibanez link like the ASTORIA that were sold in UK. Ok, discuss.

 

[Stefano Biondo]

Guess not to much info out there. 60 looks so far and no input. Well, I just bought a really nice looking MOCKINGBIRD copy by ALCIVAR of the Ebay for $400. Always wanted one since Rick Derringer and not about to spend 4K on real one. When it gets here will post pictures and give y'all a review. Maybe someday I can sell it for 6 to 10K like other weird copies by BACCHUS, NAVIGATOR, COMBAT, EDWARDS, or BLUES.

 

[Stefano Biondo]

Ok, well got the ALCIVAR Mockingbird copy and have a chance to review it for you. Well, it was well worth the $400. It is way better than any of the Korean or Chinese made BC Rich mockingbirds and I spent less. It is also more practical than the originals since it does not have the Vibratone switch that hardly anybody liked whether it was from BC Rich or Gibson.
I have found that sometimes the copies improved on the errors of their "betters", case in point the famous but you can't mention copies of basses by R....backer that had better necks and did not have the hideously malfunctioning dual truss rods, or the stupid riky tiky sound stereo thing nobody used. ( reason why I got a real bass, 1964 Fender Jazz bass back in the day, still have it) Anyway, I digress the ALCIVAR seems is a great little guitar with a 25.5 scale a rather flat fretboard about a 10-12 radius ( cant find my good radius gauges). It is solid wood real neck through. Nice perhaps bit heavy finish, great tuners, nice name in pearl inlay on headstock. This guy was modified the neck pickup is a GOTO Patent applied for, original spelling of the GOTOH company. Bridge pickup is Di Marzio Dual Sound w/ Made in USA on back. I imagine the bridge pickup is replacement to be like the original BC RICH. has one volume and 2 tone like strat. Volume pot is CTS with 1985 code and tone pots are from TOKYO based COSMO electronics and those are prob the original so further indicate the probable JAPANESE origin of this guitar. has the phase switch and a coil tap for each pickup. about 7 pounds, brass hardware, great frets and detail and sounds fabulous and very versatile across styles. As nice as any top end ARIA PRO II or similar. Very few pictures on net, appears like this was a product sold in CANADA. they made LP copies and strat & tele copies and at a Dove copy acoustic. Lets see If I can put up some pictures. Bottom line if you find one get it. Problem is it may be rare but if people do not know it may not be too valuable something that is either good or bad depending on your stance. Cheers

 

[dog fart]

Pics or it didn't happen

congrats!

 

[vibrasonic]

I had an explorer copy made by Alcivar in the mid 80s. It had a scarf joint at the headstock and the pups weren't the best. It was ok but if I had the $ I would have bought the real thing. Overall it was a good quality guitar for the $.

 

[Stefano Biondo]

Ok here are the pictures of the MOCKING BIRD COPY and one of DOVE COPY

 

[dog fart]

Those are some sharp looking guitars you've got. Congrats again!

 

[Stefano Biondo]

Only the Mockingbird is mine the Dove images were taken from a recent Ebay sale, just compiling some examples of this brand name I just learned about since some chatter on old Canadian forums but few pictures. I also had read some comments about the explorer model not being that spectacular as you mention, saw a picture of one of their tele copies that was too awful to show you! Like those weird looking Silvertone/teisco telecaster aberrations. Again, a lot of the Japanese makers had a wide range of quality in their history. Early Greco, Ibanez, Electra were and looked like junk. Lets be honest, Gibson and Fender made some real loosers too, the SONEX or the COLORADO, the CBS era 73' Telecaster Custom I spent all summer 1973 banging groceries for, with the butcher block 5 piece 3 inches of poly body, spike shrill pickups that put me off teles for years til I got a real tele. (some fool paid me $3K for it Ha!) Anyway, Just fun.

 

[bigbandtele]

There's an Alcivar for sale on Kijiji near me right now. It' a copy of an early 70's Telecaster with the WRHB pickups and strat headstock.

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-guitar/kitch...le/1000155415?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

 

[Stefano Biondo]

Another example

Found another example of an ALCIVAR branded guitar a Tele Deluxe copy on Gbase.

 

[Stefano Biondo]

Alcivar resonator

Looks just like my Made in Japan Conrad resonator

 

[boxstarguitars]

Hey guys, I'm brand new to this forum, but just recently purchased an Alcivar electric guitar. I too am now on the eternal quest to learn more about the origins of this fine instrument. I am located in Vancouver, Canada where it seems the majority of these guitars were imported to. So far we've seen copies of Fender Strats, Fender Teles, BC Rich Mockinbirds, Gibson Les Pauls, ES 335's, Hummingbird acoustics, and a resonator guitar. Well it's my pleasure to introduce one more model to the ever growing Alcivar family. My guitar appears to be a rare copy of an Aria Pro 2 Thor Sound TS-400 and includes the following specs. Dual humbucker, 1 Vol, 2 Tones, 2 coil tap switches and 1 phase reverse switch. It is neck through body construction and the fretboard is arched with a tree of life MOP inlay which I haven't seen on any other models. The guitar sounds great and plays beautifully! I paid $375 American and it came with its original case which is in great shape too. The last owner claimed it sat unplayed in the case for the past 25 years. When I opened the electronics cavity, everything looked brand new and the soldering was done well. The guitar is all original including pickups. There's got to be somebody out there that can shed some light on when and where these fantastic Japanese guitars were made.

 

[5595bassman]

Those Alcivar are looking like the "El Dégas" brand guitars that are more frequent in Eastern Canada.
Probably coming from the same Japan factory and later from Korea.

 

[Stefano Biondo]

Boxstarguitars, see my original start of this thread back in 2014, These were sold in Canada and were probably mid 80s as they do look like guitars of that era. Many store chains in USA/ Canada/ UK contracted with Japanese manufacturers Fuji Genn and Matsumoku to make guitars for them so they probably said " hey make me 300 of those and put our brand on them" so you get ALCIVAR/ PENCO for a store in Pennsylvania / Bradley for Venneman in W. Virginia,etc etc

. ( may have made some serious spelling errors on the names ) and if you compare they look like the ARIA PRO, Ibanez etc. Speaking of IBANEZ have heard from several sources that besides their USA Custom shop there really is not a Ibanez Factory per se they are built out of the 2 mentioned large established factories. Speaking of BRADLEY I have a fab Super V copy that looks exactly like the Aria Pro II with same do and I did not pay 2K for it.Ok so probably will not be able to sell for as much as if it actually said Aria Pro II but then not planning on it.(tailpiece as you can see was damaged) found someone who actually paid me $400 for it, even when I told him was Japanese copy, and found a real L5 tailpiece for amazing $175!

 

[Octave Doctor]

The neck on that tele custom looks a lot like a Suntech strat copy I found in a junk store for $2.00. Not many Japanese guitars copied the bullet truss rod nut. Could never find much info on Suntech, either, but probably the same sort of deal.

 

[Fenderbender19]

Hey guys, I'm brand new to this forum, but just recently purchased an Alcivar electric guitar. I too am now on the eternal quest to learn more about the origins of this fine instrument. I am located in Vancouver, Canada where it seems the majority of these guitars were imported to. So far we've seen copies of Fender Strats, Fender Teles, BC Rich Mockinbirds, Gibson Les Pauls, ES 335's, Hummingbird acoustics, and a resonator guitar. Well it's my pleasure to introduce one more model to the ever growing Alcivar family. My guitar appears to be a rare copy of an Aria Pro 2 Thor Sound TS-400 and includes the following specs. Dual humbucker, 1 Vol, 2 Tones, 2 coil tap switches and 1 phase reverse switch. It is neck through body construction and the fretboard is arched with a tree of life MOP inlay which I haven't seen on any other models. The guitar sounds great and plays beautifully! I paid $375 American and it came with its original case which is in great shape too. The last owner claimed it sat unplayed in the case for the past 25 years. When I opened the electronics cavity, everything looked brand new and the soldering was done well. The guitar is all original including pickups. There's got to be somebody out there that can shed some light on when and where these fantastic Japanese guitars were made.

View attachment 344961 View attachment 344962 View attachment 344963 View attachment 344964 View attachment 344966

Boxstarguitars, see my original start of this thread back in 2014, These were sold in Canada and were probably mid 80s as they do look like guitars of that era. Many store chains in USA/ Canada/ UK contracted with Japanese manufacturers Fuji Genn and Matsumoku to make guitars for them so they probably said " hey make me 300 of those and put our brand on them" so you get ALCIVAR/ PENCO for a store in Pennsylvania / Bradley for Venneman in W. Virginia,etc etc

. ( may have made some serious spelling errors on the names ) and if you compare they look like the ARIA PRO, Ibanez etc. Speaking of IBANEZ have heard from several sources that besides their USA Custom shop there really is not a Ibanez Factory per se they are built out of the 2 mentioned large established factories. Speaking of BRADLEY I have a fab Super V copy that looks exactly like the Aria Pro II with same do and I did not pay 2K for it.Ok so probably will not be able to sell for as much as if it actually said Aria Pro II but then not planning on it.(tailpiece as you can see was damaged) found someone who actually paid me $400 for it, even when I told him was Japanese copy, and found a real L5 tailpiece for amazing $175!

Boxstarguitars, see my original start of this thread back in 2014, These were sold in Canada and were probably mid 80s as they do look like guitars of that era. Many store chains in USA/ Canada/ UK contracted with Japanese manufacturers Fuji Genn and Matsumoku to make guitars for them so they probably said " hey make me 300 of those and put our brand on them" so you get ALCIVAR/ PENCO for a store in Pennsylvania / Bradley for Venneman in W. Virginia,etc etc

. ( may have made some serious spelling errors on the names ) and if you compare they look like the ARIA PRO, Ibanez etc. Speaking of IBANEZ have heard from several sources that besides their USA Custom shop there really is not a Ibanez Factory per se they are built out of the 2 mentioned large established factories. Speaking of BRADLEY I have a fab Super V copy that looks exactly like the Aria Pro II with same do and I did not pay 2K for it.Ok so probably will not be able to sell for as much as if it actually said Aria Pro II but then not planning on it.(tailpiece as you can see was damaged) found someone who actually paid me $400 for it, even when I told him was Japanese copy, and found a real L5 tailpiece for amazing $175!

Hey guys, I'm brand new to this forum, but just recently purchased an Alcivar electric guitar. I too am now on the eternal quest to learn more about the origins of this fine instrument. I am located in Vancouver, Canada where it seems the majority of these guitars were imported to. So far we've seen copies of Fender Strats, Fender Teles, BC Rich Mockinbirds, Gibson Les Pauls, ES 335's, Hummingbird acoustics, and a resonator guitar. Well it's my pleasure to introduce one more model to the ever growing Alcivar family. My guitar appears to be a rare copy of an Aria Pro 2 Thor Sound TS-400 and includes the following specs. Dual humbucker, 1 Vol, 2 Tones, 2 coil tap switches and 1 phase reverse switch. It is neck through body construction and the fretboard is arched with a tree of life MOP inlay which I haven't seen on any other models. The guitar sounds great and plays beautifully! I paid $375 American and it came with its original case which is in great shape too. The last owner claimed it sat unplayed in the case for the past 25 years. When I opened the electronics cavity, everything looked brand new and the soldering was done well. The guitar is all original including pickups. There's got to be somebody out there that can shed some light on when and where these fantastic Japanese guitars were made.

View attachment 344961 View attachment 344962 View attachment 344963 View attachment 344964 View attachment 344966

Hey guys, I'm brand new to this forum, but just recently purchased an Alcivar electric guitar. I too am now on the eternal quest to learn more about the origins of this fine instrument. I am located in Vancouver, Canada where it seems the majority of these guitars were imported to. So far we've seen copies of Fender Strats, Fender Teles, BC Rich Mockinbirds, Gibson Les Pauls, ES 335's, Hummingbird acoustics, and a resonator guitar. Well it's my pleasure to introduce one more model to the ever growing Alcivar family. My guitar appears to be a rare copy of an Aria Pro 2 Thor Sound TS-400 and includes the following specs. Dual humbucker, 1 Vol, 2 Tones, 2 coil tap switches and 1 phase reverse switch. It is neck through body construction and the fretboard is arched with a tree of life MOP inlay which I haven't seen on any other models. The guitar sounds great and plays beautifully! I paid $375 American and it came with its original case which is in great shape too. The last owner claimed it sat unplayed in the case for the past 25 years. When I opened the electronics cavity, everything looked brand new and the soldering was done well. The guitar is all original including pickups. There's got to be somebody out there that can shed some light on when and where these fantastic Japanese guitars were made.

View attachment 344961 View attachment 344962 View attachment 344963 View attachment 344964 View attachment 344966

Hi guys. I just joined up because I was searching the net for info about Alcivar guitar company. I have a 1978 Alcivar copy '57 Strat,which I bought from my guitar teacher in 1980. I have quite a few Fender and Squier guitars but I will never part with my Alcivar. I love the damn thing ! Alder body,maple neck and the old style 7 1/4 " maple fingerboard.The action and playability of this thing is amazing. The pickups were a little weak but had that bright Fender tone so I installed an onboard pre-amp and she really screams now. Also,the 5 position pickup switch wore out so I replaced it with 3 on/off/on DPDT switches.That gave me 13 possible in and out of phase positions. Totally awesome sounding !!
Now I am gonna add an onboard overdrive chip and an onboard chorus chip.If I have room I'm also gonna add an onboard tone expander chip. Just for kicks,I stenciled in "STRATOBLASTER" under the Alcivar logo on the headstock Alcivar made a really good guitar and in my opinion, anybody that says they're crappy doesn't know what they're talking about.

 

[Fenderbender19]

Hi guys. I just joined up because I was searching the net for info about Alcivar guitar company. I have a 1978 Alcivar copy '57 Strat,which I bought from my guitar teacher in 1980. I have quite a few Fender and Squier guitars but I will never part with my Alcivar. I love the damn thing ! Alder body,maple neck and the old style 7 1/4 " maple fingerboard.The action and playability of this thing is amazing. The pickups were a little weak but had that bright Fender tone so I installed an onboard pre-amp and she really screams now. Also,the 5 position pickup switch wore out so I replaced it with 3 on/off/on DPDT switches.That gave me 13 possible in and out of phase positions. Totally awesome sounding !!
Now I am gonna add an onboard overdrive chip and an onboard chorus chip.If I have room I'm also gonna add an onboard tone expander chip. Just for kicks,I stenciled in "STRATOBLASTER" under the Alcivar logo on the headstock Alcivar made a really good guitar and in my opinion, anybody that says they're crappy doesn't know what they're talking about.

 

[Fenderbender19]

Hey boxstarguitars. I posted a reply to your post, but somehow it got added to your poat instead of my own. I'm brand new here so it's probably my screw-up.Sorry.

 

[randomperson]

Can anyone tell me any info about this? I bought it used at a local shop in my town. I’m looking to sell it, but I have no idea how much it’s worth or how to find more information on this beaut
Anything will help

 

[randomperson]

Can anyone tell me any info about this? I bought it used at a local shop in my town. I’m looking to sell it, but I have no idea how much it’s worth or how to find more information on this beaut
Anything will help

View attachment 518069 View attachment 518070 View attachment 518071

It looks pretty similar to the one listed above, but the neck doesn’t have the vines in it