1986 Yamaha LP-400 Lord Player Electric Guitar Review

Hi there!

I am glad to be getting a break so I can write about a few of the vintage guitars that made their way into my shop. Today we are looking at a nice Les Paul copy guitar, a late 1980s Yamaha Lord Player Les Paul copy.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Japanese guitar companies used classic guitar and bass designs from Fender, Gibson, Hofner, Martin and Rickenbacker, and made killer knock-offs. The 70s and 80s were not exactly the best years for quality for any of these companies, and consumers really ate up these good quality copies. Eventually, Fender and the gang caught on eventually and upped their game. Some of these very playable guitars are now collectible.

A fine specimen of these is this late 1980s Yamaha Lord Player model LP-400. In traditional Japanese manufacturing-ese, the 400 in the model name relates to the instrument’s original list price, in this case it was 40,000 yen. This was around $250 back then, if I did the math right. I have never seen another one in the US. I picked this one for a few hundred bucks on a business trip overseas.

This Lord Player is finished in a classy tobacco burst, with a little more yellow thrown in. The body is mahogany, with an agathis back, maybe. It is not unduly heavy for a Les Paul, coming in at a bit under 10 pounds.

It has a set neck with a rosewood fretboard. The neck is nicely rounded, is between the 50s and 60s style Les Pauls as far as feel. It is straight with plenty of life left in the frets. It has a medium action and it plays like a dream. There are a few small marks on the back of the neck, but nothing that bothers me when I play it, because I am a rock star. Note that this guitar has 1959 Les Paul style headstock.

Everything appears to be original on this guitar. The wiring is tidy with no terrible circuit board and the pickups and knobs appear to be OEM. The pickups measure 7.23k ohm for the bridge and 7.20k ohm for the neck, in case you really need this information. The tailpiece shows some pitting and the tuning pegs have a few signs of oxidization but those things are not a big deal. As this is a 30-year-old guitar, there are some small blemishes and the typical soft markings on the rear of the guitar. But overall it is in very respectable condition.

It plays very well with a set of Ernie Ball 0.010s on it. The pickups are sweet at normal levels, and are super crunchy with an overdriven amp. The action and feel is awesome. The neck is not chubby and not thin…in between. All electronics work as they should, though god only know why a previous owner drilled some holes in the cover.

If you are considering a new Gibson Les Paul, think twice. Their necks and frets are a crapshoot in a losing game. Find an older guitar from Yamaha, Tokai or Greco, and you will spend a lot less coin and get a better playing guitar.

Thanks for stopping by today!

1980 Yamaha Pulser Bass 600 Review

Aloha!

By now you may know that I have a deep fondness for eccentric Japanese guitars and basses, and today we are looking at yet another lawsuit-era bass: a 1980 Yamaha Pulser Bass 600, a faithful and unabashed copy of a 1970s era Fender Precision Bass.

This bass is in great shape and seems to have been spared the indignity of ill-advised and unnecessary modifications over the years, which is a real bonus for me. Things are only original once, you know.

This one has a contoured P body and it is hard to tell from the grain, but it is probably Sen, an ash-like wood from Asia. It was sprayed with a stunning 3-tone sunburst with a subtle red in it, and a 3-ply faux tortoise shell guard is installed. There was a thumb rest and a couple of pickup / bridge covers installed at one point, but they are long gone.

This Yamaha’s 4-bolt maple neck has a nice thick layer of poly on it, and it is still in excellent shape, front and back. The 20 (king of fat) fat frets are still in great shape, with a little bit of wear. It has the typical 1 5/8” P width nut (plastic), but the neck is not overly chunky. I would call it a medium profile C shape. The truss rod adjusts at the heel, and it still turns easily.

The Pulser Bass headstock shape is an exact copy of one that would be found on a Precision Bass, and their logo even is styled to resemble Fender’s. The small print on this one reads: “Nippon Gakki Co. LTD, Made in Japan, Since 1887”

The hardware is very good for a middle of the price range instrument. The non-reverse machine heads are 4-screw open-gear pieces that look like Fender tuners, and the bridge is a pretty thick copy of a 5-screw Fender unit. The chrome is not flaking on any of these parts (or the knobs), which is unusual for Japanese instruments of this era.

The pickup and electronics are original to the bass. There is not much to say about them except that they are exactly what you would expect – a split coil pickup with volume and tone pots. It sounds very good and beefy, with no untoward noises or humming.

This Pulser Bass is not terrible heavy, coming in a bit over 8 ½ pounds according to my digital scale. It is pretty easy on the back, not to mention the eyes. And it is very attractive -- it is in very good overall condition, particularly when you consider it is 36 years old. The finish does not have very many blemishes and it still shiny – it has not been abused. There only distraction is the blemish on the headstock, which could be a crooked cigarette burn or maybe impact damage. It adds character, I think…

It is a good playing bass with no buzzing and a low action. The pickup has strong output (hotter than its contemporary Fenders, and there is no buzzing or static. I play P basses with the controls dimed, and this one really makes my Genz Shuttle bark (in a good way). I like it a lot, so I might try to keep it around for a while.

By the way, since this bass has the “600” designation, this is an indication of what the original price was, which in this case would be 60,000 Yen. This would have been around $271.50 in 1980 when this bass was built. Hopefully this helps illustrate why these basses were such a threat to Fender – the Pulser Bass was a lot of instrument for the money at the time, and Fenders of that era were simply terrible.

It is hard to place a value on the Yamaha Pulser Basses as there are very few of them in the states, and this is the first one I have ever seen in person (I bought it at a secondhand store in Japan). But, judging from a sample of one, they are reasonable priced and are fantastic instruments. If you get the chance to buy one, jump on it!

Mahalo!

1980 Takamine F-340 Acoustic Guitar Review

Aloha!

Over the years I have owned and played a few Japanese-made Takamine acoustic guitars and have never been disappointed with their craftsmanship, playability or tone.

Takamine is a Japanese guitar maker that has been in business for over 50 years now. They have started building guitars in other countries, but all of their high-end guitars still come from the land of the rising sun. Don’t sniff at their products and say that imports are junk, because they build some fantastic instruments. Though they have built some solid-body electric guitars, they are best known for their acoustic and acoustic-electric steel string guitars. By the way, the company is named after Mount Takamine in the Gifu Prefecture of Japan.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, this company became famous (or notorious) for building righteous Martin guitar copies that earned them a strongly-worded memo from the Martin legal department. Today we are looking at one of these animals: a 1980 F-340.

The F-340 (catchy name, isn’t it?) is a copy of the Martin D-18, their iconic dreadnought. They went whole-hog on their reproduction, with using Martin’s headstock shape and logo script. I can see why Martin was upset, particularly when you consider that this is a nice guitar, and surely provided unwanted competition for a fraction of the price. This would be a lawsuit guitar, if a lawsuit had ever been filed.

The body has the traditional dreadnought size and shape, with 14 frets free from the body. This one has a laminated mahogany body and back, and a laminated spruce top, as there is no S or SS in the model name, which is usually (but not always) the designation of a solid wood instrument. Who know, and actually who cares at this point? It is a nice-sounding guitar.

Like the Martin D-18, ornamentation is sparse. The body has a multi-ply binding around the top and a simple black binding around the back while the neck is not bound at all. The rosette is elegant, and combined with the black pickguard and black-painted bridge it fits in well with the visual theme of the guitar.

The mahogany neck has its original 20 chunky frets, and they are skillfully sunk into the rosewood fretboard. The peghead has chrome-plated sealed tuners, probably made by Gotoh. This Takamine shares the D-18’s 1 11/16-inch nut, and 25 ¼-inch scale. The fretboard is a bit more curvy with a 12-inch radius, instead of 16-inch.

The condition of this F-340 is very good, especially for a 34 year old guitar. There is very little wear to the original frets, no cracks or evidence of repairs, and only small dings and chips here and there – no signs of abuse here!

After a quick set-up with new medium gauge strings, I have to say that this Takamine is really a peach. It is not the loudest dreadnought I have ever owned, but I never expected that going into this deal. It has a sweet and mellow tone that is tolerant of the occasional mis-fretted note, and the volume is nicely balanced from string to string.

The frets are still level, and it is a very easy-playing guitar with no fret buzz. It is not the greatest fingerstyle guitar, but for the basic stuff I am using it for, it is a fabulous guitar. It would be a terrific instrument for a beginner, for sure. I am holding onto this as a guitar to loan to friends that are considering taking up the instrument.

If you are looking for one of these guitars, remember that they are 30 years old now, so you should look it over carefully or have a luthier check it out. Just look for the usual stuff: bridge lift, cracks, evidence of previous repairs, and fret wear.

Compared to other new guitars on the market, you get a lot of performance for the money on this one. Finding a used Takamine F-340 is not terribly difficult, and they are still very reasonably priced, at around $350 to $450 for a nice example, which is 25% of what you would pay for a playable D-18. If you need a durable budget acoustic, you might want to track one down!

Mahalo!

1981 Takamine F-349 Acoustic Guitar Review

Hiya!

Over the years I have owned and played a few Japanese-made Takamine acoustic guitars and have never been disappointed with their craftsmanship, playability or tone.

Takamine is a Japanese guitar maker that has been in business for over 50 years now. They have started building guitars in other countries, but all of their high-end guitars still come from the land of the rising sun. Don’t sniff at their products and say that imports are junk, because they build some fantastic instruments. Though they have built some solid-body electric guitars, they are best known for their acoustic and acoustic-electric steel string guitars. By the way, the company is named after Mount Takamine in the Gifu Prefecture of Japan.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, this company became famous (or notorious) for building righteous Martin guitar copies that earned them a strongly-worded memo from the Martin legal department. Today we are looking at one of these animals: a 1981 F-349.

The F-349 (catchy name, isn’t it?) is a copy of the Martin D-17, their mahogany dreadnought. They went whole-hog on their reproduction, with using Martin’s headstock shape and logo script. I can see why Martin was upset, particularly when you consider that this is a nice guitar, and surely provided unwanted competition for a fraction of the price. This would be a lawsuit guitar, if a lawsuit had ever been filed.

The body has the traditional dreadnought size and shape, with 14 frets free from the body. The jury is out on whether this one has a solid mahogany top and body, as there is no S or SS in the model name, which is usually (but not always) the designation of a solid wood instrument. It appears to be solid to me, though it is hard to tell as the soundhole is blacked out around the edges, and when looking at the hole where the pick-up jack was installed shows the body to not be a laminate. Who know, and actually who cares at this point? It is a nice-sounding guitar.

Like the Martin D-17, ornamentation is sparse. The body has a multi-ply binding around the top and a simple black binding around the back while the neck is not bound at all. The rosette is elegant, and combined with the black pickguard and black-painted bridge it fits in well with the visual theme of the guitar.

The mahogany neck has its original 20 chunky frets, and they are skillfully sunk into the rosewood fretboard. The peghead has chrome-plated sealed tuners, probably made by Gotoh. This Takamine shares the D-17’s 1 11/16-inch nut, and 25 ¼-inch scale. The fretboard is a bit more curvy with a 12-inch radius, instead of 16-inch.

The condition of this F-349 is very good, especially for a 32 year old guitar. There is very little wear to the original frets, no cracks or evidence of repairs, and only small dings and chips here and there – no signs of abuse here!

This one came to me with a DiMarzio humbucker mounted to the soundhole, which sounded ok when plugged in, but stifled the sound of the instrument when played acoustically. After removing it, the sound was more rich and volume increased noticeably. The only scar from this installation is a ½-inch hole in the lower bout.

After a quick set-up with new strings (light gauge), I have to say that this Takamine is really a peach. It is not the loudest dreadnought I have ever owned, but I never expected that going into this deal. It has a sweet and mellow tone that is tolerant of the occasional mis-fretted note, and the volume is nicely balanced from string to string.

The frets are still level, and it is a very easy-playing guitar with no fret buzz. It is not the greatest fingerstyle guitar, but for the basic stuff I am using it for, it is a fabulous guitar. It would be a terrific instrument for a beginner, for sure. I am holding onto this as a guitar to loan to friends that are considering taking up the instrument.

If you are looking for one of these guitars, remember that they are 30 years old now, so you should look it over carefully or have a luthier check it out. Just look for the usual stuff: bridge lift, cracks, evidence of previous repairs, and fret wear.

Compared to other new guitars on the market, you get a lot of performance for the money on this one. Finding a used Takamine F-349 is not terribly difficult, and they are still very reasonably priced, at around $350 to $450 for a nice example. If you need a durable budget acoustic, you might want to track one down!

Mahalo!

1977 Aria Pro II RB-750 Lawsuit Bass Review

Hi there!

This is the story of the one that got away. I saw one of these beautiful Aria Pro II Rickenbacker 4001 copies at a secondhand store in Japan a few years ago, but I already had already picked up a few SB-1000 basses and there was simply no more room to bring this one home.

I did some research after I got home, and figured out that it was a 1977 Aria Pro II RB-750CH, finished in a lovely cherryburst fade. The body and headstock shapes, as well as many of the features were direct lifts from Rickenbacker, and one could easily see how this may have upset them. As far as I can tell, these basses were only made in 1977 and 1978.

If I remember correctly, it was neck-through bass and even had the dual-truss rod system. The wood looked like alder to me, with a rosewood stringer for the maple neck. There was a simple 1-ply white binding around the top and back as well as along the edges of the fretboard. The fretboard was rosewood with triangular mother of pearl inlays. Unlike the 4001 basses, there was no heavy clear finish over the fretboard, which is a huge improvement in my book.

The electronics were strikingly similar to the Rickenbacker as well. There were two single coil pickups that were wired for both mono and stereo (Rick-O-Sound!). Amazingly, the neck pickup still had its cover on it. The controls were also the same as a Rick, with volume and tone for both pickups, and a three-way selector switch.

The hardware was a bit of a hodge-podge with a swoosh-shaped trussrod cover, faithful copies of the Rickenbacker tailpiece and bridge, and some cheap-o closed back Japanese tuners. The tuners are really the worst thing about this bass, and putting some Schallers on it would make it look more like a Rickenbacker. They would surely hold better, too.

And holy cow this was one really slick-playing bass. The neck and fretboard radius had more of a Fender profile, and it was very comfortable feeling, unlike every 4001 or 4003 I have ever owned. It was well under ten pounds and was nicely balanced on a strap without any neck-dive. On top of this it sounded great – very much a Jazz Bass tone.

Pretty much it was a winner, and was priced at only around $400 – keeping in mind this was when the Yen was around 120 to the dollar. It would have been a no-brainer to buy it, if only I had the room to bring it home. If I had it to do over again, I would have figured out a way to ship it home or have a friend hold it until I got over there again to pick it up. Opportunities like this don’t come up every day, you know….

Mahalo!

1981 Greco PB-450 Spacy Sound Lawsuit Bass Review

Aloha!

By now you all know that I love Japanese basses, and there is a special place in my heart for lawsuit-era knockoffs of Fender Jazz and Precision basses. I have owned oodles of Aria and Tokai copies, but only rarely run into ones with the Greco brand. Well, today we are looking at one that I found recently: a 1981 Greco Spacy Sound, a faithful and unabashed copy of a 1970s era Fender Precision Bass.

I found this bass in Japan and it now lives with me here in the US. It seems to have been spared the indignity of ill-advised and unnecessary modifications over the years, which is a real blessing. Things are only original once, you know.

This one has a contoured P body that appears to be made of agathis. It was sprayed with a classy 2-tone sunburst with a bright red in it, and a 3-ply white/black/white pick guard.

This Greco’s 4-bolt neck is maple and the fretboard is still in good shape, front and back. The 20 medium frets are still in great shape, with very little visible wear. It has the typical 1 5/8” P width nut (plastic), but the neck is not overly chunky. I would call it a medium profile C shape. The truss rod adjusts at the heel, and it still turns easily.

The Spacy Sound headstock shape is an exact copy of one that would be found on a Precision Bass, and the Greco logo is styled to resemble Fender’s. Lawsuit basses always have campy small print on their headstock decals, and this one informs you that Greco is for the “Brazen Picker Professional”. Word, my brothers.

The hardware is good. The machine heads are 4-screw open-gear Greco-marked JH-6 pieces that look like Fender tuners, and there are chrome barrel knobs, and a bridge that is a copy of a 5-screw Fender unit. This one has 2 extra screw holes in the front corners, which I think is a good idea, and something that Fender should have done in the first place. Kaizen, the Japanese call it.

The pickups and electronics also appear to be original to the bass. There is not much to say about them except that they are exactly what you would expect – a split coil pickup with volume and tone pots.

This Spacy Sound is not terrible heavy, coming in around 8 pounds 14 ounces according to my digital scale. It is pretty easy on the back, not to mention the eyes.

And it is attractive. It is in good overall condition, particularly when you consider it is 31 years old. There is visible corrosion on the tuners and neck plate. The finish does not have very many blemishes and it still shiny – it has not been abused. There is visible corrosion on the tuners, neck plate and bridge.

It is a good playing bass with no buzzing and a low action. The pickup has strong output (hotter than its contemporary Fenders, and there is no buzzing or static. I play P basses with the controls dimed, and this one really makes my SVT bark (in a good way).

So, overall this bass is a real winner, and quite a bit more special than anything Fender made in 1981. Spacy Sound basses are very rare so If you want one, now is the time to buy as they are not going to get any cheaper.

Mahalo!

1981 Greco Super Power Guitar

Hola!

You may have noticed a trend of me writing about different Japanese Les Paul copies and today is no exception. Today we are looking at a super clean 1981 Greco Super Power Custom guitar. This is one of the models that got Gibson into an uproar because the Japanese were able to make a better Les Paul for less money. Win-win! So Gibson sued them. Fail-fail!

This guitar was made in Japan by Fujigen-Gakki. This factory is renowned for producing most of the high quality lawsuit guitars, as well as the MIJ Tokai models, Orville, Ibanez, Greco, and Yamaha guitars for the Japan market. These are all really high-quality guitars.

As I said, this guitar is clean. There is some normal playwear, but this is in excellent condition for a 25 year old guitar. It is a solid 8 out of 10, by my conservative estimate.

It has a 1-piece non-chambered mahogany body with a 1/2" thick 3-piece maple top. The binding is in terrific shape. There was a pickguard at one point and but the holes have since been filled. I would probably put a pickguard on it, as that is how I like my Les Pauls.

The bound neck is set (not bolted), and is 1-piece mahogany. It is straight, and plays fast. It has kind of a medium profile, and feels like a 70s Les Paul neck to me. The original jumbo frets are in great shape, with probably 90% remaining. The headstock inlays are genuine mother-of-pearl, and look really classy.

I believe that the pickups and all of the electronics are stock. The controls are smooth and operate quietly.

The hardware is original, and shows some wear to the finish. The Greco-marked tuners are a nice touch.

It weighs in around 8.5 pounds, so it is not super heavy and will not kill your back like some LPs.

As always, the magic question is: how does it play? It is solid, and you can see why one manufacturer was so upset that these guitars were being produced. It looks right, sounds right, and plays better than anything the Gibson factory is cranking out today,

If you are looking at a new Les Paul, save your money and pick up something like this instead.