Pleasant by Shinko Musical Co

[cL]

[VintAxe]

Hey cL,

Not much known about Pleasant at the moment other than they were built in Japan in the mid 1960's.

The question has come up on another thread, you may want to check it out to see other examples of their guitars.

[cL]

thanks....

the guitar is beautiful....i just cant find any info on it.

shinko musical co?

what do you think its value could be (estimate....)

[Big Beat]

[cL]

[cL]

ok, still dont know much about this guitar....here are some photos....any ideas on its value?? sounds great!

[VintAxe]

Hey cL,

Interesting guitar. The pickup selectors and trem unit remind me of EKO guitars from this period. Here is a link to an example of what I mean:



Your guitar is pictured in Bizarre Guitars of the 60's so we can at least pin down the date. Looks like it was built around 1965. Here's the picture from Bizarre Guitars in case you want to try your hand at reproducing the missing truss rod cover on your instrument.

As far as value, it's probably worth what you paid for it if you bought it from an online auction. I'd guess somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 give or take $50. The big issue with playability here is that straight bar bridge that cannot be used to intonate the instrument. If you could find an adjustable bridge that fits the existing posts the guitar would be seriously upgraded without permanently altering it's originality.

[VintAxe]

Ok, I decided to devote a little time to discovering what I could about the Shinko Musical Company.

So far, not much has turned up but I did find a couple of teasers.

First, here is a description of the Shinko company that appears in a 1968 edition of Japan Music Trades. Not much info other than the company was located in Nagoya which is the major industrial port city in Aichee prefecture and one of Japan's long established guitar making centers. Nardan guitars are acoustics; no mention of Pleasant.



Another teaser comes from an ad in the same issue of JMT. My question is what do these companies have in common so that they would appear in the same ad? My first idea was that they were all based in Nagoya but that is not the case. Two companies I recognize, Zen On and Kokusai are both from Osaka.

Maybe we can persuade sneakypete to drag his wife over to the computer screen and give us some idea of what the text of this ad says

I do know that Kokusai was founded shortly after the war and distributed instruments from Hohner and Wurlitzer.

[sneakypete]

well I do know kokusai means foreign, I`ve managed to learn that much. I will ask my wife to have a look later when she gets back from her new years party tonight.
A while back I got two nylons on line together from a seller for about $40.oo, guess he just wanted to unload em and had a low BIN price. Anyhow, one was a Yamaha Dynamic #30...those were export models and don`t show up often over here and it alone was worth much more than what I paid...wait...there is a point...the other was a Pleasant...and it turned out to be anything but...ended up just scavenging the parts and tossing the guitar, wasn`t worth keeping. I do see Nardans sometimes, and evidently they were making some solid wood guitars, I have seen nylons and jazz types here on line, placed bids a couple of times but they ended up going for more than I wanted to spend, I already have quite a few great ones so it was more out of curiosity.

[cL]

wow. you guys are amazing for finding that info. I couldnt find anything. I paid 35$ at a thrift store here in Nashville (salvation army). Looks like I made out like a bandit. It sounds amazing as is, and I plan on taking it to a guitar shop and having it set up to make it even better.

this guitar is gonna be rocking with me for a Long, Long, time. Thanks for the help guys, you guys know your guitars!!

now, any suggestions on a vintage amp to accompany this guitar? (300-500$ range?)

cL

[sneakypete]

ＯＫ．．. got it...

top kanji say...it is a new born middleman operation...[ seems like an advertisement for a new corporation]

the 5 lines that follow read something like this...

- I will help you sell music books, notation etc

- I will advise you on selling.

- I will hwlp you publish your music.

- I know famous writers. [?!]

- I have foreign and Japanese music notaion. [ scores I think it means ]

and the big kanji at the bottom...

RAKU HAN... means... "music sell"


and thats it.

[VintAxe]

Thanks for the translation sneakypete. This middle man must be suggesting he has business relations with all the distributors represented by the logos.

I think it is kinda interesting that Pleasant is not mentioned in the English description of the Shinko Company. All of the Pleasant guitars listed in Bizarre Guitars of the 60's were produced between 1965-66. I'm wondering if Pleasant had ceased to exist as a guitar brand by 1968.

[jeff mercer]

Intriguing axe ! I agree with you, Steve, that some aspects of it look European, the (obviously original) whammy bar- VERY Eko & Goya- and the style & arrangement of the "vegematics".
Kinda reminds me of a cross between a Goya Rangemaster & an Eko 500/V.
I know some US made guitars used European hardware- Gretsch Corvette's w/ Burns whammys, Guild Thunderbirds w/ Hagstrom whammys etc.
Might this be a Japanese/ European hybrid- y'know, body & neck MIJ, hardware from Italy ?
Nice (& interesting) guitar, mate !

[sneakypete]

well the Japanese borrow from anybody, still do. It`s kinda fashionable to use words from another language and Japanize them, you should see what happens to French here.
Might just be a Japanese take on a European guitar that was popular at the time.

[jeff mercer]

There is a 4 pickup version identical to the one in the catalogue picture that Steve posted up on eBay at the moment.

It's listed as a "Teisco/Kawai", but the headstock logo is missing, so that's no doubt just an assumption on the sellers' part.

Auction 180320490444...sorry, guys, I'd link it, but I don't know how