Help with ID of a (possibly) Matsumoku Japanese ES-330 copy

[jeng3000]

Hi folks. I have a really beautiful ES-335/330 type guitar but I can't find the brand anywhere. The logo looks like it was a screw-on, but a long vertical one probably because there's a screw hole at the top of the headstock and then another one down near the truss rod cover. Kinda like a "VOX" logo... but this guitar doesn't look like any Vox or Univox I've seen in any of the catalogs, unless I missed it. Any ideas?

I did write down on a card once that it might be a Voxton. I don't know what made me think that. I'm just looking at the card and it says "330 = Voxton?". I looked on google and most Voxton guitars appear to have a horizontal logo, and not vertical.

Notice the placement of the volume/tone controls. They are completely away from the f-hole. This is not common in most ES copies I've seen which tend to be scattered around the lower opening of the f-hole.

Also, notice the binding is interesting, with that extra dashed line.

Pickups are smaller than humbuckers, about P90 sized, and sound a bit like P90s.

Notice the wood inlay on the tremelo trapeze.

Lastly, the neck heel backplate says "Steel-Reinforced Neck" and then a 370 serial number, and then a sticker that says "Made in Japan". Very Matsumoku, no?

(note: I don't have the twang bar, nor the thumbwheels on the bridge, I actually use a different tunomatic style bridge, the one in the photo is the original, minus the thumbwheels).



I have more pictures if needed.

[Riotonsunset]

[jeng3000]

[Riotonsunset]

Thats ok,I just saw a Matsumoku made Ventura V-1000 (335 copy) on ebay and that guitar has a neck plate that say's "Steel Reinforced Neck".Maybe it has a different neck plate than the other Matsumoku guitars that I have seen because it is an early model(1968?).

[jeng3000]

[jeng3000]

I guess nobody has any ideas.... however I just discovered a Craigslisting in Western Mass where someone has the exact same guitar (although much more wear), and they say it has the logo "Realistic" on the headstock. Radio Shack???

Anybody know anything about when Radio Shack sold guitars? I did a search on the web and someone asked the same question and the answer that came back was that Radio Shack did sell "Realistic" branded guitars in the late '60s and early '70s.

I find it hard to believe my guitar would be a Radio Shack guitar though.... I guess it's my skewed perception of Radio Shack, so I apologize if my perception is wrong. My guitar is really pretty high quality for a bolt-on neck. It blows away my old Ibanez 2395 ES-345 pre-lawsuit copy. If Radio Shack once sold pretty high quality guitars, I'd be surprised.

[cheepaxes]

It's gotta be a Matsumoku. It looks very much like the (Matsumoku) Epiphone EA-250. I looked at Google images for the EA-250 and did't see any with the diamond-shaped silver plate on the woodgrain panel on the tailpiece, but I was under the impression that EA-250s had those. My EA-260 (the bass version of the 250) has it.

-Scott

[theehman]

[jeng3000]

[Jim]

This looks just like the guitar I purchased at Radio Shack in 1967. It cost me 50.00. The plate on the back of mine does not say Made in Japan. It just has the serial number 3204571.[/img]

[pfpeg]

think Jengle might have hit nail on perverbial head with columbo, it looks like an early 70s Columbus 335 copy nearly bought one in early 70s, but bought a Columbus Gibson Humming Bird copy instead, still got it , sounds brilliant.[/u].

[DeMontGuitars.com]