Please help me id this guitar

[Edde]

Hi, this guitar belonged to my father and he probably bought it in the early 70's. Unfortunately I got to play with it when I was young so a lot of pieces are missing. It has no markings except "Japan" printed on the bottom. This guitar means a lot to me and I guess the first step to get it restored is to figure out what brand it is. If someone here could help me id it I would be very thankful. Thanks!

[wietse]

the pickups are the same as the on on a guitar i owned, that one was identified as a Fuji by mr lordbizarre.
that's all i can say for now, need bigger pictures.

[Edde]

Hope these pictures work better. Let me know if you need a closer picture of any detail and I will fix that. Thank you for answering!

[wietse]

[Edde]

[wietse]

[Edde]

[cheepaxes]

[VintAxe]

I agree with Scott, you'll probably need to replace that trem tailpiece with something close to the style of the original. You can make the control cavity cover using pickguard stock.

I've never seen a trem tailpiece exactly like yours, but I did run across one that is pretty close on eBay. This guy is asking a lot of money for this tailpiece, but given finding one close to the one currently on your guitar will be difficult you may want to consider it.

[johnnyb]

in my opinion, sentimental value is always a great reason to restore a guitar. the actual value doesn't matter, the memories do. yet you dont want to go overboard on high end parts. i would also recommend making a control plate from a piece of stock pickguard material. the trem that vintaxe showed looks like its a match, probably will be the biggest expense. after that and a bridge your almost done. here is a good place to get inexpensive guitar parts. this roller saddle should work on your guitar. the only issue may be the width. older 60's guitar necks tend to be a little thinner than modern parts. they also have other inexpensive parts like electronics, tuners and knobs. although you may have to shop around for the tortex pickguard blanks, the prices and patterns vary. if you can live with black or white it will be easy and cheep.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ARCHTOP-JAZZ-GUITAR ... 1290wt_958

[johnnyb]

took a look through the site. they have just about all you need there. except the trem tailpiece.

http://cgi.ebay.com/THREE-PLY-GUITAR-PI ... 1550wt_958

[Murphguitarfan]

I have found a guitar very similar to yours on this site.
http://kingofkays.com/japan.aspx

[VintAxe]

Great guitar sighting Murph, well done.

I would guess KingofKays guitar is just a bit earlier than Edde's guitar. It looks like they figured out it was much cheaper to attach the control functions to a single panel rather than fish them through the body in your example.

However, two things to learn here. First, the tailpiece I found is probably as close to correct as Edde is likely to find in the forseeable future. Second, the KingofKays guitar gives an idea of the bridge we might be looking for.

If I were restoring it, I would probably throw the money at the tailpiece. I've seen the the bar alone go for 35-40 dollars. I'd also try to find knobs and switches close to the originals. Murph's photo should provide a guide. I'd put in new guts as johnnyb suggests. I'd also try to locate a vintage bridge, I'm thinking a Teisco EP series bridge will probably work.

So Edde. You have $125 invested in the bridge and probably another $50 invested in materials and parts. A guitar like this in good condition is probably worth around $150 to $175 dollars so you have your memory guitar and you haven't exceeded current market value to make it happen.

[Edde]

Thank you all for the information and for helping me out. I will start hunting for parts and let you know when its operational again. I saw a guitar that reminds me of mine at Buy & Sell here at Vintaxe. Says it is a Kawai, is it also a Fuji gen brand?