Strange Japanese Guitar

[Spud1950]

Found this for sale. Deluxe or Daluxa? Can't find another one like it.Any ideas as to who may have made this?

[Michael Ambrose]

I think you'd have better luck finding more information on this piece from a toy collector, actually.

In my search for... well... whatever "sound" has been rattling around inside my head, I started to nab up old, weird toy guitars... ones that you can actually get to stay straight and in tune... pop a piezo on them and see what happens. I've been trying to find the right sound for this one song I've written for months... it falls somewhere between a Baritone Ukulele and a Classical Guitar... but I couldn't quite find it until I started modding toy guitars haha!

(In addition to one of these "Deluxe" tin-bodies, I've also nabbed an Emenee Tiger, an Emenee Hootenanny, and a Maccaferri plastic "jazzbox.")

This thing was made in Japan and was sold through Sears (amongst other places, I assume). The pickups and f-holes are painted onto the tin (or whatever cheap alloy it is) body.

I strung mine with some cheap-o Darco classical strings and slipped one of those cheap-o Radio Shack piezo transducers under the bridge. Not great... but kinda neat.

I'm kicking myself for passing on this one... not long ago I found a Bontempi-branded plastic toy guitar with a working vibrato! Now THAT would have been cool to have around hahaha...

[Spud1950]

LOL.It never crossed my mind that this was one of those toy guitars!

Here's the auction.

[Spud1950]

Whoops.Double post.