Old Lyle 335 style... incoming

[auriemma]

I am picking up this Lyle project over the weekend, if all goes as planned.
There is no headstock shot.
Any idea as to the model and year?

[VintAxe]

Hey Joe.

I do not have anything definitive to tell you but I do have a couple of initial impressions. I think this guitar is a late 60's-very early 1970's guitar. It is an interesting blend of features. The gold, top hat knobs are late 1960's. The sort of exaggerated 335 shape (big ears) must be before 1973 since Japan committed to accurate copies around that time so you don't see many inaccurate American copies after 1973. The late 60's 335 style head stocks produced by Matsumoku had a deep divot in the middle rather than the fairly accurate open book Gibson style your instrument displays. The pups are also more 70's than 60's but they are not the humbucker style (ie. single coil) pups you see on other Matsumoku products in the early 70's.

As I am sure you already know, Lyle was the brandname used by L.D. Heater, an Oregon distributor that traded mostly in acoustic guitars. Most of their electrics were Matsumoku products but they probably also purchased from the lowest bidder so I can't say with certainty every guitar branded Lyle is Matsumoku. This guitar may be built from odds and ends from the 60's-70's transition and sold at bargain prices to Heater. To me, you have a guitar that represents that transition period between a Japanese interpretation of American instruments and accurate copies of American instruments. Yours has enough Matsumoku features that I feel confident in that attribution but the year of production is still a bit fuzzy. As for a model number, it likely never had one. This is the type of guitar advertised in the US as "two pickup hollowbody guitar".

It is a unique and cool transition instrument in the history of Japanese guitar production.

Hope it plays well and sounds good. Update us when it arrives,

sb

[auriemma]

The pickups don't work according to the seller... So it's a project. Just hoping the rest is in good order. Maybe Firebird pickups will fit if I need replacements.

[VintAxe]

When pickups don't work it is generally corrosion in the pots rather than bad pickups, especially if he says neither one works. Buy some Deoxit and try it on the pots before buying new pups.

This is a handy tool for cleaning pots on a hollowbody. Of course the threads will not fit Japanese pots but it still works ok if you just set it on top of the shank.

[opotable]

now that's a good idea for boosting stewmac's turnover.

it would be real easy to make, also with a metric thread.............

in the meantime a piece of tight fitting plastic tubing over the pot threads works pretty damn good as well.