Best Japanese brands & models

[Jazzmaster78]

Hi there, I'm new here on the forum, writing from Brazil.

I have a doubt about those japanese vintage guitars, and I'd really appreciate if you guys could help on this question.

Although I am a professional musician for many years , I have always used guitars from renowned brands such as Gibson, Fender, Hofner, etc ...

Recently, however, I became interested in different guitars, especially vintage Japanese guitars and I am, of course, running into a gigantic universe of brands, models and different references.

But what makes me write here to you, however, is the following reason:

Among the many Japanese brands that sold guitars in the 60's and 70's, is there any brand that actually has a superior quality than the others? Or any model that is superior?

Studying on the subject , I heard that, in reality, most of the brands were made ​​in the same one or two factories and it makes me believe that those guitars are all the same, changing only in name.

Im not talking about the lawsuit guitars ( Greco , Fernandes, Tokai , Ibanez , etc. .. ) that are really good copies, of excellent wood, hardware an finish quality.

I'm thinking on the popular brands like Teisco, Norma, Apollo, Domino, Kawai, Encore e etc...Is there any of these brands or any model they made with superior quality components, better than the others? Is there any ranking, any quality scale between those dozens of Japanese brands?

I tried to find a topic talking about this, but Couldn't find. So Im sorry if I'm beeing repetitive.

Thanks for your help!!!

Fernando

[Jazzmaster78]

Oh, and just to complete my first post, I must say that I bought an Apollo Guitar, a Burns Copy, and liked it very much.

Nothing amazing but honestly built and great tone.

In this picture you see my Apollo with a Brazilian 60's guitar called 'Snake'. Very nice guitars also.

Thanks,

[VintAxe]

Hi Fernando.

You ask a difficult question since guitars are tools and even a cheap student guitar might provide just the right sound for a particular need.

In general, among the Teisco/Kawai brands, the Spectrum series and the "Sharkfin" guitars are quality builds.The Spectrum 5 had over 10 coats of lacquer sprayed on as a finish coat, not many American companies can make that claim.

Firstman is an excellent Japanese brand but they are hard to find and expensive when you find them.

Domino is popular because of their unique design features, but they tend to use parts that were commonly available at the time.

Your idea that most guitars came from 2 factories is both right and wrong. Teisco and Kawai exported the majority of Japanese instruments in the 60's, but a multitude of other factories were producing guitars during this period. This is what makes identifying the builder of 60's Japanese guitars so difficult.

Single coil pickups are the norm for 60's Japanese guitars so they tend to be noisy but with a little work can still be used in recording situations. The grounding from the factory was generally poor but this can be corrected.

The best quality 60's Japanese guitars are now selling from $1,000 to $3,000 USD. Like wine, price is a good indication of quality and desirability.

So in conclusion, there are quality Japanese guitars from the 60's available, but like American guitars, you can not buy them cheap anymore. On the other hand, you can buy a student model 60's Japanese guitar cheap and with a bit of work turn it into a great player or recording instrument. Those 60's single coils can provide very interesting textures to your recording project for low cost and a small investment in grounding corrections.

[Jazzmaster78]

Thanks very much for your answer, I really appreciate your help!

It's really a very complex equation this judgment about the quality of the guitars. You're right when you say that a very cheap guitar can create beautiful tones, I agree. But a cheap guitar, even producing good sounds, won't be in good shape in a few years. I mean, a Fender guitar produced in 1965, will probably be in a good shape today, because the materials used are very good, the woods are amazing, etc etc etc...

So, when I ask about good quality guitars, I'm looking mainly about this point of view, in terms of the 'lifetime' of the guitar, and how long it will function properly. Sometimes a high quality guitar may not have the same special tone of a very cheap one, but this guitar will be tuning perfectly in 20 or 30 years, and the cheap guitar just won't make it.

Of course, if we take care of an instrument it will probably work fine, but mainly the necks of those cheap guitars, they are rarely straight, usually bowed, lots of fret wear, and with bad intonation. So even when the tone is amazing, the poor construction wont allow it to have a very long lifetime (like a fender or gibson made on the sixties have today).

A friend told me about some japanese vintage guitars that he considers 'superior built' ones, mainly Norma Sparkle series (these seem to be very nice copies of EKO guitars, and much better than the ordinary Norma guitars) and Epiphones and Univox Matsmoku-made guitars. Those guitars seem to be very well built and the neck woods are usually better than the average necks on teiscos and etc...

I never heard about Firstman guitars...thanks for telling me.

I will keep this research, trying to 'map' those guitars that seem to be a little bit 'safer' to invest money. And I appreciate if you remember more kinds of brands and models!