HEADSTOCK SHAPES...

[St. Stevie Ray]

Greetings all! I am St.Stevie Ray and new to this forum. I recently re-kindled my love for guitars after retiring from the automotive field and
always had a fascination for the 60s imported guitars that were easily affordable on a paper boy's income back in 1965. My baby is a Lafayette
Radio Electronics beauty made by Guyatone. The sunburst finish and all of the chrome is almost as pristine today as it was in 65. The sound is as sweet as any Fender of that era and plays easily for any short fingered person like myself.
My question pertains to the design of the headstock on MIJ guitars from the 60s and 70s. I see many guitars under different names coming from the same manufacture and was wondering if you can trust identifying a particular guitar from the Neck/ Headstock design?
I have, besides the Lafayette/Guyatone, a Heit Deluxe, a Norma, and 2 Harmonys. I just bought 3 basket cases, all sunburst in color with different Pickup types. One, I think, is a 60s ZimGar and the other is either a Kawai or a Heit Deluxe The third one I can not ID. The headstock looks just like a Fuji that I found on Lordbizzare's museum site but the body looks like a Zen-on with 2 Kawai single coil pickups and pick guard. all of the holes for the neck and pickguard are original so it does not seem to be a Frankenstein creation. Could it be that some of the smaller manufactures bought parts like necks and electronics from the big 3 companies instead of making all of their own components? How else can you ID a guitar with no serial # visible? Thanks for listening!(':wink:')
Wink

[Big Beat]

A picture is worth a 1000 words

Post some pics, we'll take a shot at it. Usually, dating is by combination of features, not any one by itself.

[St. Stevie Ray]

Ok folks. Click on the following web link and you will be redirected to My Photo Bucket where I have the Unknown guitar and neck pictures and some other stuff I have. http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg310/StStevieRay/ If it does not take you there, just paste the link into your web browser
The neck had a zero fret but it was missing when I got the guitar and the fret board was broken on the top. I repaired the neck with maple that will support the new nut.
I am making it out of solid hard plastic to keep the components intact to the design and not alter anything that could change the original tone.
It has a wide diagonal string tension bar that was made out of sheet metal instead of the typical round bar. it was fastened with 2 screws going into the front
of the headstock. There is also a picture of the body to further assist in the ID. Thanks for your help...

[Big Beat]

Those are not Kawai pickups. Close, but if you look carefully, you'll see that they're much thinner. The tailpiece is definitely Zen-on, which really makes me think the whole guitar might be. The neck isn't distinctive enough to guess. If it's not original, it may well be Fuji, as you surmised. But most likely that's just a Zen-On guitar.