Buck&Ricket

[Kalle]

Hello!

I have a Fender stratocaster copy called Buck&Ricket made in Japan,
it,s punched 741 on the edge off the head .
I bought it in Sweden (Halmstad) 1970-1975
I want to know were in Japan it's made?
Very nice guitar

Do any know anythings about it?

Kalle

[sneakypete]

Fender Japan didn`t start production until spring of 1982.

[Kalle]

Sorry it was wrong with Fender in the first messeage.


It not a Fender.

It is a Stratocaster copy as called Buck&Ricket
It stand on it made i Japan.

Kalle

[Bassassin]

Hi - I've encountered the Buck & Ricket brand before - I think it's a Swedish importer's brand.

Sometimes it's possible to identify the factories which made copies from details of construction & hardware - obviously with copies there's a tendency for them to look pretty much the same otherwise!

If you could post some pictures, it might be possible to say who made your guitar & find out some more information.

Jon.

[Bassassin]

Kalle sent me some excellent photos of his Strat to post here:









A lovely guitar, in fantastic condition for its age! Unfortunately I can't say exactly which factory made it - but there are some interesting details which might give some clues.

The first thing which strikes me is the neck construction - it's made from 3 pieces of timber, as far as I can tell alternating plain-sawn & quarter-sawn pieces. This was very common on better-quality Japanese instruments, to make the neck more resistant to twisting.

This sort of construction appears on many Matsumoku & Fujigen Gakki models - but my feeling is that this guitar isn't from either of those factories. While this guitar has the Gibson-style nut common on those, it has truss adjustment at the heel end. Mats & Fujigens with this type of nut would usually have truss adjustment at the head end, often with a small plastic trc.

The skunk stripe is also interesting - I don't think I've seen a 3-piece neck with this feature before, and it's purely decorative on this guitar, as the fretboard's separate and the truss rod would have been fitted that way.

We have a plain neckplate, with an MIJ sticker - this I think confirms it's not from Mat or Fujigen - and means it's probably not from Rokkomann or Moridaira, since all of these factories are associated with particular plate styles.

Kasuga used plain plates, as did Tokai (whose early 70s output is associated with Kasuga) but there were many other factories producing instruments of this quality, so I really can't be very specific about who made it.

Anyone else got any ideas?

Jon.