No name LP copy with built in effects????

[Dusty]

I'm fixing up this guitar for a friend and was looking for some more info on it.

It's a Made in Korea Les Paul copy, kinda Tobacco burst finish with white and black body binding and a black pickguard. The interesting thing about it is that it has a bunch of effects on board that are operated by switches. It's got Echo, Tremelo, Wah-Wah, Whirl-Wind, and Fuzz. It's got a Volume knob with an off position, a Tone knob, and a Speed knob to control some of the effects. There is a toggle pickup selector switch. There are also switches for Effects On/Off and one to flip the pickup phasing. It even has a headphone out jack! Powered by a 9 volt in a compartment on the backside.

I can't really tell when it was built, but I'm thinking definitely before the 80's.

All the effects remind me of those Vox Starstream teardrop 12-strings with the palm operated wah-wah, so maybe it's from that era. (early 70's?)
http://www.voxamps.co.uk/history/12string.htm

The owner said he saw a similar guitar years ago in a pawn shop with a Memphis logo on the headstock.

I don't have pics right now as it is in pieces.

Any info would be much appreciated!

[Michael Ambrose]

Sounds like you might have your hands on a D'agostino (sp?)... a little Kay sub-brand from years and years back.

My favorite little shop in Jersey (Hiway Music on rt 18) had one for sale a while back... never seen (or heard of) one before. They had this faux chrome name plate probably glued to the headstock... probably why there's no name anymore.

(It was funny... and don't be offended by this, it was still a cool little guitar... years back when my parents were cleaning out their house, we found that my mother had saved every single Sears wishbook from 1981 on! haha... and sure enough, I think maybe in '86 or '87, there was that wacky LP with the onboard fx!)

[Dusty]

Thanks for the info Michael. I can't tell if it ever had a label glued on, but it certainly could have! The only distinguishing info is the gold "Made in Korea" label, a 559-1488 gold label, and a WO-2082 gold label on the back of the headstock.

I used to LOVE looking at all the cool toys and guitars in the old Sears Wishbooks when I was a kid. Really brings me back!

I opened up the electronics cavity yesterday and I discovered that it had "modern" style PCBs with some surface mount components. Led me to belive it was more late 70-80's than late 60-70's.

So I put it back together after repairing the pickup rings and wiring and just threw an old string on it to hear it. There are certain switch combos that make a great synth-like single tone that can be modded a bit with the speed and tone knobs. Other switches change the pitch. This thing is just great as a wacky tone factory!

[Dusty]

Here are some pics.

Hopefully they can help someone else somewhere down the road!

[Michael Ambrose]

oof... that headstock throws me off.

That control panel is definately the same as on that D'agostino... but that headstock... Hondo?!? I could be way off there...

Its definately early 80s... and I'm almost positive its that D'agostino... I'm heading to the ol' shop on Monday, I'll see if he still has it and get some info.

[wietse]

i own one like that, it's a kay from the late 70's, this version was made for a few years.
great player with a mahogany body and arched top which creates a soundchamber.

i love this one, i have this picture as wallpaper on my pc.
is the headphone jack working on yours?

[Dusty]

Nice pic Wietse!

I hadn't even checked to see if the headphone jack worked. But after your post I had to know.

Bummer! It's not working. I'll have to poke around the guts next time I get a second.

[wietse]

don't, it's never working at least on those i've seen.

later on i added a extra switch to select pickups so it's more versatile, but now in some combinations of effects, switching from pickup he gives a sirene sound.
shortcircuited it somewhere, always good for a laugh when you let another play on it and forgot to warn him for it .

[mrblanche]

[wietse]

there is a battery (9 volts) in the guitar to power the effects and the headphonejack, only the headphone part never seems to work.

[tnlcooper]

I've seen a couple of these, though only ever branded Kay.



Some vids with sound of the effects straight through an amp's clean channel:



And its acoustic brother, the Kay Elfolk:

[slipstream]

It's a Kay, I had one in 1982 from a mail order catalogue. The headphone jack worked OK ish but didn't sound as good as going through an amp and it did have a 9V battery to power the effects. Has the truss rod cover been put on upside down ? It may have the Kay logo on the other side.

[jeremyarp]

[graeme storer]

Hi all; just googled this, as was looking for info on my version of this beast.

I'm in Sydney Australia, and I bought this off EBay a few months back. It's identical to the ones here, but is badged 'Canora'. And yep, the headphone jack doesn't work. It is is in pristine condition - real pristine.

Here's a Harmony Central review I did of it:

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... FX%27/10/1

And here's a pickie of Eugenie (I name them, yep, I'm nuts!):

how did you guys attach a picture? Doesn't seem to work for me. Send me an email on graeme.storer@kogarah.nsw.gov.au if you want pictures.

Anyway, any info appreciated. Am a collector of some note, and love to know about oddballs in the collection like this. It is a surprisingly nice guitar to look at, and to play. Seems to have some high quality to it.

regards,

Graeme

[sneakypete]

a Japanese company called Fresher made guitars with built in effects too...theres one on line here now starting at 158,ooo yen. I watched a TV show called Genesis:the song book and it looked like Mike Rutherford was playing one on stage somewhere. There is a long article on Freshers with many pics in one of my Japan Vintage books.