Premier Les Paul Copy

[johnwconn22]

I have a Premier Les Paul copy guitar and have had it for 30 years, can you tell me something about this guitar? I have done research on Peter Sorkin and they talk about multivox and other brands under the Premier company. I read something that was posted about Epihone moved to Michigan and the remaining workers started Premier.

I am trying to figure out if my guitar was made in New York or is an Japanese copy.

I posted my guitar on http://www.guitar-museum.com/guitar-56925-Vanilla-Sky so you can check it out. If you have any information please feel me in. I am wondering if this is a very rare guitar and would like to find a brochure on my guitar if there is one.

[VintAxe]

Very nice looking guitar John, I like the flame in the top and the black block inlays in the maple neck.

Would it be possible to get a clearer photo of the headstock? With all the shadow, it is difficult to make out the profile of the head.

[Michael Ambrose]

Lovely piece!

Undoubtely Japanese made... no LP clones appear in any Premier literature until 1976... They called this model The Adventurer PG-370 O/F.

[Spud1950]

I've seen a few of those, very similar to yours. This one popped up on another forum. Headstock inlay is different,but appears to basically be the same guitar.The guy won it on eBay for $217.95 and stated that it has "Made In Japan" stamped into the neckplate. Someone else commented that they used to have one exactly like it, branded as an Aria.





[/url]

[johnwconn22]

I have been looking around all the parts on my guitar and I can't find anything labeled like "Made in Japan". Does anybody have any other ideas where this would be labeled if any on the guitar?

[johnwconn22]

[Spud1950]

Much better pictures. I can see now that it's quite a different guitar.Very nice.As far as the info I've been able to piece together about Premier from past research, their late 1950s,early 1960s guitars were made in the USA. Sometime in the 1960s,their guitars were still made in the USA but with pickups and hardware imported from Japan. These were all guitars of Premier's own designs. By the time they offered Les Paul and Strat clones, all their guitars were imported from Japan.

[johnwconn22]

I have a question! If my guitar was a japanese model wouldnt it have to have Made in Japan on it somewhere? I have looked everywhere for something but I cannot find a dang thing lol!! This guitar is going to drive me batty trying to figure out the origins.

I have came across a ton of similar guitars with brands names from El desa, conco and so on!

Thanks again for all the input so far .

[Michael Ambrose]

Well now, hang on a sec... this guitar is a set-neck! You won't find a neck plate. haha...

Pull off the control panel and check out the pots... also, the back of one of the pickups might have a stamp on it.

These guitars don't necessarily always have a MIJ stamp on them... often a sticker was used (especially if its MIK), which should have fallen away by now.

I can tell your for fact, though, that Premier never made a direct LP clone while building guitars in the US. The closest their US operations (United Guitars) ever got to something resembling a Les Paul was the Bantam... and that could NEVER be confused for a Les Paul.

[Spud1950]

Yes,made in USA Premier's are quite different. Here's the Bantam.





The USA made solid bodies have quite a distinctive body design.





This is one of the later USA made guitars that supposedly have Japanese made pickups and hardware.





I have to throw this one in just because it's so cool!

[Bassassin]

Beautiful Les Paul, it's Japanese without a doubt, in fact the unusual headstock shape is very similar to that of the , which makes me suspect it may have been built by Fujigen Gakki.

Would I be right in thinking the tuners have a Gotoh logo? Bridges on MIJ LP copies are often printed on the bottom, either Made in Japan, the component type or both.

Pickups, pots, hardware & sometimes even wiring all offer clues - but your guitar is Japanese, mid/late 70s, absolutely no doubt about it.

For what it's worth, if that Como-brand LP has an MIJ neckplate, it's off a different guitar - that one's Korean, these exact same guitars come up with the Hondo brand quite often. The clues are all over the headstock & neck.

Jon.

[cheepaxes]

Those US Premiers have a bit of a Bigsby guitar look to them. I like 'em.

-Scott

[Gary]

I just came across this while searching about a sunburst Premier Les Paul I once owned in 1977.
johnwconn22, one thing I DO remember about that guitar was that it was in fact made in Japan. I definitely remember there was a small sticker as Michael Ambrose stated. It was on the back of the headstock. I clearly remember this because as a 15 year old kid with a new cool looking guitar, I was able to remove the only "made in Japan" reference on the guitar very easily! Hope this helps. Here's an old photo I found. Wish I still had it!

[Ande]