1990's Squier Stratocaster by Fender

This is a black Squier Stratocaster by Fender with white pickguard that was built in 1997 in China. Great entry level guitar in the style of the classic Strat.

1980's Memphis Strat - SG Copy

this is a Memphis copy of the Fender Stratocaster with a little Gibson SG thrown in probably from the late 1980's. It is a very accurate Japanese copy and has a great sound from the vintage pickups.

I found some conflicting information on Memphis guitars in my research. One place mentionted that Memphis Guitars is a defunct subsidiary of Yamaha that produced guitars during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It said the company started when Yamaha saw an opportunity in the demand for Gibson style guitars. Yamaha formed Memphis Guitars to be a cheap affordable, guitar that had an in-demand style (much the same way Fender guitars make a cheaper version known as Squire and Gibson does with Epiphone). In the mid 1980's Gibson noticed that Memphis guitars where using their designs and sued. Memphis guitars then ceased production. Many people suggest that Yamaha foresaw the lawsuit and started Memphis Guitars as a way of avoiding a lawsuit against Yamaha while selling poorly-made guitars for a quick profit.

Other sources indicate that Memphis guitars were imported by the Kaman Music Corportation of Bloomfield CT which was sold to Fender in 2007. You can find information on warranty on the Kaman website so this does make some sense to me. Kaman owns Ovation Guitars, Hamer Guitars, Genz Benz Amplification, Gibraltar Hardware, LP Percussion and Toca Percussion. The company is also the exclusive U.S. sales representative for Sabian Cymbals and the exclusive worldwide distributor of Takamine Guitars and Gretsch Drums. Maybe the earlier Gibson copies were made by Yamaha and later sold the name to Kaman? If you know the entire history of this model, email me so I can make corrections.

This guitar will be sold on ebay soon. Check my about me page for the ebay listing.

How to become a Guitar Hunter

I've been asked by a lot of people where I find all these guitars. Just think of the obvious places you can buy used guitars and that's where you'll find me. I get my guitars at pawn shops and garage sales most of the time. It does take hard work, dedication, and a great deal of luck to find the better ones at a decent price.

After finding a promising guitar, I like to do research to find out as much as I can about it. Along the way, I'm learning a lot of the history of early guitar manufacturers. I hope my research will help the guitar hunters to come.

You do have to watch out for traps when you're guitar hunting. I'm not talking about the one below -



but the ones like buying a guitar that might have some hidden damage. Cracks, hidden repairs, and electronics that don't work. I'm not sure why people that have no idea how a guitar works go and take the backs off their guitars and even unsolding the connections.

Another big thing you do have to watch out for specially with higher end guitars is a counterfeit. I'm not talking about copies like the strat copies that several companies make, but the ones that try to fool you into thinking they are orignials. These are getting so good that even some experts are being fooled. If you're buying an early Fender or Gibson be very careful.

The chinese fakers are getting really good at this and not only counterfeiting early guitars, but new ones as well. Just last year there were at least 3 websites (such as paylessguitars, samin, musoland) set up to sell the guitars which are offline now. There have also been many ebay sellers offering these chinese guitars. Be careful in what you buy because lots of these guitars are now on the secondary market. I did a quick search and I found a site still operating with counterfeit Les Pauls going for around $200.

In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with tributes to iconic guitars made by companies other than Fender, Gibson or Ibanez - as long as they don't slap Fender, Gibson, or Ibanez logos on them and try to pass them off as the real thing.

Here's a great article on how to spot Counterfeit Guitars.

Here's a nice article on how to spot fake Gibsons.

Here's a article on how to spot fake Fenders.

And the third most counterfeited guitar is the Mosrite.

There is even a coalition of four of the best known guitar manufacturers in the world to fight counterfeiters.

Now that you know the basics of guitar hunting, I hope you have a lot of fun. Some people will even say you've developed GAS (guitar aquisition sydrome) but there's nothing wrong with that. If you'd like to share your experiences and finds with the rest of the readers of this blog, send them to me and I'll get them posted.

1960's Teisco Gold Foil Guitar Pickups

I acquired up these pickups in September of 2008 and they have market value of $100.00. They are 1960's vintage Goldfoil guitar pickups similar to those used by Ry Cooder on his guitar. This was Teisco's version of the famous DeArmond Gold Foil pickups used on many Harmony guitars of the 1960's.

These were pulled as a working matched set from a Melody branded Teisco guitar with other issues. I marked the N and B on the backs to track their original position on the guitar. The neck pickup measured 5.49K ohms and bridge pickup measured 5.43K ohms. The lead wires are over 8 inches long on both of the pickups.






The most popular way of using these pickups is the "CooderCaster", a custom guitar originally built for Ry Cooder. A lapsteel bridge pickup and the old Teisco Del Ray neck pickup is mounted to a Fender Stratocaster.

Here are some examples of guitars modified with the addition of a Teisco Goldfoil.






I have about 3 more sets of these pickups so if you're looking for a set, send me an email.

1990's Johnson Fender Stratocaster Copy

I picked up this guitar in August of 2008 and it has a market value of $40.00. It's a newer Johnson Stratocaster (Strat) electric guitar with beautiful deep red or maroon transparent finish. The finish on this guitar has to be one of the best I've ever seen. The pickup configuration is S-S-S (single, single, single) with 1 volume and 2 tone controls. It came with it's original tremelo with whammy bar, which seems to be rare for any guitar. I'm not sure what wood is used for the body of this Johnson guitar, but this is by far the heaviest Strat I've ever played. As far as I can tell, this guitar is all original and complete except for having the neck painted white. Just a few nicks and scratches and the guitar sounds great. Only negative is the mark at the first fret which I think was used to hold the guitar while the neck was painted (now why anyone would drill a hole in the fretboard to paint the neck is beyond me).

Johnson guitars were founded in 1993 so we know this guitar was built sometime after that date. Based on what I know of the headstock design, they used something different on their earlier models, this matches what they use today. You can find out more about Johnson Guitars at their website; http://www.johnsongtr.com/ I don't think they build this model today, but they can still be readily found.