1970's Japanese Ranger Electric with Goldfoil pickup

I acquired this guitar in July 2009 and it is a unknown Ranger model single pickup Electric Guitar from the 1970's I believe. The guitar is in nice condition and all original as far as I can tell except for the missing nut. Nice straight neck with a huge headstock that is seen on many guitars from the 1960's and 1970's. It reminds me a lot of the Telestar guitars from the 1960's which were made by Kawai. The great thing about this guitar is the goldfoil pickup which were found on some of the 1960's and 1970's Japanese guitars. I have also come across another almost identical model that was labeled Crestline but I'm sure they were made in the same Japanese factory.








Crestline guitars were built in Japan from the mid to late 1970s and distributed by the Grossman Music Corporation of Cleveland, OH. They are entry level to intermediate solid body guitars featured designs based on classic American favorites. Crestline offered a wide range of stringed instruments, including classical, folk, dreadnought, and twelve-string acoustics; solid body electric guitars and basses; amplifiers; banjos, mandolins, and ukuleles. Considering the amount of instruments available, the Crestline trademark was probably used on guitars built by one of the bigger Japanese guitar producers and rebranded for the U.S. market. One model reviewed at a vintage guitar show was based on Gibson's Les Paul design, and had Grover tuners, two Japanese covered humbuckers, and decent wood.

1970's Univox Gimme Les Paul Copy

I acquired this guitar in April 2008 and it has a market value of $112. I was told it was a Univox with natural finish that had been painted because of the "ugly" color that the finish had yellowed to over time. I was also told that the pickups had been replaced and were thought to be Seymour Duncan pickups now. I replaced the missing knobs with generic speed knobs in black to match the pickups. It really sounds good now and you might even be able to remove the paint to get back to the original finish.






Univox is a defunct American musical instrument and amplifier manufacturer. In the early 1960s the Unicord Corporation, a manufacturer of electronic transformers purchased the Amplifier Corporation of America of Westbury, New York. They began marketing a line of amplifiers under the name of Univox. The company was purchased by Gulf + Western in 1967.




Guitar making operations moved to Japan in 1975 where they continued making guitars until 1982. Production under the Univox name was halted after a fire at the Matsumoku factory. After this time instruments were made in Korea under the name Westbury. The Unicord Corporation was purchased by Korg in 1985, effectively ending the line for good.




Univox was best known for making copies of instruments from better known companies such as Mosrite, Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker, Ampeg/Dan Armstrong, Epiphone and others. These copies are often referred to as lawsuit copies among collectors. The Univox Hi-Flier was largely based on the Mosrite "Ventures" guitar; it was popularized in the early 1990s by Kurt Cobain, almost two decades after original production had stopped.

1970's Crestline Goldfoil MIJ

It is a unknown Crestline model single pickup Electric Guitar from the 1970's with a single goldfoil pickup. The prize on this guitar is the goldfoil pickup and I've already used it for another project.

Crestline guitars were built in Japan from the mid to late 1970s and distributed by the Grossman Music Corporation of Cleveland, OH. They are entry level to intermediate solid body guitars featured designs based on classic American favorites. Crestline offered a wide range of stringed instruments, including classical, folk, dreadnought, and twelve-string acoustics; solid body electric guitars and basses; amplifiers; banjos, mandolins, and ukuleles. Considering the amount of instruments available, the Crestline trademark was probably used on guitars built by one of the bigger Japanese guitar producers and rebranded for the U.S. market. One model reviewed at a vintage guitar show was based on Gibson's Les Paul design, and had Grover tuners, two Japanese covered humbuckers, and decent wood.

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

Sears Silvertone 1440 Mosrite Copy

I picked this guitar up in late 2008 and it has a market value of $212.50. It's a late 1960's (probably 1968) Silvertone Model 1440 two pickup electric guitar. The body is a great copy of the style of the Mosrite Venture or Univox Hi-Flyer (or Hi-Flier). It was made in Japan, probably by the Teisco Company for Sears. Here's where you can get a copy for a fraction of the cost of the real thing played by the Ramones and Nirvana. This thing looks like it's been in a closet for years without being touched. Great shape and it has plenty of fret life and nice action with adjustable bridge and a straight neck. As far as I can tell, this guitar is all original and complete except for the mis-matched knobs.

Vintage 1970's Sears Harmony Acoustic Guitar Model 1294

I acquired this guitar in the fall of 2008 and it has a market value of $90.00. It's a near Mint 1970-1972 Sears Harmony Acoustic Model 1294. Red toned mahogany shadded top and back with sunburst finish. Frets are in good shape and the neck is straight. As far as I can tell, this guitar is all original and complete. This guitar has almost no scratches and only minor corrosion on the metal parts.







I always wanted to point this out on the later Sears Harmony or Silvertone Guitars. You'll see lots of people refer to these as "spacedot" or "atom" or even "atomic" because of the headstock logo. What I want to show you is it's actually just the letter S for Sears



and the letter R for Roebuck.



So you see, the spacedot or atomic is just a fancy graphic for Sears and Roebuck. This symbol was used on many of the acoustic and electric guitars sold at Sears starting around the early 1970's.

Vintage Strap - Ace Style

This strap came with the Kay Value Leader that I found and it has a $26.00 market value. Not a true Ace strap, but similar in construction and from the 1960's - 1970's era and used by all the big rock stars of the time.

1970's Electra Model X630N Fender P-Bass copy

I picked up this guitar in August of 2008 and it has a market value of $204.50. It is a 1980's vintage Electra Phoenix P bass style electric bass guitar. I believe this to be the X630N model from 1980 based on the serial number.

Here are the features of the X630 series:

Maple "C" type bolt on neck & Fingerboard
Solid "Ash" body~Satin Natural Poly finished
Black pickguard
Neck plate with the Electra inverted "Peace" style logo
1.5" @ nut
Weight: 7.5 lbs.
20 Fret~ 34" Scale
Single "Magnaflux" P style pickup with adjustable poles

The bass included an original case as shown in the pictures.

Electra guitars were imported from Japan by St. Louis Music from 1971-1984. Most of the instruments were made by Matsumoku in Matsumoto Japan. The Electra line replaces SLM's Japanese made Apollo and US made Custom Kraft lines. The first guitar, simply called The Electra, was a copy of the Ampeg Dan Armstrong lucite guitar and issued in 1971, followed quickly by a variety of bolt-neck copies of other brands. In 1975 the Tree-of-Life guitars debut with a leaf pattern carved into the top, and the Electra line expanded to 25 models. Open-book headstocks changed to wave or fan shape by 1978. By around 1981 ties with Matsumoku further solidified and decision eventually made to merge SLM's Electra brand with Matsumoku's Westone brand. Some Korean production began in the early 80's. In the fall of 1983, the Electra Brand becomes Electra Phoenix. By the beginning of 1984, the brand became Electra-Westone and by the end of 1984 just Westone. By 1987 or 1988 Singer Sewing Machines had bought Matsumoku and killed guitar production. SLM changed the brand to Alvarez (it's acoustic brand) and switched production to other plants, including Korea.

SLM was even competing with itself. Bernard Kornblum's Saint Louis Music (SLM) Electra brand competed with his own brother David Kornblum's California based Pacific Coast Music (PCM) Electra brand yet the two were not connected. Pacific Coast Music's Electra logo was nearly identical to the SLM Electra logo from 1972 to 1975 except instead of the SLM gold text, a black text on a white background was used. Both companies often imported from the same source. Pacific Coast often have an X on the headstock or the pickguard. In general, most favour the SLM versions to the PCM ones and the documentation and models are better represented by the SLM versions.

1970's Electra Gibson ES-335 Copy

I picked up this guitar in August of 2008 and it has a market value of $111.50. It's a 1960's or 1970's vintage Gibson ES-335 style hollowbody Electra guitar. Could be a Kawai, Tokai or Matsumoku built guitar for either SLM or PCM (not sure since it has features that are similar to both but I do believe it to be the PCM Electra). Nice red sunburst color and as far as I can tell, this guitar is all original and complete except for the missing bridge. I didn't have a bridge for an archtop and didn't want to buy one to restore the guitar. I did plug it into an amp and didn't hear anything "strange" out of the pickups.

Electra guitars were imported from Japan by St. Louis Music from 1971-1984. Most of the instruments were made by Matsumoku in Matsumoto Japan. The Electra line replaces SLM's Japanese made Apollo and US made Custom Kraft lines. The first guitar, simply called The Electra, was a copy of the Ampeg Dan Armstrong lucite guitar and issued in 1971, followed quickly by a variety of bolt-neck copies of other brands. In 1975 the Tree-of-Life guitars debut with a leaf pattern carved into the top, and the Electra line expanded to 25 models. Open-book headstocks changed to wave or fan shape by 1978. By around 1981 ties with Matsumoku further solidified and decision eventually made to merge SLM's Electra brand with Matsumoku's Westone brand. Some Korean production began in the early 80's. In the fall of 1983, the Electra Brand becomes Electra Phoenix. By the beginning of 1984, the brand became Electra-Westone and by the end of 1984 just Westone. By 1987 or 1988 Singer Sewing Machines had bought Matsumoku and killed guitar production. SLM changed the brand to Alvarez (it's acoustic brand) and switched production to other plants, including Korea.

SLM was even competing with itself. Bernard Kornblum's Saint Louis Music (SLM) Electra brand competed with his own brother David Kornblum's California based Pacific Coast Music (PCM) Electra brand yet the two were not connected. Pacific Coast Music's Electra logo was nearly identical to the SLM Electra logo from 1972 to 1975 except instead of the SLM gold text, a black text on a white background was used. Both companies often imported from the same source. Pacific Coast often have an X on the headstock or the pickguard. In general, most favour the SLM versions to the PCM ones and the documentation and models are better represented by the SLM versions.

1960's Gibson ES-175 Copy Aria? Ibanez? Tokia?

I picked this up in August of 2008 and it has a $205.50 market value. It's a 1960's or 1970's vintage ES-175 Gibson style archtop guitar that was made in Japan. Looks similar to some Aria, Ibanez, and Tokia models from the era with the lawsuit style headstock. Rare solid red color with all gold plated hardware. It included an original case although it did have one detached hinge and wasn't in great condition. I was never find information on a similar model and nobody that saw it had seen one like it before either.