Ideal brand Guitar

[sonicyouthbh1]

I just found an older guitar at a junk sale labeled "Ideal" thats really great looking and great sounding.. its got 4 pickups and strange switches to change them.. does anybody have any info on these types of guitars???

 

thanks!

[marksigouin]

I learned on a second hand "Ideal" Brand guitar.  My parents paid 4^0 back in 1972.  It was a hollowbody.  I got a stratocaster soon after.  The guitar was a very nice guitar.  Time has not been kind to it.  It was stored in a horrible case in my parents basement and my little brother took much of it appart.  He is an automechanic now so go figure.  It looks nice in photos, but up close it is shot.  It had a Bigsby wammy bar, and two single coil pickups.  The pick ups are still magnetic so they might work. 

[FrankenSteinberger]

 

---

sonicyouthbh1 wrote:

 

I just found an older guitar at a junk sale labeled "Ideal" thats really great looking and great sounding.. its got 4 pickups and strange switches to change them.. does anybody have any info on these types of guitars???

 

 

 

thanks!

---

 

Pictures will help alot. You'll find a link below that mentions your brand of guitar as being a Made in Japan, 1970's brand, but not much other info seems to be easily available. The thing is, a lot of these japanese guitars were branded with various names, so info on your guitar may well be available with some other brand name on it. So a picture will help us track-down the instrument. 

Also linked is an example of an instrument that meets the description you gave, but has a different brand name--I'm not saying it's the same guitar as yours, but it's an example of the kind of guitar that might have been produced with several brand-names (scroll-down about 75 percent, to the Crestwood guitar. Also note that "Ideal" is a brand mentioned on the list on that same page):

http://drowninginguitars.com/2012/02/

 

Brands of guitars listed alphabetically:

http://www.jedistar.com/jedistar_vintage_guitar_dating_i.htm

Once you've posted a pic of your guitar, I'll try to find it's exact match.

 

[FrankenSteinberger]

I did some more research on the "Ideal" brand name:

This page has two guitars that are essentially identical, one branded "Ideal", one "Encore". Neither is yours (from your description), but it's interesting none the less (I hope you know to search in your browser-window for the word "Ideal", because it's going to make going through these links much easier):

http://kingofkays.com/japanese/

Next is an article which attempts to sort-out which Japanese factories made whichever branded guitar. Ideal gets mentioned in the "Guyatone" sections:

http://torchharrison.hubpages.com/hub/Japanese-Manufacturers-of-Made-In-Japan-Badged-Guitars-from-1950-to-1980

Similar info:

http://www.lexiconguitars.com/2012/08/collecting-japanese-guitars-brand-name.html

 

That's pretty-much all the info I have, until I can see a pic. I'm no expert on these types of guitars, but the fact that yours has four pickups is a good thing---not necessarily from a practical standpoint, but from the angle of "collectors value". There are some exceptions, but guitars of this type are usually more valuable for either the nostagic place they hold in the hearts of players who started on them, or for their kitsch-value and in that case the more outrageous the design, the better.

If you paid around $100 for the guitar, and it's in good condition, I wouldn't be surprised if you could turn it around for double, or even triple that amount if you find the right buyer. Sometimes guitars of this type have pickups on them that have their own market-value, because of a specific design.

Once again, I'm no expert; your mileage may vary.

 

EDIT: speling