Members charmedlife417 Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 Howdy. I'm going to be buying a vintage Kasuga Dreadnought (see pics below) for cheap, cheap, cheap. I hear most aren't very good, but some are. Can anyone help me identify this model. It was made by Kasuga under the Mellow Tone name. Model # W-1a. Thank you very much! CL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 No clue but old 12-strings generally have issues. This one may turn out to be not as cheap, cheap, cheap as you think if you expect to get it in playable condition. There may well be a good reason it doesn't have strings on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members charmedlife417 Posted April 14, 2015 Author Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 No clue but old 12-strings generally have issues. This one may turn out to be not as cheap' date=' cheap, cheap as you think if you expect to get it in playable condition. There may well be a good reason it doesn't have strings on it.[/quote'] Deep, thanks for taking the time to respond. It's just an experiment. I'm trying to teach myself basic luthiery, so here's one I can play with without investing much. Just a little project to while away the hours...... Thanks Again.... CL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members katopp Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 Oh dear...If it is cheap, cheap, cheap - as in a pint of Sam Adams cheap - I would say go for it. But expect some serious work in there. It might not be in any way economically vialble to "repair" an old, broken guitar like this, but it will teach you good. From what I see, my hair stand on end anyway as the trussrod adjustment seems to be ... creative. The chipped away wood makes me believe that there are problems hidden below that fretboard....But then again, Nagoya made guitars of the 70's are not too hard to take apart, not like the Yamaha stuff that seems to be built with epoxy instead of proper wood glue.Do not expect it to be a Martin (or more like Gibson, given the "creative" pickguard), but if you want to learn about guitar repairs, this might give you every conceiveable issue from broken trussrods, run down frets to neck angle issues, lose bracing and dry cracks in the wood. Check if it's PU or nitro. If it's PU you're bugger out in regards of nice finish repairs if it is nitro (and it might be), you can teach yourself refinisghing, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FretFiend. Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 ...... It's just an experiment. I'm trying to teach myself basic luthiery, so here's one I can play with without investing much. Just a little project to while away the hours...... CL Teaching yourself basic luthiery by trying to make that thing playable is like teaching yourself auto mechanics by trying to make a rusted out wrecked hulk from an auto junkyard drivable. How cheap is "Cheap cheap cheap"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 CL, I do "basic lutherie" and want to second what everyone has told you - this doesn't look like a good place to start. I have purchased yard sale specials to practice things like neck resetting and fretwork - a couple of them turned out disasterous but fortunately I wasn't out much money. If you are interesting in lutherie you probably have already read about evaluating neck angle, frets, relief and structural issues (Frets.com, bryankimsey.com, stewmac's information pages, any of the lutherie forums...). Before you say yea or nay on this one, make those measurements so you know what you are getting into, then report back here and we can help you decide if it makes sense. I'll add that I've never heard of Kasuga - but I'm guessing that it was one of the PacRim guitars from the '70's which generally were not all that great in quality. A few are prized but they tend to be hard to work on. From my perspective it is infinitely easier to build from scratch than try to repair a real piece of junk - if you really want to learn lutherie I would suggest building a kit or two. And before I forget, welcome to the forum and please don't think we are being negative - several of us have been where you are and don't want to see you make the same mistakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members educatedguess417 Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 katopp, thanks so very much. This is along the lines I'm thinking. Just something to tear in. From the research I've done, some of the Kasugas were even Brazilian Rosewood. A long shot, I realize, but fun for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members educatedguess417 Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 Teaching yourself basic luthiery by trying to make that thing playable is like teaching yourself auto mechanics by trying to make a rusted out wrecked hulk from an auto junkyard drivable. How cheap is "Cheap cheap cheap"? Fret, I'm only paying $50.00 for this thing. To me, that's cheap. Last year I started a vintage business as a part-time venture (I'm a fully-tenured English professor by day) and made over $5000 profit my first year. I also have a rare Gibson 1962 Tal Farlow archtop (pictured) that will be coming out of repair and going on the block soon. So $50 is nothing to me. If it doesn't work on, I'll use it as a wall hanger. Thank You! Teaching yourself basic luthiery by trying to make that thing playable is like teaching yourself auto mechanics by trying to make a rusted out wrecked hulk from an auto junkyard drivable. How cheap is "Cheap cheap cheap"? Fret, I'm only paying $50.00 for this thing. To me, that's cheap. Last year I started a vintage business as a part-time venture (I'm a fully-tenured English professor by day) and made over $5000 profit my first year. I also have a rare Gibson 1962 Tal Farlow archtop (pictured) that will be coming out of repair and going on the block soon. So $50 is nothing to me. If it doesn't work on, I'll use it as a wall hanger. Thank You! P.S. I'm sorry. I'm not able to upload the pic and I don't know why. Can someone tell me how to do this from Photobucket? I've never had this problem with another Forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members educatedguess417 Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 CL, I do "basic lutherie" and want to second what everyone has told you - this doesn't look like a good place to start. I have purchased yard sale specials to practice things like neck resetting and fretwork - a couple of them turned out disasterous but fortunately I wasn't out much money. If you are interesting in lutherie you probably have already read about evaluating neck angle, frets, relief and structural issues (Frets.com, bryankimsey.com, stewmac's information pages, any of the lutherie forums...). Before you say yea or nay on this one, make those measurements so you know what you are getting into, then report back here and we can help you decide if it makes sense. I'll add that I've never heard of Kasuga - but I'm guessing that it was one of the PacRim guitars from the '70's which generally were not all that great in quality. A few are prized but they tend to be hard to work on. From my perspective it is infinitely easier to build from scratch than try to repair a real piece of junk - if you really want to learn lutherie I would suggest building a kit or two. And before I forget, welcome to the forum and please don't think we are being negative - several of us have been where you are and don't want to see you make the same mistakes. Freeman, not to worry, and thanks for your warm welcome to my post, which will certainly not be the last. See post above. I have 3-4 cheap Yamaha acoustic cheapies as well, so those are good to practice on. And I'm doing my first nut and saddle on a Epi Masterbilt AJ-500ME that I just bought (a little beat up, but I own another that is very beautiful and clean). Once again, thank you. $50 is not a lot to me, so I'll roll the dice. EG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FretFiend. Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 Notice that the name of the person who started this thread is "charmedlife417". Now notice that the name of the person responding to the replies is "educatedguess417". I smell bullshit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members educatedguess417 Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 Notice that the name of the person who started this thread is "charmedlife417". Now notice that the name of the person responding to the replies is "educatedguess417". I smell bullshit. No, not bull{censored}, Fret. Why would I B.S. about a $50 guitar? I must have two different accounts on UMGF that I was unaware of. I'm not sure how they got blended into one thread. Perhaps it's because I used the same personal email account in signing up. I use different usernames on different forums, not for any reason of subterfuge but just as the whim strikes me. On AGF I use charmedlife417 exclusively, here I thought I was educatedguess417 (417 is my birthday, coming up this April). So no, there's no scam or B.S. here. Perhaps a moderator can look into this and find out whether I in fact have two different accounts here. It be that I also am on the Blueridge/Eastman Forum, which I believe also uses the Yoku interface. Anyway, an honest mistake, and I apologize for an suspicion/confusion. I'm real, the guitar's real, and I was asking an honest question. The Boy Scout within me dies hard. Educated Guess/Charmed Life P.S. Todd, can you clear up the confusion on my username? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FretFiend. Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 There was a time here at HC when multiple identities, more commonly known as "alts", were only used by, ahem, troublemakers and trolls. Multiple identities were in violation of HC's official rules. It would appear that's no longer the case. So..... Cheers, educated Guess/Charmed Life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members educatedguess417 Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 There was a time here at HC when multiple identities, more commonly known as "alts", were only used by, ahem, troublemakers and trolls. Multiple identities were in violation of HC's official rules. It would appear that's no longer the case. So..... Cheers, educated Guess/Charmed Life. Again, I wasn't aware of it till you pointed it out, Fret, so no prob. I'm not sure how both usernames blended into a single thread: never seen that happen before. Anyway, thanks for understanding. I WOULD like to post a pic of that Tal Farlow, but I tried everything for about a half hour and nothing worked so I had to move on. No great loss. Cheers back at ya! EG/CL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted April 14, 2015 Members Share Posted April 14, 2015 I have an old Kasuga classical that's a very well made guitar. Even though it's all laminate it sounds nicer than my cheap Yamaha classicals, but it sounds bland and flabby compared to my Yammie GC10. I wouldn't spend much money trying to restore one. Multiple monikers is not good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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