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cheap, I mean REALLY cheap 70s Les Paul copies


richxxiii

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Hi,

As a kid I owned a really horrible Les Paul copy that I picked up at a flea market. It had all the standard LP features, really looked like one from a reasonable distance, had a set neck, etc.

However, almost everything about it was criminally cheap; the pickups were fake humbuckers, a rather low output single coil pickup inside the humbucker-sized covers, lousy electronics, corroded pots with bad grounding soldering, cheap, wiggly tuners which went out of tune often, pot-metal saddle bridges which were prone to vibrating, but the capper was how they achieved the carved top appearance. It was simply something like pressboard formed into the top shape and supported by some wooden strips attached to the largely plywood body. The finish of the actual guitar did an admirable job of concealing the cheapness therein. It was a rather ugly solid scarlet color and even had a cream binding on the body, neck, and headstock.

A year or so later, I foolishly bought the same brand guitar. It was a copy of a Gibson L6-S. I just had to have it as it looked like a guitar I'd seen Devo playing. Dumb, I know. It was just about as bad as the Les Paul copy. It had the same rattly bridge, although not a tune-o-matic knockoff, but rather the bar type bridge seen on the L6, but still as defective. I would cram shims from a matchbook between saddles to keep them from sympathetically buzzing. It also had the same low-output single coil pickups but here disguised to look like Bill Lawrence pickups (no exposed screws). It also had a zero fret, which was weird, as I don't believe the real L6's did. Just utter crap. I traded it to a friend who was a Devo fiend. Heh!

I just want to know if anyone knows who made these monstrosities? I would imagine they would've been lawsuit guitars, as they certainly LOOKED like Gibsons, at least from afar. I've only seen one other Les Paul copy with the same logo in a pawnshop. I think the pawnbroker told me he thought it was a Hondo but the earliest Hondos I've seen were much better quality than these. Maybe so, though?

The headstock logo appeared to be a lowercase letter h, repeated as four or five lines superimposed over one another. 

I don't know why I want to know more about this company, but I do.

Any pointers appreciated!

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you bought them, when?

You bought more than one...and you don't know the name of the manufacturer?

Pics? I mean could you sketch the  logo, take a pic of it and post it here?

Anything?

You need to give us more to go on...

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I don't think I've ever seen an L6-S copy before. :idk:

I can't think of any good reason why anyone would want to copy the L6-S either. :lol: As you can probably tell, I never cared for those. YMMV.

As far as the guitars described in the OP, unfortunately I have no idea what they might have been. Hondos were bad enough IMHO, but these definitely sound like they were even worse. 

Rich, here's a page with a large list of guitar-related brands that start with the letter H - it's probably not all-inclusive, but maybe you'll find the brand of your old guitars listed there. If you do, then that might give us something to work with and maybe someone will be familiar with the brand and can give you more information...

https://www.guitar-list.com/logos/H

 

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3 hours ago, Phil O'Keefe said:

I don't think I've ever seen an L6-S copy before. :idk:

I can't think of any good reason why anyone would want to copy the L6-S either. :lol: As you can probably tell, I never cared for those. YMMV.

 

 

Phil, Ibanez made them in the early 70's, along with Crestline, Aria, Ventura, and most of the Japanese lawsuit Companies. They tended to have bolt on necks, as opposed to the set neck L6S from Gibby. And yet, Gibby in it's collective wisdom, made a bolt on version, sans the fancy wiring, and called it the Midnight Special. (Must have had some kind of deal with the pop music show of the same name in the 70's.) 

And my L6s can beat up your Paul or SG. So there....😝

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The thing that will help is knowing WHEN this was. The construction quality sounds a lot like a Satellite Les Paul apart from the cardboard 'carved' top. I do recall reading about these kids of construction methods in late 90s/early 2000s budget LP copies when magazines were still a significant source of info, but couldn't remember who made such a piece of junk. Most likely it's just a random shop brand that was badged up in the factory & supplied to any number of outlets.

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