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zenbu

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  1. 9202 is not the serial, it is the JIS number and there were two, I think the other was 9204 but I don`t have that info handy right now....the serial should be on the neck block seen through the sound hole, from what I have read, they reached 6 digits in 1960. JIS stands for Japan Industrial Standard, still used today for companies. I have a 120 made of mahogany but have seen them made from flamed maple too. Worth?...depends on the buyer and where you are, in Japan, they don`t sell for a lot of money in fact, riduculously little in many cases. Nice guitars but under appreicated in my opinion.
  2. it`s 6 years older than it was when this thread started.
  3. Yeah I picked up an Artist 300 from 1982 last week and at this site we learned about binding rot...if you haven`t heard about that...like me...then searching the web for that may be useful.
  4. so you know the year and the model number...personally, I am usually pretty happy when I find both of those things...worth is a hard thing to discern, really comes down to how much somebody wants a particular guitar...rarity and/or age often has nothing to do with value particularly for old MIJs and especially outside Japan, one might find more folks interested in an old Gneco in Japan than outside but hey, who would have thought that the 1980s Grecos sell for as much as they do now...nobody thats who otherwise guys paying huge sums for them these days would have loaded up on them 10-15 years ago when they were dirt cheap. Who knows...the market could drop out on them just as easily. Same could be said for old MIA Gibsons and Fenders...those of us who were around in the `70s and `80s would have bought em all had we known what they`d be selling for these days. Guitar markets are controlled by people and people are fickle...whats hot today may not be hot 10 years from now...me, I would rather have more money than more guitars these days, did my buying before the feeding frenzy began and am a very happy player now. There does seem to be a lot of guys buying guitars every week so they can post pics of them on line and get members to comment...almost like a contest. Aw well, whatever makes em happy eh, if thats the way they get their thrills it`s better than shooting or robbing people for kicks.
  5. seen this?... I think we have found the model number... http://goyaguitars.tripod.com/catalog68_16.htm
  6. a donor guitar is something I`ve done before for old MIJ acoustics I have...it`s worked out great and I have a supply of parts.
  7. Careful what you choose to believe at the My Les Paul site, lots of opinions but nothing that seems to come directly from the companies involved, seems to me much of it is guess work though some make it sound like fact it isn`t really backed up by info from the Japanese companies. I had an old Gneco semi hollow that looked like a 335 type, plastic saddles, star tuners...it was pretty nice but I ended up selling it and the guy ho bought it is real happy. There isn`t as much info in the Japan Vintage series of books on the old Grecos as the later stuff. Best I could figure about my old Gneco was early to mid `70s...yours could be from that time or earlier...record keeping did not seem to be a priority back then and little accurate info is available, at least it is hard to find on line and in books I have. It does appear they made the change from Gneco to Greco in the mid `70s but even the Japanese authors who speak the language and have access to info foreigners living thousands of miles away have no idea about can not say for sure just how accurate their data is, so just how guys on the other side of the planet who have never been to Japan to talk to folks who actually worked in the factories or seen the records that do exist can be so certain their info is accurate is a bit of a mystery to me. Fun to read but I don`t go around passing what I see on line as fact. Nice old Gneco, look for catalogs on line that may give you a ball park idea of what model it is and when it was made...but don`t be too disappointed if you can`t pin it down precisely...as the owner of many old MIJs, I have come to accept that.
  8. you betcha. Not interested in a web war. I`m done with this one.
  9. yeah yeah yeah...why use one word when 10 will do eh.
  10. like I said, evidently much of what happens here does not get reported outside the country. I`m just not interested in going around and around in circles. If what I said was taken to mean there are no longer any craftsmen in Japan, I can`t help that...not what I meant. You want proof of how much Japan is changing, come to the country and I don`t mean for just a 2 week vacation. I`ve been here 17 years next month so I have seen a lot in that time... difficult compressing 17 years of observations into a few lines on a web site. Think what you like, I don`t lose sleep over anything I read on the web.
  11. Human is what human does, but your angle on things doesn't truly touch onto involvement within the traditional crafts. I'm not viewing the topic through rose tinted spectacles, but I am speaking from experience. What you deem as having existed in the past is most definitely still present in terms of craftsmanship, craftsmen, their perspective on their craft and the abilities use therein. There are craftsmen and there are jobbers who'll try to pass themselves off as craftsmen, but they're soon enough caught out by virtue of their general lack of crafting skills While companies and their executives may well get what they can, whenever they can and by whichever means they chose, they're not craftsmen. Crafty perhaps, but not craftsmen. I bet you can go to a party and suck all the fun out of a room in no time flat. Spend more time in Japan then we`ll compare notes. Sounds to me like your experience here is extremely limited.
  12. exactly...many westerners, myself included till I`d been here a few years...have this rose colored view of Japan and the people. My opinion now is...they are no better or worse than people from any other country...some good folks some less so...like the woman who admitted last week she would bind her 5 year old daughter and put her in the washing machine...and turn it on...to punish her. She finally died and I hope they through the book at her, but alas...child abuse is not rare here.
  13. yeah well that may have been true in the past but now money talks and the news has been filled with stories of the unscrupulous who cheat and swindle as a way of life... news in Japan that is...not sure how much gets reported overseas...like the architectural firms who cut corners for years by reducing the number of steel rods in concrete used in condos and when that came to light the buildings were deemed unsafe and everybody had to move out...the firms filed for bankruptcy, families had to leave while still paying mortgages on places they were not living in anymore. Or steel makers who fudged their data on product used to build bridges...the list goes on...in a country as prone to earth quakes as this one is...shameful. Many long held traditions ain`t what they used to be...but bid rigging is still as prevalent as it`s always been. And political scandals involving the top tier officials...ministers as well as prime ministers... are common so it flows from the top down. Are all Japanese like this...no...some are still honorable but the dirt bags seem to be taking over.
  14. I`ve got lots of old MIJs from 1948 to the mid `60s...I doubt all of them were built in climate controlled facilities at the time. They are still going strong and will out last me I`m certain. The climate in Japan is all over the place and all that climate controlled talk is fascinatin` `n stuff but in my experience it doesn`t seem to have much affect on what I own and see here in Japan. Japanese companies have expanded into Viet Nam for some time, some of the big electronics corporations have factories there.
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