NGD! And a bit of a mystery.

texasguitarslinger · **Posted:** Mon Apr 02, 2012 12:39 am

I had a very unexpected new guitar day today. With my custom Strat hot off the press, I haven't really been looking to buy anything lately. But about a week ago my guitar tech showed me an online auction site and I stumbled across the only thing worth while they had in a sea of First Acts and Lyons. A Samick neck thru copy of an Alembic style guitar, probably from the 70's or 80's. When I first saw it it was listed with a high bid of less than $100. Being a neck thru, I watched it expecting it would fetch upwards of $400. I also did some research on it and I literally can't find a picture of one exactly like it anywhere on the web. I did find one remarkably close, but there's a different brand name on the headstock, a different color headstock, and it has different tuning machines. (You can find it here: http://www.gitarrenfundgrube.de/index.php?subid=johnny ) Anyway, when bidding still hadn't reached $200 with five minutes left, I decided to jump on it. And I won with the winning bid at $262!

Even though I really wasn't planning on a new guitar now, I don't know when or if one of these will ever crop up again. I'm a little worried about buying it sight unseen, but considering the price I paid and the fact that I work at a guitar store, flipping it and recouping my money shouldn't be a problem if I don't like it.

It says it ought to be shipped within the next five business days, so hopefully I'll get it later this week or next. When I do, I'll get pictures of it up before, during and after I restore it.

Here are some pictures of it taken from the site.

That Peavey sticker ought to come right off with some lighter fluid. The crack is another story, but judging by the location of it, I don't think it'll cause any problems.

T2Stratman · **Posted:** Mon Apr 02, 2012 5:55 am

TGS...almost looks like a cross btw a 70's Seagull and a Yamaha. Construction looks solid, will be curious to hear what you think sonically. For $262 you sure can't go wrong.

T2

Screamin' Armadillo · **Posted:** Mon Apr 02, 2012 6:24 am

Happy New Guitar Day, Becks! That looks like a cool axe---

Back in the early-to-mid 1990's, I used to see those semi-regularly around the Dallas/Fort Worth area, especially in used guitar shops and pawn shops. I wonder if they weren't produced or distributed from someplace around D/FW, because they were fairly common.

There was never a name or even a place where a name had worn off anywhere on the guitar; there was a "range" of sorts in build quality as well. Most were neck-thru, but a few were bolt-on and even fewer were set-neck. I know it's gotta be the same maker, because the details are just too similar. The only thing wrong with them was (generally) the tuners.

If you ever find out who the maker is, please tell us...I'm curious.

A friend of mine bought one, and the humbuckers were amazing--raunchy and rockin'--great for slide and classic rock excursions...awesome. It was very easy to get into ZZ Top territory with that baby. He upgraded the tuners on his, and it was a great guitar.

He had leukemia and had told me that if he didn't make it, I was to take his guitar and amp. I told him I just wanted him to get well...but he insisted, and even wrote it down. When he died, his brother took the guitar and amp (a solid-state Marshall combo of some sort). I didn't have the heart to tell him that they were supposed to be mine, so they've sat in his brother's closet for almost fifteen years. Oh, well.

texasguitarslinger · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:39 am

Screamin' Armadillo wrote:

Happy New Guitar Day, Becks! That looks like a cool axe---

Back in the early-to-mid 1990's, I used to see those semi-regularly around the Dallas/Fort Worth area, especially in used guitar shops and pawn shops. I wonder if they weren't produced or distributed from someplace around D/FW, because they were fairly common.

There was never a name or even a place where a name had worn off anywhere on the guitar; there was a "range" of sorts in build quality as well. Most were neck-thru, but a few were bolt-on and even fewer were set-neck. I know it's gotta be the same maker, because the details are just too similar. The only thing wrong with them was (generally) the tuners.

If you ever find out who the maker is, please tell us...I'm curious.

That's interesting, one of my facebook friends recognized it as what his second guitar was. But he lived halfway across the world at the time. From what I can tell it was manufactured by Samick, but that could mean so many different things. It could've been manufactured in Japan (I'm hoping), Korea or Indonesia. The ones under the Johnny Pro II label on that German website say they're from the 70's, but it looks like it could have just as easily have been from the 80's too. Or 90's, since you said you saw a lot of them then.

You would think that there would be more information out there about them, especially considering Samick is one of the largest guitar manufacturers in the world.

guitslinger · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2012 4:52 am

It looks like you got yourself a pretty good player for a bargain basement price Becky, Samick turns out some surprisingly good guitars besides the budget lines that they are mostly known for and it looks like that one is one of the higher quality ones.Congrats.

63supro · **Joined:** Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:19 pm **Posts:** 8827

Yep, Samick guitars were really decent. That one reminds me of some of their 70's stuff. From what I remember they were a Korean company.

Buxom · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2012 10:10 am

I know I've seen one of those somewhere, only it was a single cut version.

Solid Body Love Songs · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2012 11:40 am

Very nice find Texas, the neck through looks like maple walnut maple laminate, are the wings mahogany?

Toronado · **Joined:** Tue Apr 07, 2009 7:05 pm **Posts:** 2333

My first guitar was a Samick strat.. my teacher always told me it was a great feeling guitar.

Now that I have Fenders for reference I can agree with him, for a beginner guitar to learn on it's excellent. I still keep it next to my desk and pick it up during any spontaneous playing withdrawals.

pappawookee · **Posted:** Wed Apr 04, 2012 7:15 pm

I have a Roland midi version of that guitar....... :shock:

None of the midi stuff is left in it it just has the original pickups and for some reason I had flat wound strings on it for about 7 years........ :roll:

VERY heavy thing but quite a nice tone...

grho50 · **Joined:** Sat Dec 03, 2011 2:43 pm **Posts:** 670

Screamin' Armadillo wrote:

.......He had leukemia and had told me that if he didn't make it, I was to take his guitar and amp. I told him I just wanted him to get well...but he insisted, and even wrote it down. When he died, his brother took the guitar and amp (a solid-state Marshall combo of some sort). I didn't have the heart to tell him that they were supposed to be mine, so they've sat in his brother's closet for almost fifteen years. Oh, well.

Sorry, off subject, but.......
That's a rare quality in a person now days. You've got my respect.

texasguitarslinger · **Posted:** Thu Apr 05, 2012 12:09 am

pappawookee wrote:

I have a Roland midi version of that guitar....... :shock:

None of the midi stuff is left in it it just has the original pickups and for some reason I had flat wound strings on it for about 7 years........ :roll:

VERY heavy thing but quite a nice tone...]

Very cool! Where was yours made? There's a good chance they're from the same factory.

Solid Body Love Songs wrote:

Very nice find Texas, the neck through looks like maple walnut maple laminate, are the wings mahogany?

I'm not sure yet. I'm betting the neck is maple/walnut or maple/mahogany, but the wings are a tougher guess. My guitar tech speculated that it might be rosewood. To me it looks like it might be walnut, or maybe stained ash? I think mahogany usually has a tighter grain. I guess I won't know for sure until it see it. Come on UPS!

pappawookee wrote:

Screamin' Armadillo wrote:

.......He had leukemia and had told me that if he didn't make it, I was to take his guitar and amp. I told him I just wanted him to get well...but he insisted, and even wrote it down. When he died, his brother took the guitar and amp (a solid-state Marshall combo of some sort). I didn't have the heart to tell him that they were supposed to be mine, so they've sat in his brother's closet for almost fifteen years. Oh, well.

Sorry, off subject, but.......
That's a rare quality in a person now days. You've got my respect.

+1

texasguitarslinger · **Posted:** Fri Apr 13, 2012 10:34 am

It's finally on it's way! Should be here sometime next week.

adey · **Posted:** Fri Apr 13, 2012 7:42 pm

I've seen that body shape on more than a few Ibanez guitars of the 70s. My music buddy has 2 of them. And again, the headstock is a very slight variation of Ibanez guitars of the period - you'll see it on their PF series guitars.

And I'd be prepared to suggest those are the original Super 70 p/ups fitted into many Ibanez guitars from that era. Just the p/ups alone have become collectable over the years, by people who like to restore old Ibanez guitars to original state.

Same factory? re-badged?

texasguitarslinger · **Posted:** Wed Apr 18, 2012 11:56 pm

It came this afternoon! I've been working on it as much as I can at home, but I won't have the final verdict until I've taken it to the shop.

The neck isn't bad, but it's not good either. I think it'll be a lot better after I've taken care of some high frets above the 15th. The truss rod works, and it has a more curvy radius than I expected. Without radius gauges I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing it's between a 7.25" and a 9.5".

An interesting discovery I made was that it was strung lefty at some point in it's life. There's an empty hole where a strap button used to be on the lower horn, and the nut slots are cut opposite what they should be, so that the low e string is barely above the fret and the high e string is way too high. I think it's going to need a new nut, so if anything that will be a learning experience.

I also managed to roughly date it and discover where is was made, despite it making no markings. I found a company name on the capacitors and did a little research on it. This company began production of electronic parts in 1979 in South Korea. I also found a thread where someone with the same pickups as mine said they got it some someone in the late 80s or early 90s. So I'm going to venture to say that it was made in Korea around the early 80s.

One of the parts that had a marking was the bridge, which reads H.S. No idea what that means though.

Here's a shot of the really cool logo.

And the whole guitar after it was cleaned up and restrung.

adey wrote:

I've seen that body shape on more than a few Ibanez guitars of the 70s. My music buddy has 2 of them. And again, the headstock is a very slight variation of Ibanez guitars of the period - you'll see it on their PF series guitars.

And I'd be prepared to suggest those are the original Super 70 p/ups fitted into many Ibanez guitars from that era. Just the p/ups alone have become collectable over the years, by people who like to restore old Ibanez guitars to original state.

I'm not sure what pickups it was. They're stamped KSSC on the back and from what little research I've done, they're cheapies that were used on a lot of Samick made guitars of the period. I'm sure they're not the greatest sounding humbuckers in the world, but they're not terrible either. I like them just fine.

Surprisingly, the only thing wrong with the electronics is that the neck pup's tone knob doesn't work. Everything else is perfectly fine other than a scratchy pot, which is super easy to fix.

It was a really nice day, so I did all the work on the guitar outdoors (besides checking the electronics). When I was done I went and took some artsy-fartsy photos of it. lol

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