GFSA Archtops

vic

I'll start this one off.

I got this one in London from Andy's Denmark street in 1997....a Juno MIJ archtop electric. Spruce top and magogany back ,neck and sides....It has a bridge pup and I had a HB added in the neck position. I have done many fruitless searches for JUNO guitars ......does anyone here know about this brand ? Inside it has a label stating.."flexible enough to be artist and craftsman".
Andy got it from a Japanese sailor... ?
Has a full warm jazz tone

Keira-WitherKay

i got this aria....which is dated by people on jazz forum to models from 1968 unfortunately the idiot who owned it before me tore out the label inside the guitar what a dumb thing to do ....... anyway it's gorgeous an ES 175 and sounds huge and fat 9 i posted some vids with it a few days back in you tube section . she's everything a jazz guitar should be ....... and the detail as in finish ect is something i just don't see on new guitar s.....

guidothepimmp

Hi Vic,

What a looker, check this out, Juno were made by Kyowa Shokai from what I can gather, cant readJapanese though :-[

http://www.kyowashokai.co.jp/JUNO/juno-top.html

Saw this in the Tokai Registry forum:

"http://www.kyowashokai.co.jp/

Also another bit about Kyowa Shokai Trading Co. in another thread:

"Depends on where Kyowa Shokai (Kyowa Trading Company) had them made. Kyowa Shokai had a close relationship with the Chushin Gakki guitar factory. The same factory can make different designs. Fujigen for instance were making Greco, Ibanez, Yamaha and Fender Japan at the same time in 1986 and not all Japanese guitars were made by Fujigen and Matsumoku. Chushin and Dyna and Kasuga made a lot of the lesser known Japanese guitar brands mainly because Fujigen and Matsumoku were too busy with well known brands like Aria and Ibanez etc."

Hope this helps. Seems like they were made in Japan, Korea and Indonesia..

vic

Aaah thanks a lot Guido ...good info ! So I guess it's not such a one of a kind then... ? ....although I can't find anything in the line of Juno archtops.

vic

Keira...that was a good find. Lovely guitar.

Keira-WitherKay

vic wrote Keira...that was a good find. Lovely guitar.

yes but i've over invested in it already ......... it cost me R4500 in gumtree (down from R5500 ) then a fret dress and pro setup...... new gotoh tuners , a new tunamatic saddle......and some wiring work which was another almost 2 K so she's cost me R6500 already .

but thats NOT ALL folks she still needs a total refret (cos the excisting frets are almost done....but fine for immeadiate future........BUT my techie said it was the last fret dress......and i want a new nut and then a total rewire and new pots and 3 way switch so yeah another R2000 - R3000 to spend on her before she's where i want her .......

so that guitar will cost me almost 9 - 10 K on completion BUT in defence of her she has been my main guitar in prob more than 60 gigs here at sun city since i got her so paying for herself ...... but this must be the jazz guitar i now keep........ since i will never get the return on selling it ......

and of course the redeeming factor is she has exactly the jazz tone i want and she plays beautifully .feel wise ......so no plans to upgrade pups ect so yeah this is a keeper........... but a lesson in over investing too....

vic

Keira WitherKay wrote
vic wrote Keira...that was a good find. Lovely guitar.
yes but i've over invested in it already ......... it cost me R4500 in gumtree (down from R5500 ) then a fret dress and pro setup...... new gotoh tuners , a new tunamatic saddle......and some wiring work which was another almost 2 K so she's cost me R6500 already .

but thats NOT ALL folks she still needs a total refret (cos the excisting frets are almost done....but fine for immeadiate future........BUT my techie said it was the last fret dress......and i want a new nut and then a total rewire and new pots and 3 way switch so yeah another R2000 - R3000 to spend on her before she's where i want her .......

so that guitar will cost me almost 9 - 10 K on completion BUT in defence of her she has been my main guitar in prob more than 60 gigs here at sun city since i got her so paying for herself ...... but this must be the jazz guitar i now keep........ since i will never get the return on selling it ......

and of course the redeeming factor is she has exactly the jazz tone i want and she plays beautifully .feel wise ......so no plans to upgrade pups ect so yeah this is a keeper........... but a lesson in over investing too....

aaag, small money considering what you're earning ! ? Anyway still much less than an ES-175...and you're more than happy with it.

giggsy

Here's mine (if the purists dont complain about it qualifying as an archtop). I love it:

kapepper

Nice E175s... really lik it a lot
well, this the harmony 1954 H62

beautifull instrument

and then i picked last friday this beautifull instrument of which Mike was talking in the classifieds
Could not believe that after one week the instrument was still there for sale
One of the best deals ever for a guitar. Guitar is in mint condition, everything works fine, and the sound is beautifull.
Also dicovered it was actually a 1966 cornado II (first year of the cornandos II)

vic

Some really nice archtops here....great finds indeed !

Squonk

kapepper

Both those guitars are gorgeous.

@ Vic, I want to replace the neck Humbucker in my Archtop, I want to get that Joe Pass, or even a George Benson type of tone, what would you suggest?

Bad photo - Tanglewood JZ503

costafonix

Giggsy wrote Here's mine (if the purists dont complain about it qualifying as an archtop). I love it:

Is that a custom spray job there Giggsy? Did you do it yourself?

kapepper

Thanks Sqounk. Yours looks fine also!
In essence design is almost identical as my harmony
@ Vic; you probably saw this post in another forum already regarding Junos http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=13880&sid=899a3cec278be4eb9690ae7a1cc1f64b

vic

kapepper wrote Thanks Sqounk. Yours looks fine also!
In essence design is almost identical as my harmony
@ Vic; you probably saw this post in another forum already regarding Junos http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=13880&sid=899a3cec278be4eb9690ae7a1cc1f64b

Thanks Kapepper...I saw that.

vic

Squonk wrote kapepper

Both those guitars are gorgeous.

@ Vic, I want to replace the neck Humbucker in my Archtop, I want to get that Joe Pass, or even a George Benson type of tone, what would you suggest?

Bad photo - Tanglewood JZ503

Squonk....,mine has an unmarked Japanese floating mini-HB pup....not bad at all. I had it installed at Andy's in London...
There are several HB's to choose from...unfortunately these need to be imported. Eg. Sheptone, Fralin and SD Alnico's, also Seymore Duncan PAFs, and of course Gibson's '57 classics.....all of which are popular amongst jazzers. I think any of these would give satisfactory results. You may have to change your stock tonepots as well?
Come to think of it...maybe Tonerider has a good jazz HB pup in their arsenal ?

Reinhard

My 65 ES-335 reneck

I still need to take pics of my restored ES-330

vic

Nice one Reinhard...may I ask, what tweed amp is also in the pic ?

Reinhard

You busted me Vic, the previous owner took that pic, I'm a lazy git and my pics come out crap ?

vic

Reinhard wrote You busted me Vic, the previous owner took that pic, I'm a lazy git and my pics come out crap ?

LOL ! Pity..it looks a really cool amp ?

vic

Beautiful guitar that Joel...are the pups still stock ? or are you happy as is ?