CMI

[Stereohigh]

I stumbled over a forum discussing cmi guitars, apparently made by a subsidiary company of Marshall, built in Japan. I have found a few harmony central reviews, but the info is vague, does anyone here know about them, I am intrigued because of the marshall name I guess

Thanks

Pete

 

[born2boogie]

Hi Pete, I had a CMI telecaster in the early 80's, maple neck black body. Excellent neck profile and played very well. Not quite the telecaster tone you would expect though probably due to the body being mahogany.
CMI strat currently on ebay, item 370046379236

 

[Bassassin]

There were two CMI brands - this does seem to lead to a bit of confusion but they're completely unrelated.

In the UK, CMI was Cleartone Musical Instruments, which was indeed set up as a sub-brand of Marshall. The first CMI guitars weren't actually MIJ, they were rebranded UK-built Ned Callans (these also appeared under the Shaftesbury, Callan & Simms-Watts brands) Ned Callan was a pseudonym of luthier Peter Cook.

Subsequent Japanese CMIs seem to be from several different factories - including Moridaira, Kasuga & (possibly) Fujigen - which puts them in the mid-to-good quality bracket.

The other CMI was Chicago Musical Instruments - as far as I know they did not produce any CMI-branded Japanese copies, but there are some basic-looking original budget designs which appear under the brand. Chicago CMI is probably best known for being Gibson's parent company until the mid-70s, and this is what sometimes leads to some absurd claims being made about CMI guitars - particularly when they appear on Ebay!

Jon.

 

[slowjammerukog]

Hi Pete, I had a CMI telecaster in the early 80's, maple neck black body. Excellent neck profile and played very well. Not quite the telecaster tone you would expect though probably due to the body being mahogany.
CMI strat currently on ebay, item 370046379236

I have one I bought in the 80s for ?85. I stripped off the creamy yellow enamel finish and found a nice figured mahogany underneath, so I French-polished it (out of ignorance, but it's gorgeous), put on a brass bridge, control plate and knobs (this WAS the 80s), added a black pickguard and a Seymour Duncan Broadcaster Vintage treble pup and a Bill Lawrence vintage Tele neck pickup. It has a fantastic neck, looks lovely and sounds beautiful - one of the nicest Teles I've played. The same shop had a CMI LP Junior copy - wish I'd bought that as well.

 

[Sidders]

There were two CMI brands - this does seem to lead to a bit of confusion but they're completely unrelated.

In the UK, CMI was Cleartone Musical Instruments, which was indeed set up as a sub-brand of Marshall. The first CMI guitars weren't actually MIJ, they were rebranded UK-built Ned Callans (these also appeared under the Shaftesbury, Callan & Simms-Watts brands) Ned Callan was a pseudonym of luthier Peter Cook.

Subsequent Japanese CMIs seem to be from several different factories - including Moridaira, Kasuga & (possibly) Fujigen - which puts them in the mid-to-good quality bracket.

The other CMI was Chicago Musical Instruments - as far as I know they did not produce any CMI-branded Japanese copies, but there are some basic-looking original budget designs which appear under the brand. Chicago CMI is probably best known for being Gibson's parent company until the mid-70s, and this is what sometimes leads to some absurd claims being made about CMI guitars - particularly when they appear on Ebay!

Jon.

Hi Jon..a few years late to this thread..I have a CMI branded ES335 with the Gibson Crest logo....i cant find any info about it at all on the Net...its top quality with binder fret board with nibs..quality switchgear etc...can anyone help ?