WHAT Was Your FIRST MIJ Guitar???

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guitar hiro

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So, what was your very first MIJ guitar?

Mine was a Yamaha FG-200N :)

I was 9 years old when I got that guitar; 48 years ago :eek:

So, what was your first MIJ guitar? 8)
 
In 75 or 76 when I was in high school ..... It was a sunburst Univox Les Paul called the "Gimmie" - Matsumoku made.


http://www.vintageunivox.com/pics/guitars/gimmie_sunburst.jpg
 
Tokai AST-56 bougth circa 2001, a really nice guitar with a good sound and a V neck followed by a LS70 VF from Universe guitarshop months later
 
Ibanez SV5470 about 7 or 8 years ago. It has since moved on and the Tokai collection is growing.
 
1989 Burny RR LPC for 23,000 yen off YJ back in 2011 still even have the auction listing.

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It was around 2004 I bought a -01 Tokai SG (I think the model is SG60).

A bit of a coincidence, since I got it at a sale after the owner of the oldest music shop in town had passed away. There was quite a line outside before opening that day, but I got in pretty fast. I was looking for some US Fender Strat, but all of those were gone (some insider stuff there, I assume).

Then I saw the SG that I've been somewhat interested in earlier, but considered the prize as way to high, even though these were and are rare sights at music stores here. But now I got it for half, so it was a great deal. First but not last Tokai, or MIJ..
 
Anjo strat copy circa 1983. It was probably a Matsumoku export model. It had a red finish and maple board. I could hardly play guitar at the time so I'm not sure if it was a good one or not.
 
Fender MIJ Strat.

I used to hang out a lot at Rockin Robin guitars in Houston, the people that made Robin guitars. The Robin's were made in the Tokai factory so they had lots of Tokai's in the shop - back in the late 80's. Thus the addiction began.
 
ned said:
Fender MIJ Strat.

I used to hang out a lot at Rockin Robin guitars in Houston, the people that made Robin guitars. The Robin's were made in the Tokai factory so they had lots of Tokai's in the shop - back in the late 80's. Thus the addiction began.

Still a fun store to go into: https://www.rockinrobinguitars.com/
They sell on Reverb too.... some nice guitars.
 
Satellite Strat copy, new in April '83. Absolute pile of garbage, but I'd only been playing 3 months.
18 months later, I bought a brand new Yamaha SG1000S, which I still have, and is STILL "as good as any Gibson".

It needs to be said..."Made In Japan" is a guarantee of quality today, but back in the '70s it wasn't. While the big names that produce top end gear today were doing so back then, there was no 'Made In China/Korea/Indonesia/etc'. The low end stuff was made in Japan, too and in the majority of cases, they weren't even as good as the cheapest Chinese products produced today.
Don't fall in to the trap of believing everything from the '70s/80s, "Made In Japan" was great... it wasn't.
 
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