Mystery Guitar Labels: Pearl

[Homer J. Simpson]

Ah you mean THAT label.



Very contradicting. BTW there are Genesis guitars with an USA stamp because allegedly Gibson made some before handing over production to (allegedly the source is Gibson) the Pearl factory in Taiwan to make the original Epi Genesis. If this is all true, then would it make sense for Pearl to make a cheaper version of that guitar in Japan? Or to make prototypes in Japan and send them to the Taiwan factory that already makes the guitar in question?

If I have seen one with a sticker, it was a MIT sticker. Well it's just a paper sticker. If the guitar was born with that sticker - that would sure be worth examining and comparing to a second example with an MIT sticker but unfortunately that will likely never happen.

I just spotted this one.

Cool, so the "export" Deluxe has a Custom brother sister sibling.

 

[totosalvati]

I just spotted this one.

Pearl Export Custom Earl
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Another with an interesting label.

SN 1010027 ?

C1978 PEARL Export Deluxe SG

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Awesome! Finally, here is one with the same "export" logo. Many thanks Sigmania!

 

[totosalvati]

Ah you mean THAT label.

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Very contradicting. BTW there are Genesis guitars with an USA stamp because allegedly Gibson made some before handing over production to (allegedly the source is Gibson) the Pearl factory in Taiwan to make the original Epi Genesis. If this is all true, then would it make sense for Pearl to make a cheaper version of that guitar in Japan? Or to make prototypes in Japan and send them to the Taiwan factory that already makes the guitar in question?

If I have seen one with a sticker, it was a MIT sticker. Well it's just a paper sticker. If the guitar was born with that sticker - that would sure be worth examining and comparing to a second example with an MIT sticker but unfortunately that will likely never happen.



Cool, so the "export" Deluxe has a Custom brother sister sibling.

regarding the MIJ/MIT sticker, I've checked mine and I can tell that it probably used to have one (there's still glue residue).

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

I assume they all had one, unfortunately but understandably most people remove them at some point or it just falls off, the dog ate it.... I also suspect that if the sticker survived, semi-educated sellers might remove it because they fear it'll hit the price.

 

[Vlad]

C1978 PEARL Export Deluxe SG

I'm seeing the same low frets and the same superthick neck binding, covering the fret ends in an unusual way, just like many Taiwanese Pearl Exports do. What I mean is this is what normal fret edge binding looks like:

Basically following the frets shape. Now this is what many of the Taiwanese Pearls look like:

It's more like a wave and I've never seen another manufacturer do it like this.

The sticker itself is suspect. I went through all my guitars and all of them have the line on top of the "J", which is missing on the Pearl.


Some old Ibanez acoustics have it like that but it's a thicker font and frame. And I've found it on Japanese Jacksons, but only the mid-90's and newer.


You can also buy these stickers, which coincidentally have the same J. Maybe weak evidence, but as long as there aren't more examples of pearls with MIJ stickers I'm not trusting it.

 

[totosalvati]

I'm seeing the same low frets and the same superthick neck binding, covering the fret ends in an unusual way, just like many Taiwanese Pearl Exports do. What I mean is this is what normal fret edge binding looks like:
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Basically following the frets shape. Now this is what many of the Taiwanese Pearls look like:
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It's more like a wave and I've never seen another manufacturer do it like this.

The sticker itself is suspect. I went through all my guitars and all of them have the line on top of the "J", which is missing on the Pearl.
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Some old Ibanez acoustics have it like that but it's a thicker font and frame. And I've found it on Japanese Jacksons, but only the mid-90's and newer.
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You can also buy these stickers, which coincidentally have the same J. Maybe weak evidence, but as long as there aren't more examples of pearls with MIJ stickers I'm not trusting it.

The binding on this model is Indeed very peculiar, rather thick and wavy Thanks for pointing this out, Vlad. So, this Export no-logo Pearl might be manufactured in Taiwan perhaps...
Any thoughts regarding the manufacturing year? Early 80s?

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

Now this is what many of the Taiwanese Pearls look like:

Thanks for pointing this out! Indeed, the Pearl "Exports" usually have this rather coarsely scraped off looks of the binding. It looks like what I called the "Mystery LP Custom" has a more standard-like binding...



... and it seems the Epiphone Genesis Deluxe/Custom does too. Different time allotments for that production step on different production lines in the same factory, different factories or different countries... your guess is as good as mine:



However, a lot of them show severe decay like this one or also Toto's guitar (looks like heavy shrinkage there).

Any thoughts regarding the manufacturing year?

Like I already wrote in the OP, all serials start with 0 or 1, the guitars popped up on the market in 1980 and disappeared 1982, and the Genesis series was seen in the same short period. The "The Pearl Guitar Company" logo and the Les Paul style Pearl Export (which is not a derivate of the Genesis) seems to be a direct reference to Gibson's Sonex, which was unleashed onto the public only in 1980.

 

[Sigmania]

Like I already wrote in the OP, all serials start with 0 or 1, the guitars popped up on the market in 1980 and disappeared 1982, and the Genesis series was seen in the same short period. The "The Pearl Guitar Company" logo and the Les Paul style Pearl Export (which is not a derivate of the Genesis) seems to be a direct reference to Gibson's Sonex, which was unleashed onto the public only in 1980.

See the guitar in post #40. It starts with a 2. Maybe the tail end of production?

 

[Blackout2112]

So far I couldn't find many instruments that would plausibly or unambiguously fill the gap between this first series of instruments and the next one. The few exceptions are weird and seem to tell a story that has yet to be dug out: First off there are these 2 bolt-neck LP copies - the headstock logos lack the line under the letters and feature a typical Custom split diamond inlay. The missing line under the logo is what the Pearl acoustics have, so one might think these LPs were maybe made by Hayashi. But they have the typical Matsumoku neckplate, one with a serial number that only makes sense for 1981 or before 1975, when the serials didn't contain any manufacturing date information yet, the other one is (as per usual, likely) 1977 - if it's not a parts guitar anyway:

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The older looking one, the serial number and the missing fret markers 19/21 indicate an early production year. Unfortunately these are the only images.

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"Matsumoku" checks out: Neck plate, control cavity shape and truss rod cover indicate a different era, the guitar may have suffered a refinish.

The other one is just as mysterious: If you check the grainy catalog scan closely, the guitars carried a cool little "P" ornament on the pickguards. This has not been seen on any live imported instruments yet, so one could think that they maybe did that on the domestic market only, or not at all. A few of the first series Pearl guitars showed up on Japanese auction and collector sites and didn't have that feature either, but I found this very strange SG - it too looks like it was made much later than the first series guitars (this one popped up in Australia):

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2. Pearl Guitars, Act II: "Vorg by Pearl" (1977 - 1980/81)

What I can say for sure is that production of the typically crude first series instruments ended at the latest with the introduction of the "Vorg by Pearl" series in 1977. "Vorg by Pearl" is often seen as the "budget" brand of Pearl but there's not much evidence that this was actually a parallel product line. Instead it looks much more like this was a complete reboot with a redesigned product line-up, made in a new factory. However, it looks like there were only two rather short bursts of production.

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Part of a"Vorg" inlay in a 1977 issue of a British guitar magazine, IIRC posted by an Irish chap in an extinct forum many moons ago

"Vorg by Pearl" was unambiguously made by Matsumoku and brought a wider range of products with much better copies compared to the first series, similar to the offerings of other brands at that time. There are proper Strats (big headstock, proper F-style nuts, no TRC), Tele and Tele Deluxe, Jazz and Precision bass copies.

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A very incomplete selection of "Vorg by Pearl" F-style planks


Except for some set-neck LP models, all instruments have serial numbers following the new Matsumoku numbering schemes indicating the year, many neck plates actually have "Matsumoku" engraved into them.

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Thinline Deluxe Telecaster, as per usual with Maxon pickups, nice maple neck with bullet trussrod, pancake body construction

3 set-neck LPs models offer open book headstocks, split-diamond inlay for the Custom models, authentic Grover and Kluson tuner copies and at least later (1980) Custom models have PCBs in the electronics cavity, just like the Aria Pro-II and numerous other Matsumoku-made budget LPs of the time. Some of them may also share the hollow, laminated tops with them, but maybe not all.

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Vorg by Pearl LP Deluxe copy with 1980 serial, mini-humbucker mounting bracket in neck PU cavity

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Standard headstock without serial (just a MIJ sticker), Custom model with PCB controls

Not that price is telling much about quality, but the prices for the Vorg Pearls were reflecting their projected target audience. Below is a small ad in a 1978 issue of the German "Fachblatt Musikmagazin" - an LP copy could be had for 480 Deutschmarks, a Strat copy for 500 (no idea how that could end up more expensive). For comparison, a decent Aria Pro II (LS-600) single-cut was around 1,000DM, a set-neck Aztec (Maya) LP copy was 850DM. The Dollar was around 2.00 DM back then, so you need to divde the price by 2 to get the prices in $. On the other hand, a Fender Strat was around $570 (SRP) w/o case back then in the US, in Germany they where sold between 1,000 and 1,500DM at that time.

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In the same year new "Vorg Series" amps were released - 6 combo amps, 2 heads, half of them with built-in Phaser (a must in 1977!) and a "VB-101A" bass head with matching cabinet. In the effects department, Pearl had tape delays like the "Echo Pack" (with cardridges) and the "Echo Orbit" (similar to Roland's Space Station) before, those were labeled "Vorg" now and a number of Vorg stomp boxes were added (F-501...F-504). The Flanger is particularly funny, can you find the typo?

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Vorg F-504 flanger, Echo Orbit-1 tape delay machine

If production was continuous from 1977 through 1980/81 is questionable - all Vorg by Pearl guitar and basses I could see so far have either 1977 or 1980/81 serial numbers. The stragglers in the series seem to be the Rickenbacker 4001 copies, seen in "GreenGlo" and "FireGlo", one of the examples below was made in 1981:

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Left: 1980 serial, right: 1981

These late Matsumoku-made guitars are somewhat odd because production had obviously shifted to Taiwan a year earlier, as the next part will show:

You didn’t mention the Vorg warp sound

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

See the guitar in post #40. It starts with a 2. Maybe the tail end of production?

Yeah that was Vlad's. There are a few 200nnnn numbers, which was one confirmation that the serial scheme must be what it looks like. If I had to guess - what I've seen so far looked like there's 10 '80 and '81 serials on a '82 serial . Here's one of the LP style Exports (and I've also seen a bass and IIRC also one of the heavy "Fleur de lis" LP Customs):

You didn’t mention the Vorg warp sound

I mentioned that they made effects, but describing those in detail, particularly the F-50x series would warrant its own thread since they seem to have some cult followers or at least some sellers who wish they had buyers like that (no idea, not much into pedals anymore).

 

[Sigmania]

For the facebook users:

Just showing my Pearl Export Custom guitar .
Real Dimarzio pickups but dont know what model, look like Superdistortion

What does this serialnumber say ?

This guitar plays an sounds amazing, awesome build quality

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/WHQfcCrs6fuCWxGz/?mibextid=K35XfP

 

[totosalvati]

Real Dimarzio pickups but dont know what model, look like Superdistortion

That's a nice one.
No make marking on the metal base plate here, unfortunately.
They are unpotted (and a bit rusty), but they're decent and do their job.