I picked up this Les Paul copy in a trade recently. It's branded 'Profile' and is obviously an older Japanese LP copy but while attempting to research it online, I found I could find almost no information on the guitar. There are a few Strat copies out there and there seems to be a (unconfirmed) story floating around that the 'Profile' guitars may have been made when a guitar shop took some American guitars over to Japan in order to have them make copies of them. Other than that there is next to no info about them and nothing I can really find at all on the Les Paul except what appears to be a photo of one other one in white. I thought I would post it on here in the hopes that someone may be able to help me work out when and in which factory this guitar may have been made and also to document and just show off what I think is really a very nice and seemingly quite rare early Japanese Les Paul copy
Here it is:
Headstock showing silk-screened 'Profile' logo, inlay is a little bit wonky looking but I like it and it looks like it may actually be real mother of pearl(?) from the colour, unlike the neck inlays. Truss-rod cover is a squared bell shape:
Truss rod:
Poker chip; it's a bit wonky looking and seems to be glued down, don't know whether this is original or not. Sadly the guitar was missing one strap button when I got it so I've replaced them with Gotoh oversize buttons
Here it is:
Headstock showing silk-screened 'Profile' logo, inlay is a little bit wonky looking but I like it and it looks like it may actually be real mother of pearl(?) from the colour, unlike the neck inlays. Truss-rod cover is a squared bell shape:
Truss rod:
Poker chip; it's a bit wonky looking and seems to be glued down, don't know whether this is original or not. Sadly the guitar was missing one strap button when I got it so I've replaced them with Gotoh oversize buttons