Vintage Memphis guitar?

[guitarkid]

The guy that owns the guitar shop here in town has been getting behind on some repairs coming in the shop so he has been sending some home with me and giving me store credit for working on them, so its a pretty sweet deal! Someone came in the other day with an old Les Paul copy, the guy was wanting different pickups, so he sent it home with me to do the swap. I got to looking at it when I brought it home and I was very suprised by the quality of the guitar, its probably the closest copy of a Gibson LP Standard that I've ever held. I think it was probably made in Japan and I'm guessing its a pre-lawsuit model because it has a Gibson shaped headstock. It has a set neck, not a bolt on like you see on a lot of old jap lp's, and it has a 3-piece mahogany body, the neck feels amazing too. I was just wodering if anyone knew anything about these old Memphis guitars....?

[jmh151]

Re: Vintage Memphis guitar?

My first guitar was a Memphis Les Paul. Back in 1987 it cost me $129.

It was a beautiful tobacco sunburst, with a Gibson headstock. However, it was bolt on, made of plywood, horrible tuners, and had single coil pickups underneath the chrome humbucking covers.

It was beautiful, but like most beginner guitars at the time, was junk. Entry level guitars these days are a huge improvement

[whatshisname]

Re: Vintage Memphis guitar?

They were one of many brands that Ibanez made guitars under. Never played a plywood one, but the ones I did play, and own, were really nice.

[JOLLY]

Re: Vintage Memphis guitar?

They were one of many brands that Ibanez made guitars under.

I thought Yamaha owned Memphis Guitars. I could be wrong.

Anyways, when I was a teenager and went to music stores there were always tons of Memphis guitars around. They are what they are. They're nothing spectacular by any means. It seems like I remember them always being really heavy.

[guitarkid]

Re: Vintage Memphis guitar?

Oh ok, I don't know if this could have been a higher end model or what but it does play pretty nice and its not plywood.

[idsnowdog]

Re: Vintage Memphis guitar?

The problem with judging any manufacturers guitars is that we don't really know about the breadth of their product line? We make judgments based on the models we have seen the most of. That being said, most of the Memphis guitars I have seen are starter garbage that you see at low-end music stores. It is possible that they have a luxury line, but I haven't seen it.

An example of a manufacturer that has a rather poor reputation, but actually produces some very good high-end models is Cort. Cort makes a lot of starter junk, but their set-neck pro line are very competitive with Gibsons.

[formula73]

Re: Vintage Memphis guitar?

That old Japanese stuff is a crapshoot, at best. There were 3 or 4 factories making guitars for so many different brand names it's nearly impossible to keep track of, and they all ran the gamut from bolt on plywood junk to serious quality clones of American guitars, built to the specs of the company ordering them, just like now. Import entry level, midrange, upper range guitars can all be made by different factories in different parts of the world while carrying the same brand name at the same time.

BTW: Ibanez didn't make any guitars for anybody; they were just one of the multitude of brand names slapped on guitars coming from the Fujigen plant, alongside Greco and even 'cheap' names like Bradley. That's a common misconception.

[whatshisname]

Re: Vintage Memphis guitar?

Even one the vintage Ibanez boards, I've been told that they were Ibanez guitars branded differently.

If that is indeed incorrect, then I apologize for the false information.