The Electra Forums

This may have been posted before, sorry if it is a dupe. With that said, this is mostly about Ibanez but it does give some tips on identifying what Japanese factory a guitar may/may not have been made in.

http://www.chucke.com/is-my-guitar-an-ibanez.asp

So the oft bandied about "Steel Reinforced Neck" plate again makes it a Matsumoku, eh?

Too bad those plates can be removed and replaced and exchanged, huh?

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

Yes, that is the fallacy in the argument there.

There's another falsehood: You could spec any neck plate that you wanted from Matsumoku as long as you paid for the tool/stamp. Their standard stamp had the "Steel" info on it and it was the norm for their own product, until Westone branding came to the U.S.

Chosun, a competitor to Matsumoku, also used the "Steel Reinforced Neck" stamped plate on some of their products. These plates were contracted by the factories from various "metal" shops in the area. If the factory specified a particular batch with their own tooling, all was well and good. If you didn't spec it, you may end up with a blank or whatever they had around to fill the order. I've seen "Made in Japan", "Matsumoto Moku" and others throughout the 25 years of Product Management and Procurement.

There are very many legends that are based a on a little truth and a little fallacy. It's really hard to de-code it all!

Tom

Reminds me of the Tootsie Pop commercial from my youth when the wise old owl said...

"One, Two, Thrrrreeee, ... CRUNCH......, Three".

And the tagline at the end: The world may never know...

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...