1978 Takamine F-385 12-String Acoustic Guitar

Vintage Japanese Martin copy from the lawsuit era. Some cosmetic defects, but still rock solid

Sticking with the made in Japan theme, this beauty was yet another thrift store find. Its amazing what people will give away. After parting with the 1995 G335 a couple of summers ago, I'd been looking for another Takamine 12-string and was very fortunate to have this one fall in to my lap.

It plays nice and easy, but it definitely needs a setup and some intonation work. I always set up my 12-strings with extra light strings and usually add this in on recordings to accentuate certain sections with arpeggios, just slightly in the mix.

Something occurred to me as I was taking the photos of this guitar; the date is stamped onto one of the braces around the soundhole, just like the old Carlos acoustic guitars featured here. The Carlos models that I've owned had a date stamped there from 1980-85 and the font on the stamp looks identical. The big hole in that theory is the fact that Takamines were made in Japan until at least the mid-80s and Carlos guitars were made in Korea. Of course, some of the early Jasmine models were made in Korea, so maybe it's not a completely crackpot theory.

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here.

1985 Aria Pro II RS Knight Warrior

Vintage Japanese super-strat, made by Matsumoku and equipped with a Kahler Flyer tremolo

 

The younger cousin of the strat copy that I scored a couple of years back, this one is its mirror image and 30 years has seen the white finish age into a killer vintage cream color. The pickups seem to be original, although most photos show the guitar with blade style pickups and the Kahler Flyer is definitely stock. I took this to Clay at Beach City Pawn and Guitar for the setup and it does play and sound super sweet.

Getting back to those pickups, I found a set of vintage blade pickups, including an MMK 45 humbucker, but the PUPs inside looked to be the same build, so we decided to leave it be. This guitar doesn't have the output of some of my other electrics, but it gets really nice clean sounds and the Flyer alone is probably worth what I paid for it.

These are high-quality mid-grade guitars, worst-case scenario, and you can find them for $200 or less most times. I'm currently in the market for a bass with a rosewood fretboard and it's either going to be an Aria or another Ibanez Roadstar, which I also brought in for Clay to look at. If you live in Southern California and you need repairs to your guitars, check out the Yelp page above. Clay will take care of your guitars and give you a great deal on the price.

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here.

1980s Ibanez GX60 Guitar Amp

Vintage early-80s Japanese combo amp, great cleans and distortions, takes pedals very well 

 

This was an incredible thrift store find and a rarity at that. Ibanez is among my favorite guitar brands, namely because of their electric guitars and the "fast necks" that they've been equipped with since at least 1980. This amp was also built around that time and just about everything they pumped out seems to be high quality merchandise.

Ibanez guitars and pedals from the era have a great reputation and are highly-sought after in the collectors' market, but I had no idea that they made amps as well. Much like the Boss SE processors from the late-80s simulate the sound of the pedals produced by Roland in the same period, this amp is capable of reproducing "tubescreamer" tones with the distortion on and the reverb is also very smooth.

Like many of the other items that have been featured here over the years, I haven't been able to dig up much information on this beauty. Its possible that the amp was built by Maxon, which also made the Ibanez pedals referred to above. If anyone has any info on this amp, including whether or not it came with a footswitch, please feel free to drop a line.

Thanks for looking, more high-resolution photos here.