Cool 70's Japanese Hollow Body Guitar

[DrNomis_44]

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday as my mate dropped me off at my new flat after a band rehearsal, he asked me if I could do some electronic repair work on a cool 70's Japanese hollow-body guitar, he wanted me to sort out a problem with the guitar's DeAmond Pickup which was making a noisy crackling sound, the DeAmond pickup system is apparently the same type that Vic Flick used on one of his guitars, now, for those who don't know who Vic Flick is, he's the guitarist responsible for the famous twangy guitar riff in the original James Bond 007 theme from Dr No, I thought that it would be cool to start a thread about the guitar and post a pic of it for you to check out, so here it is:




The body of the guitar has white binding on the front and back edges too, the finish looks like it could have been done in Shellac, maybe one of you out there might be more knowledgeable about it, anyway, I think it looks cool.

[Dedman]

sure is a cool old beasty

[Sonic Mountain]

Very interesting, looking forward to more pics.

[DrNomis_44]

I'll get some more pics of the guitar posted for you guys then, including a closeup of the DeAmond pickup.

Here we go, more pics for you to check out:

[Simon Barden]

I think it's probably 1960's. The closest I can find to the distinctive F-hole style is the old Japanese Nardan brand.

[DrNomis_44]

Some more pics:

[DrNomis_44]

And one more:

[wazkelly]

How about those tuning pegs??? Plenty of slippage I presume. They look like something straight off an acoustic from the same era as does the nut too.

[Simon Barden]

Waz, remember that it was an acoustic to start with. The DeArmond pickup is very much as aftermarket attachment, though if it is a Nardan, they could be bought fitted with a similar (but more basic) add-on Teisco pickup.

[DrNomis_44]

I had a good look at the nut, and believe it or not, it's actually only there as a string-guide because there's a Zero-Fret about 6.5 mm away from the front-edge of it, and yes, those tuners don't look like the originals, my guess is that the originals were worn-out and got replaced by the current ones at some stage.


Do you reckon that the finish on it is Shellac, or could it be a synthetic varnish of some sort?

And yes, the set of strings on the guitar feature a wound G-String, the B and high E-String are plain un-wound types, not sure what gauge they are, but they look most appropriate for the guitar.