I’ve had 5-6 Japanese Bacchus’ and my buddy around 4, and they’re excellent guitars. Quality has been consistent, and I’d say they’re as good as any good example of the Gibsons they’re copying.
With Edwards, you have to dig a little to get the truth on where they were made. If you see one without a serial that actually means it’s an MIJ version. I had a 99 Sykes. There’s a number in the neck pup opening that tells you. They started serials in 2001 and I believe in 2011 they started outsourcing to China but finished assembly in Japan.
I’d rock one
Edwards no, Burny yes. Bacchus no
waiting to hear back on those two I showed you...the sykes with the kahler and that epi....I'm hoping the sykes has the dry's, and also the pups in the epi...
Keep in mind that the Dry and the Dry Z ‘s aren’t the same. They weren’t used after 1982
shit-it's an 84....
Original Dry Z’s go for more than the guitar @$700 plus a pair
Mine’s an ‘84 and it came with the Screaming pups and they’re actually very good.
Same thing, probably a bit more loved than Burny and Greco even, when looking at the 80's made ones.
Same thing, probably a bit more loved than Burny and Greco even, when looking at the 80's made ones.
Orville had the Gibson-connection; some of the supposedly better ones even had the 'by Gibson' tag on the headstock below the logo:
Tokai generally has been more expensive than Burny and Greco. Not sure if you get more quality if you're comparing 'equal versions', since all these Japanese Les Pauls had lower-end and higher end stuff.
Take a Greco EG-1200, you probably pay $3k or more for those these days.
EDIT: Make that $4k. Or $2.4k for a worn out, ugly one.
That's Gibson money. But my firm belief is that the intermediate and higher end Japanese ones were far more consistent than what Gibson was churning out in the 70's and 80's. Mind you, I've played an awesome 70's Gibson LPC, which turned out to be the local town's 'slut', as I found out that it switched owners at least 4 times all within a 3 mile radius.
But boy, were there some dead stinkers too, that still fetched $2k+ because of the name. And in such cases, I rather fork up $2k for a Japanese made guitar, with eye for detail, quality and consistency. I'll probably yank out the electronics anyway, as I did with my 3 Burny's, so there's Switchcraft, Bourns and Tusq stuff on it. And Grover or Gotoh tuners.
I don't know about those, they look like an elephant on the guy's lap who is demoing them...
