scottosan
Well-known member
My cousin in law Shiro of Roshi pedals invited me to meet a local well known American player Dave Ralston an awesome store, Manga Souko owned Mr Kimira. The four of us got together, played some gear and talked about pedal, guitars, pickups, and amps.
https://www.instagram.com/roshi_pedals?igsh=NW5ibmhtZDk3eTNw
So, it looks like I’m meeting the right people and will hopefully get some help. There’s not too much of a high output crowd out hear and hear tends to favor traditional models, but they love hand made stuff and have a great respect for the craft. Since most of my neck pickup are PAF types, they were really liking the neck pickups. It was my first time to go out since I got here and it was fun.
Afterwards I went shopping
I sold a bit of stuff in preparation for the move and I wanted another Japanese Les Paul. But before that, I have several observations about Japanese pricing.
1. The Dollar to Yen rate is crazy. So many deals to be had.
2. Every guitar, regardless of how cheap was setup and inspected with notes on cards. You get fret height measurements listed on the cars along with condition and any modifications. The guitars weight is also listed.
3. The Japanese like to take care of their instruments, thus a pretty big price difference a guitar in excellent condition and one in good condition. If you are okay with a player grade cosmetic guitar with solid neck, frets, and electronics, they seem to be highly discounted for the one with dings and scratches. Most of the ones on ebay and reverb are this category. They are getting them stupid cheap and selling to Americans with vague descriptions.
They had several Gibson, a few Tokais, some Grecos and Bacchus, but what stood out to me was a 1980 Aria Pro II LS60(600D). It’s got the Gibson headstock. Long tenon. It came in at 10.2lbs. Set up 1.7mm on the treble side and 2mm on the bass side. It came stock with 1980 Super Distortions. It had so PIO caps installed and Grover tuners installed. Nice dark rosewood
And the frets had been recently leveled with plenty of life left. Regardless of the price, I preferred it over the others. The guitar was priced at ¥54000. That’s a whopping $344. If I pull the 1989 Suoer Ds, I can recoup a good portion of that. The rips though and I may not touch it. It’s the loudest acoustically that I own and a fatter neck than my Greco. You can feel the vibrations through the neck. Really great player.
https://www.instagram.com/roshi_pedals?igsh=NW5ibmhtZDk3eTNw
So, it looks like I’m meeting the right people and will hopefully get some help. There’s not too much of a high output crowd out hear and hear tends to favor traditional models, but they love hand made stuff and have a great respect for the craft. Since most of my neck pickup are PAF types, they were really liking the neck pickups. It was my first time to go out since I got here and it was fun.
Afterwards I went shopping
I sold a bit of stuff in preparation for the move and I wanted another Japanese Les Paul. But before that, I have several observations about Japanese pricing.1. The Dollar to Yen rate is crazy. So many deals to be had.
2. Every guitar, regardless of how cheap was setup and inspected with notes on cards. You get fret height measurements listed on the cars along with condition and any modifications. The guitars weight is also listed.
3. The Japanese like to take care of their instruments, thus a pretty big price difference a guitar in excellent condition and one in good condition. If you are okay with a player grade cosmetic guitar with solid neck, frets, and electronics, they seem to be highly discounted for the one with dings and scratches. Most of the ones on ebay and reverb are this category. They are getting them stupid cheap and selling to Americans with vague descriptions.
They had several Gibson, a few Tokais, some Grecos and Bacchus, but what stood out to me was a 1980 Aria Pro II LS60(600D). It’s got the Gibson headstock. Long tenon. It came in at 10.2lbs. Set up 1.7mm on the treble side and 2mm on the bass side. It came stock with 1980 Super Distortions. It had so PIO caps installed and Grover tuners installed. Nice dark rosewood
And the frets had been recently leveled with plenty of life left. Regardless of the price, I preferred it over the others. The guitar was priced at ¥54000. That’s a whopping $344. If I pull the 1989 Suoer Ds, I can recoup a good portion of that. The rips though and I may not touch it. It’s the loudest acoustically that I own and a fatter neck than my Greco. You can feel the vibrations through the neck. Really great player.
