Guitar Collection

[skeeter]

Hello.

Yesterday I bought a guitar at a garage sale for $20 (Canadian). I was in a hurry to go out of town, so I didn't look at it closely - it was pretty beat up but played OK, so I bought it, threw it in my trunk and didn't get a good look at it until I got home last night.

The headstock said "el Degas" which made me chuckle a bit, because I hadn't seen an elDegas guitar in a store for years. But after looking at it more closely, I'm thinking it was a Degas neck bolted onto a different body. So, I found this website, and read some of the historical bits - and thought maybe I could contribute something here, because in the mid 70s - early 80s, el Degas was a very common guitar brand in my part of the world. And maybe someone can help me out as (more on that later).

First, though - here's my collection of stuff as of today (excluding my garage sale find yesterday):



A couple of excellent guitars in that pile. Mostly I'm of the opinion that you get what you pay for, BUT even with a cheap brand, you still have about a 3 in 20 chance of finding a very good guitar that just needs a bit of tweaking. The Telecasters are all Squiers - The butterscotch is an original JV Japanese series from 1982 with the large Fender decal before they replaced it with the large Squier label ("by Fender" in small beside it). The black Tele is a "Black and Chrome" series made in Indonesia - I threw away the stupid chrome pickguard and got a black one - say what you want, but I insist it sounds better - pickups are pretty tough sounding - not quite as bright and chime-y as a typical Tele. The sunburst Tele is a couple of years old - Squier's "California" series - plays and sound a lot like my JV. And the natural finish Tele I built with a lot of help and guidance from a friend of mine who's a good woodworker. All that sanding........... nope - won't be doing that again. It's solid ash, and has a cheap humbucker in it, but it's a great dirty sound for slide playing.

I'll talk about those others later. And I'll put together a few thoughts on el Degas instruments later............... when I get my mandolin back, which is an el Degas for sure - somebody borrowed it and hasn't returned it.

Skeeter.

[charles]

Hey skeeter, welcome. I've split your post off into its own topic.

Nice collection! Look forward to chatting with you some more about your el Degas questions.

[nocturnal30]

Hi, my name is Dave and i just joined. I wanted to get my son a guitar for a grad present but cant afford to spend huge bucks on these right now. anyhow i picked him up an el degas les paul and a fender 65r amp, and i have to say wow. Hes been playing on a crappy fender squier we bought him and hes come a long way. We cant believe the quality of tone and sound that comes out of this el degas. Only thing is dont know much about it. The older guy i got it from didnt know much about it either other than it is in very good shape and plays really nice which it does. It is the same color and same pickups, pretty much exact same as the guitar on the far right in your pics. there are no markings or anything, just el degas in the usual place and no diamond markings either.

[charles]

Hi, my name is Dave and i just joined. I wanted to get my son a guitar for a grad present but cant afford to spend huge bucks on these right now. anyhow i picked him up an el degas les paul and a fender 65r amp, and i have to say wow. Hes been playing on a crappy fender squier we bought him and hes come a long way. We cant believe the quality of tone and sound that comes out of this el degas. Only thing is dont know much about it. The older guy i got it from didnt know much about it either other than it is in very good shape and plays really nice which it does. It is the same color and same pickups, pretty much exact same as the guitar on the far right in your pics. there are no markings or anything, just el degas in the usual place and no diamond markings either.

I'd encourage you to take some photos and post a new topic so we can see the new guitar.

Then I or someone else on the forum might be able to shed some light on it. Thanks!

[nocturnal30]

ok. we will do that . thankx

[skeeter]

Sorry I've been absent - work, etc. the usual excuses.

Here's that weird guitar I mentioned a few weeks back:





A friend who knows guitars sez he thinks this is an el degas guitar - the neck pickup encased in clear plastic was one thing he thought was eldegas style. And he says the neck fits perfectly into the mahogany body too well for a homemade guitar. He thinks maybe from the early 80s - a guess only.

Ideas?


Skeeter.

[charles]

Hard to say... maybe not an "El Degas" but may have been born on the same factory floor?

[Barry]

That is a weird one skeeter but we could do with a larger view of it for analysis purposes eh?

From what little I can make out though, it does not appear to be an original anything...
The bridge pickup appears to have been replaced, the pick guard seems to be from a Strat style guitar(?) and the headstock appears not to be a good match with the body (and by extension would make the neck non-original).

Just odd all around. I can stand to be corrected, but my guess is that it's a home made guitar, not from a factory, and not an ED.

[charles]

That neck is original - the guitar is a copy of the oft-maligned Gibson Marauder. Sort of a Norlin-era Gibson experiment that did not go all that well with the guitar-buying public.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_Marauder

[Barry]

OK Charles, looks like you may be right. Gibson was right to be maligned for this one!
This copy does not mimic the angled bridge pup (or the rotary potentiometer?).

Some larger pix would still be appreciated.

[skeeter]

Bingo! My friend who was looking this over for me had worked in a music store as a teenager/early twentysomething, and he had suggested it was a copy of a Gibson model - he thought a Gibson Grabber, but I looked that up and it was a bass. He was closer than he thought. The Marauder picture is right on - even the contoured LP style body. I'll get a close up so you can see the pickup configs - maybe later this week - bizzy here for the next couple of days.

BTW - that Marauder pic from wikipedia - the article says Gibson only made 1400 of them... I wonder if el Degas made more or fewer than that?


Barry and charles - thanx. This is what the internet was made for.

Skeeter.

[skeeter]

Ummmm............ since I'm here..............

In my guitar collection picture you'll see a Squier Precision bass, standard black with Precision and Jazz pups as well. I think they were calling it a P-J Special. I bought it new about 10 - 12 years ago. Plays and sounds great.............. but there's no pickguard on it. I can't find a picture of any Squier P bass without a pickguard. Again - any ideas? The Squier forum guys I've met had no idea really, other than it's a cheaper bass than those with a pickguard.

It's not an el Degas, but if you know...............

[charles]

You often see P-J configurated basses (from many manufacturers) without a pickguard. Do a Google Image search for "p-j bass" and you'll see what I mean.

P-J just means it has both the Precision bass split-humbucker AND the Jazz bass wide rail humbucker pickups - gives you a lot of tonal options. You sometimes see this configuration on basses that do not copy the Fender bass body's shape - such as my El Degas bass that emulated the Ibanez Artist:

[skeeter]

Thanks - I know what you mean, but I've never seen a Fender or Squier bass that came without a pickguard - maybe it all just comes down to the fact that they could sell them cheaper. If nothing else, it would be easy to upgrade the pups and add a tortoise shell pick guard to make it schmancy.

Had a surprise one hour of down time, so:

Showing bridge and raised bridge pickup:




Showing neck pick up (in Lucite?) and pup selector switch:




Dunno - Volume & tone knobs, and a bridge pickup splitter? You get a thin Tele sort of sound, or else the usual humbucker sort of sound.




Grounding is suspect - it's a little noisier than I expect to hear from humbuckers.

[skeeter]

MADE IN JAPAN stamped on 4 bolt bracket:




el Degas in gold lettering on headstock (tuners are replacements, so I didn't take their pix);




Showing contoured body similar to Gibson Marauder: