El Degas E-I Red?

[lagstronaut]

I have this old El Degas guitar. All it says on the back of the head stock is "E-I Red" or "E-1 Red" it's hard to tell. this is the most comprehensive El Degas site I've seen on all the net, but even it has nothing to tell me about this guitar. Does ANYONE know ANYTHING about it?

ps. that canada patch was my own thing, didn't come with it obviously. and the white tape was to hold a strap because the wood around the strap-peg-thing got too hollowed out somehow to hold the screw in anymore

[lagstronaut]

and here's one more pic

[charles]

That's a new one - I like it. A lot.

Possibly MIK, but not too certain on that. Do you have a photo of the E-1 Red model number on the back of the headstock? No other markings?

You can fix the strap peg:
Unscrew and remove the strap peg
Put some wood glue on some wooden toothpicks and jam as many in the hole as possible. Allow some time to set
Reinsert the screw & strap peg (drill a 1/16" pilot hole if req'd - I recommend it)

This will be stronger than it was before.

[lagstronaut]

possibly MIK? Is that a model-line or something???

here's a blurred pic of where it says E-I Red. I can't get it to show up but it says it in plain text, on that white sticker. All it says under it is Made in Korea

[charles]

possibly MIK? Is that a model-line or something???

MIK = Made in Korea. I was correct

here's a blurred pic of where it says E-I Red. I can't get it to show up but it says it in plain text, on that white sticker. All it says under it is Made in Korea

Do you have a macro setting on your camera? That would help wonders.

The sticker may or may not be just an inventory sticker form the distributor/music store... I have never seen a model number system for the electric guitar models. Or it could be some sort of an inventory sticker from the factory. Doesn't really tell us anything, as I have no other instances of a model/stock # for electric guitars to compare it to.

Bottom line is you have a probably 80's MIK El Degas that was copying a 1-humbucker Strat (which was all the rage at the time).

[Barry]

Hello lagstronaut and welcome!
Well, as usual, Charles has already nailed the place of manufacture.

And as he says there was a period during the late 80's in which single pick up guitars were "in". I've been recently discovering them and I've been lucky enough to obtain two MIJ guitars, and they are fantastic players! You haven't told us how yours sounds. Does she "rock" or what??

It's really hard to make much comment based on these pix. They're quite fuzzy and the colour registration is really off. Any chance of some clearer photos? I haven't seen this style under the el Degas brand before and I'm curious to compare it with some models I know.