eldegas.com

After much on-line onvestigation I'm fairly certain that the 1979- 1981 El Degas 980 neck through guitars distributed in Canada by B & J Music were manufactured by Chushin Gakki in Japan. Of the four 980s I now own, three of them have an inspection stamp in the neck pick-up cavity which is known to be from Chushin. The top line kanji (chinese/japanese characters) of the stamp basically translates into "inspection". Underneath that is the date. These numbers are often hard to read but they are in the form of Japanese year of Emperor reign dating. For example:
The 1979-1981 period would be considered the Showa era where if the first number is 54 that translates to 1979. 55 is 1980 and so on. There are tables on line that can be googled. Of the guitars I have with the stamp their dates are:
54 2 14 = Feb 14 1979,
54 10 23 = Oct 23 1979
55 7 8 = July 7 1980.
(The newest example I have of the 980 has no stamp.)
The next line is a name of the inspector, Mine were all inpected by the same person, a Mr. Yamada.
This is how his name appears in kanji:

山田

This same stamp with the same name often appears in other Japanese Chushin neckthrough guitars from this era that were available in other parts of the world such as France, Germany and Austrailia.

If you google the brand names:

Stagg neckthrough made in Japan
Eagle Jet Series
McCormic
Azumi

You'll find a host of 980 style guitars. The body shape is almost always the same but there are some interesting variations on headstock, binding, finishes, electronics etc.

Just some information .....and if anyone ever finds a catalogue with the 680 -980 guitars I'd love to see it!
I'm also always interested in buying them.

Cool write-up! This is literally the first time I can remember a marking on an ED that may actually have a way to ID the date of manufacture!

Luckily, my 980 guitar has its pickups out so I did find the inspection stamp. It's VERY hard to read but I think it's 54 10 09.

I'll have to check out my two basses of that same style (one set neck, and one neck-thru).

I have seen the neck through 986 bass with the stamp. The bolt-on 680 guitars I've had didn't have any stamps anywhere in the pickup cavities or in the neck pocket. There was a black magic marker scrawl in the neck pocket of a 680-RD (red) I had which appeared to be either a 19 or 61 but that's a stretch. I doubt the 680 or 980 guitar production went much past 1981 as the manufacturing of El Degas and many brands moved to Korea due to the rising costs of Japanese production
There appear to be two variations of the 980. Most have two micro switches for phase and coil switch and are fitted with Dimarzio USA pickups. However, I have one which does not have the micro switches, has a larger control pocket and cover and has what I believe to be Maxon pickups judging by the stamped numbers on the bottom.. They are mounted with 3 screws as opposed to the Dimarzio's which only have 2. The pickups with the 3 mounting screws appear on pretty much all the 980 type guitars that were available in other markets that haven't been modified. I assume the Dimarzios appeared in Canada as a marketing and selling feature spec'd by the distributor. You often find examples of the 680, 880, 980 etc. with the Dimarzio equipped sticker still on the pick-ups.

There definitely seemed like there was a love affair with Dimarzios on many/most ED models of the era. Blame Ace Frehley!

Excellent piece of sleuthing!

This also strengthens the findings of my earlier post: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1908 which strongly suggested that Chushin was indeed a principal supplier of many of the top end ED models.

That said, the one thing we know from trying to trace the roots of the ED brand was that it was sourced from many builders, with the best products coming mainly out of Japan.

Good work my man!