Rocket's El Degas guitar

[rocket]

Hey I found this site by chance when I was looking up info about my own El Degas.
I got this one 5 years ago at a guitar swap meet. It's really beat up, looks similar to one that you have Charles, except with gold hardware and sort of moon inlays. I'll be honest, the only reason I keep it is because I love the pickups. By the way do you know what these are? It always sounds out of tune for some reason, and that's frustrating. Any idea of the year or if this is MIJ or MIK? Who is it a copy of?

[charles]

If it's like mine, it has Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups and they sound great.

The style of logo is consistent with the MIJ line. If it's a set neck then it is one of their better-quality copies (mine is a bolt-on, but it's still pretty darn good).

People normally say that style is a copy of the Ibanez Artist series or perhaps Alembic.

As to why it sounds "out of tune", not sure why that would be. Have you checked the intonation?

[rocket]

If it's like mine, it has Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups and they sound great.

The style of logo is consistent with the MIJ line. If it's a set neck then it is one of their better-quality copies (mine is a bolt-on, but it's still pretty darn good).

People normally say that style is a copy of the Ibanez Artist series or perhaps Alembic.

As to why it sounds "out of tune", not sure why that would be. Have you checked the intonation?

Cool, thanks for the information!
The neck is a through body neck, which is pretty awesome. The intonation is fine from what I can tell. Are the Dimarzio Super Distortions the same design today as they were in the 70s, do you know?

[charles]

Not sure if ANYTHING is made the same as it was in the seventies!

But more than likely, it's made pretty much the same as back then, in theory.

Check out Dimarzio's site - they have a very good writeup on their Super Distortion product page

[rocket]

Ha, good point.
I'm wondering if these are in fact Super Distortion pickups because honestly they're really clear and open sounding. They aren't really super hot pickups either. I guess my curiousity as to what the pickups are is because I'd like to probably get another set for a different guitar at some point. They're pretty microphonic, in that I can tap one and I'll hear it through the amp. If I take one of the pickups out will there be any sort of markings to indicate what model/make it is? I'm not experienced with modifying guitars so I've never swapped pickups and therefore don't know the procedure there.
Close up for posterity, and yes I think that might actually be rust on the metal. Jeez.

[charles]

Super Distortions have the hex-style posts like yours.

If they have gone microphonic that might not be a good thing. the rust can be expected on a 30+ year old guitar.

The clear and open sound might be attributed the the boosted mids that Dimarzio claims the SD has.

[charles]

Rocket - I split your posts off from my thread into a new one so it won't get lost. Great guitar, thanks for posting.

If you ever want to sell let me know. I was all set to get a set/through-neck El Degas just like that one from the States until the guy turned out to be a scammer.

[Barry]

Hey Charles & Rocketman,
I'm looking at rocket's beautiful guitar and the similar one from Charles' post
viewtopic.php?t=17
and my whithering brain is now comparing these to my 1981 Westone Thunder I-A that I just picked up
viewtopic.php?t=61

'Dunno, looking at the workmanship, the general style, plus what looks like 2 of the remaining original heavy brass knobs (the plastic speed knobs appear to be from a Vantage!), the pup toggle switches, the tuners, the vintage, and MIJ...and I'm just wondering if this might have been made in the famous Matsumoku guitar plant which made a lot of top quality brands in the 70's & 80's, including Westone, Vantage, Aria Pro, Washburn, even Epiphone, and others.

There were several versions of Thunder and particularly the Vantage version, which show a bridge identical to this. The style at the time seemed to also revolve around using multi hard woods creating the distinctive stripes down the centre of the body, typically Alder "wings" + Maple + Walnut. Even the colour is similar to the dark walnut and red stains which were options at the time.

Can't speak too intelligently about the pup's but my Thunder has F450's, whatever they are--all I know is that they are unbelieveable!
They changed from year to year so maybe someone who knows more than I can figure out if the El Degas is fitted with one of the same configurations.

Charles: You have the bolt-on version? Is there anything interesting on the plate that might give us a clue?
Thunder Info: http://www.westone.info/indexthunder.html
Vantage Info: http://www.matsumoku.org/models/vantage/vs/vs.html

It sure feels "familiar" to me.
Wahtchathink?

[charles]

I'd assume Matsumoku for these guitars as well. Unfortunately, this cannot be 100% confirmed.

My bolt-on version of this guitar's neck plate just says "MADE IN JAPAN". The back of the headstock, however, sports a numbered label - half torn off (I've seen this on a few others and almost always the label is half-removed; making me wonder if it was more for internal stock-keeping only or from the store they were sold in).

[charles]

Another thing of note on my bolt-on - it may be a trick of the light, but I do believe the body's appearance of having three woods is attained by clever use of stain - I'll take some close up photos to illustrate.

[Barry]

Interesting. If the stripes are stained lines rather than wood, then that would truly be the height of cheese!

However, looking at rocket man's closeup pic it would appear to be the real deal. You can make out the difference in grain pattern fairly clearly. And because of the quality out of Japan at that time (especially Matsumoko) I cannot believe that they'd even consider doing that.

If you confirm stained stripes on yours, then that raises another issue: you would appear to have 2 differing quality versions of the same guitar; one associated with a bolt-on, the other with a set neck construction???

[charles]

While set neck versions are slightly more blinged out - they tend to have nicer inlays and of course the prestige of the set neck; the bolt-ons aren't slouches either. I have seen differences in quality in the bolt-ons however - some are plywood, some are solid wood, some have differences in the details and finishing, etc, etc.

But since it's nearly impossible to judge the era, quality levels, etc of El Degas guitars, it's pretty much wide open. The manufacturers back then were doing a lot of experimenting and it's hard to say whether they quality was totally consistent yet.

[mr_jacko]

hi i bought that exact same guitar new in 1980,it came with all brass hardware the p/u's are duel dimmarzio humbuckers,its a solid ash body solid straight through maple neck with a 24 fret rosewood finger board, poly urethane finish still have mine and i just got the matching base,its my favourite guitar and i have a few

[charles]

hi i bought that exact same guitar new in 1980,it came with all brass hardware the p/u's are duel dimmarzio humbuckers,its a solid ash body solid straight through maple neck with a 24 fret rosewood finger board, poly urethane finish still have mine and i just got the matching base,its my favourite guitar and i have a few

I just picked up the neck-through version of this model as well
And I have the matching bass, too!

We're like twins.

[mickygee]

gregsguitar3.jpg

I bought the same guitar new in late `79 or early `80 at a small music store in London, Ontario called Benson's Music. They specialized in keyboards and only carried a couple of lines of guitar, El Degas was their main focus because they claimed it was a better guitar for the money. I paid around $250 for the guitar and anther 50 or 60 bucks for the case... Probably too much back then, but a buddy of mine at the time who owned and swore by Strats thought it was an excellent guitar, he said it played well, had balls and when he didn't have his Strat, he didn't mind playing the El Degas at all.
Anyway, the folks at Benson's told me when I bought it that it was made in Japan, but assured me that it was a good quality instrument (Japanese equipment back then was looked at much the same way Chinese stuff is these days) and I'd tend to agree. This guitar sat in the case for the better part of 15 years until I dug it out a while back to show to someone. After all that time I was surprised to find that it was still pretty much in tune and it plays excellent (although I suck), the action is very good and it still has balls.
I've been looking around for more info on this guitar for some time now and found more questions than answers until I found this site. It's good to see a couple of other people still have these guitars in decent shape and play them. They were starting to become more prevalent back in the day, but seemed to just disappear without a trace in the `80's sometime...
Anyway here's what I know for sure about this model... It's a model A980, it is MIJ (I don't know the manufacturing facility for sure) and those are Dimarzio Humbuckers. Mine still has one of the stickers that were on them when I bought it.

pickup1.jpg

Well, I hope this was helpful in some way and I'm very glad to have found this site. I look forward to seeing more posts.

L8R... Greg.