eldegas.com

Hello!
I've been trying to figure these guitars out. I got this awesome Les Paul Professional Low Impedance copy and i just love it. Though I will probably have to put it up for sale, as that is what i do. I would like to know more about it, and probably won't mind if it doesnt sell for what i want

I wish there was just one 'history' page that would give me a history of these guitars.

I had several experts do some research, and concluded that this was pre 1974, made by matsumoku. does that sound possible? to me some things about the construction of the body just seem so guyatone.

It is Mahogany with a huge chamber in it. The thing sounds fantastic. If anyone happens to have an diagrams that make sense of all the controls, it would be appreciated. i replaced the nut with a hand carved buffalo horn nut. really makes a difference. I did keep the original nut in case anyone would ever want that along with it.

what do you think? what can you tell me? value?
i have more photos, but apparently i can only upload three at a time. please let me know if you want anymore. It can also be seen on my site at http://www.DeMontGuitars.com under the vintage page

Hi there, I've got shreds and pieces of history I will be putting up... one day...
The problem is that nothing is corroborated and confirmed so it's all conjecture. The only facts that we know for sure are:
1. This was a brand of B&J Music from New York NY, who had guitars manufactured by many of the "big" manufacturers of Japan and imported them mainly for sale to the Canadian market. This includes Matsumoku, which is why you see many guitars that have "Uncle Mats"' tell-tale trappings.
2. At some point, B&J was acquired by Kaman Music. Later in the lifespan, production moved to Korea. No one knows for sure, but I think these two events correspond with one another.

I had an El Degas LP Professional copy, and I could not make heads or tails of it and sold it
I pulled one of the pickups apart before I sold it and I could not tell whether it was a true low impedence pickup or just a run of the mill single coil stuffed into a plastic case with bad wax potting... or if it was the creation of one of the guitar's owners. Sorry, I'm no help here.

If you host your photos on Photobucket and post the IMG tags, you can post as many as you want at once.

Welcome!

Nice! Great looking guitar.

I have to add that the year you indicated could be wrong when it comes to El Degas brand instruments. El Degas still had lawsuit headstock after 74 an till the end of the 70's. No real way to pin point the actual year with these.

Frenchy wrote:Nice! Great looking guitar.

I have to add that the year you indicated could be wrong when it comes to El Degas brand instruments. El Degas still had lawsuit headstock after 74 an till the end of the 70's. No real way to pin point the actual year with these.

thank you for the tip!
actually. the date was determined from the rounded heal of the neck. Apparently matsumoku (and i think many other companies) used the rounded heal only up until about '74

charles wrote:Hi there, I've got shreds and pieces of history I will be putting up... one day...
The problem is that nothing is corroborated and confirmed so it's all conjecture. The only facts that we know for sure are:
1. This was a brand of B&J Music from New York NY, who had guitars manufactured by many of the "big" manufacturers of Japan and imported them mainly for sale to the Canadian market. This includes Matsumoku, which is why you see many guitars that have "Uncle Mats"' tell-tale trappings.
2. At some point, B&J was acquired by Kaman Music. Later in the lifespan, production moved to Korea. No one knows for sure, but I think these two events correspond with one another.

I had an El Degas LP Professional copy, and I could not make heads or tails of it and sold it
I pulled one of the pickups apart before I sold it and I could not tell whether it was a true low impedence pickup or just a run of the mill single coil stuffed into a plastic case with bad wax potting... or if it was the creation of one of the guitar's owners. Sorry, I'm no help here.

If you host your photos on Photobucket and post the IMG tags, you can post as many as you want at once.

Welcome!

thank you! most of that i have figured out, except i really did not see any record of matsumoku making B&G guitars, but you mentioning that only furthers my suspicions that the maker my friends had determined was correct. And im glad to meet someone else who owned one!
my pickups were wax potted, but fairly well. there was minimal amounts of wax left near the bottom of the pickup

and thanks for the head up on IMG tags! maybe tomorrow i can get some more images up here

I have to say that there is no "on paper" proof of the Matsumoku / El Degas connection, same as there is almost no "on paper" proof of just about anything whenit comes to this brand! But there is clear evidence in the instruments themselves. I have seem many claims of manufacturer links to El Degas but I cannot say that any are true proof from those in the know.

charles wrote:I have to say that there is no "on paper" proof of the Matsumoku / El Degas connection, same as there is almost no "on paper" proof of just about anything whenit comes to this brand! But there is clear evidence in the instruments themselves. I have seem many claims of manufacturer links to El Degas but I cannot say that any are true proof from those in the know.

i was hoping with enough experts that we may be able to determine facts just by the item itself.
my sources are fairly certain it is Matsumoku, and would be comfortable listing it as such.
its just a confusing one to me. Im glad there is a forum for El Degas, but i wish we could come up with some better history

DeMontGuitars.com wrote:i was hoping with enough experts that we may be able to determine facts just by the item itself.
my sources are fairly certain it is Matsumoku, and would be comfortable listing it as such.

You've hit the nail on the head right there.
Despite there being no written official history for the brand, there is unmistakable proof in the instruments themselves. Some of them are definitely Matsumoku made.