eldegas.com

Hi:
Does anyone know what model this El Degas is? It has only one pickup and therefore no toggle. Should I assume its Korean?? There isnt a serial number anywhere on it at all. The neck plate is also completely blank. It reminds me of the old Ibanez Roadster's with the same setup. Any help would be great because I'm mystified (it doesnt take much).
Thanks
Tim

That's an 80's Made in Korea model.

The only El-degas I ever owned, was in late 80s or early 90s. So today I find out that they did not number their instruments not good. But mine was a les paul copy sunburst. I believe they got sued by gibson for making the guitar to the exact specs. The guitars are real nice. buit this one had a narrow neck why I dont know. any way good luck with your quest. try taking it to guitar techs they usually are good at identifying guitars. I am actually itching to get another eldegas since I saw this site. From M8100

M8100 wrote:The only El-degas I ever owned, was in late 80s or early 90s. So today I find out that they did not number their instruments not good. But mine was a les paul copy sunburst. I believe they got sued by gibson for making the guitar to the exact specs. The guitars are real nice. buit this one had a narrow neck why I dont know. any way good luck with your quest. try taking it to guitar techs they usually are good at identifying guitars. I am actually itching to get another eldegas since I saw this site. From M8100

There are no surviving records of serial numbers for El Degas guitars, and hardly any models actually have a serial number present on them (I have actually never seen any electric guitar models with a serial number).

El Degas / B&J was never sued by Gibson/Norlin. This is from the so-called "lawsuit era" but was never, to my understanding, involved in any actual lawsuit. Gibson/Norlin had bigger fish to fry - those makes that copied every single aspect of the guitar build to where the distinction between a real Les Paul and a copy was nearly indistinguishable.

Hi M8100 and welcome to the forum.
I get a bit ticked when I hear "lawsuit guitar". For a proper description of what that actually means read this post:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=64

Any more info on this guitar?

Nope.
There were several single pup MIJ guitars made by Matsumoku and others, and they were extremely well made and relatively easy to identify (I own a few). But it's anybody's guess who made this one. Very generic looking, but that bridge looks to be substantial.

Yeah, there is really no info when it comes to the 80's MIK models. They were emulating the hair-metal band guitars of the era (which were a dime a dozen in those days - superstrats, hardtail strats, et al. were plentiful and ran the full spectrum of junk to gem); so understandably, there are less people who have looked into them.

I have not closely looked into what model this might have been copying. It might have been copying something like the Ibanez Roadstar series that beattytg mentioned, or just a single HB hardtail strat, or something else.