335 or 345 copy

[charles]

B&J (Buegeleisen & Jacobson) were based in NYC. They were music distributors, and El Degas was the white-label brand for the stringed instruments they had manufactured in Asia for them to distribute and sell through their distribution network. My understanding is they focused most on the east coast and in Canada but I would figure they had a bit of reach across the US.

I do think a lot of instruments made their way west by them changing hands on the used market, as you mentioned. I started buying ED instruments in the mid 2000s and the era where there was a lot of willingness and cost-efficiency to be able to buy instruments online and ship them across the continent helped a whole lot with that. Shipping is pretty nuts now so I have not shipped a guitar in a long time (that, and I have pretty much every instrument variant I could ask for from the El Degas brand).

[charles]

Looks like B&J had a CA distribution warehouse at one time

https://imgur.com/ZWbDZNS

[Barry]

Looks like B&J had a CA distribution warehouse at one time

Interesting find Charles.

ElMan335, I am the Admin of the Westone Forums and designer of the original westoneguitars.net website which has since changed hands and been made over (rather poorly). Westone was the house brand of Matsumoku and we were fortunate in having the main driver of design/innovation and production, Tom Presley, on board for a period of time. He graciously answered a lot of questions and provided historical background and insight on not only the instruments but Matsumoku as a company.

When I developed the website I curated all the information and put it under the "History" option. If you go there you see a Mats timeline and can read Tom's comments. There are also some some articles on Matsumoku, and in particular a report from a native Japanese collector of Matsumoku products (mainly Aria Pro II) in which he shows the current site of the former Mats plant. "Tad" was a member the the now defunct Guitar Gallery Forum which specialized in Matsumoku guitars and basses (everything but Westone).

There is also a long article, originally in Japanese, which I attempted to translate (very roughly) which goes into great detail about the development of the Aria Pro II line and its association with Matsumoku who made some exquisitely beautiful models for them. Along the way there are interviews with many top Japanese designers and Luthiers of the day.

All this by way of supporting the debunking of the burning factory myth. There was no fire. Wikipedia is not reliable here. Go to the source for the facts. Cheers!
Westone Guitars Website : https://westoneguitars.net/history/

[ElMan335]

Great info, Barry! I need to start digging into these archived files. I knew it sounded great when I bought it as a kid, but since then (55 years) I've grown an even deeper respect to how well this guitar was made. Being lucky works out sometimes! The shop sold the guitar as an ES-335, but it's obviously a 345.

Charles, I just shipped an Epiphone ES-335 to my daughter in a standard guitar box, Tulsa to Virginia. It weighed 12.5lbs and UPS charged me $175 dollars, ground! I won't ship another guitar either, that's just crazy money!