Matsumoku Guitars

The Matsumoku Factory was the General Motors of Guitar Companies . Just like GM they made a guitar in every price range and quality level from a Chevy to a Cadillac. They made guitars for Ibanez, Aria Pro II, Yamaha, Epiphone, Washburn, Kramer, Westone, Vantage, Greco, Frontier, Skylark and others. Their low end guitars were a good bang for the buck and played better than most cheap guitars of that era. On the other hand, their high-end guitars were some of best guitars ever made. Many of these guitars are 5,7 and 9 piece maple-walnut neck-thru with Ash bodies. They play like butter. Most all were 24 fret with coil taps and out of phase switches. Many had 6 way tone switches and features such as 1 or 2 active power boosts or active EQ pre amps. With this combination you had a guitar that could get an acoustical tone as well as the heavy metal blaster sounds with distortion. Their hardware, pots, switches, bridges and pick-ups were not the greatest in older models but by the time the RS Series came out they were much improved and some used Dimarzio pickups. Because the price of many of these high-end models was only slightly lower than the cost of some top US brands they were often overlooked and did not sell well in America. In the ’70’s and ‘80’s people in the US had never heard of the Matsumoku Company or knew anything about their build quality. Why get a Japanese off-brand when for a few hundred dollars more you could get a Gibson or Fender?