Does anyone know anything about this guitar?

[Relapseandsoda]

I got given this a couple of weeks ago but i cant really find much info about it! i 'think' it was made maybe early 90's...anyone know any more?

 

[sjjohnston]

Probably made by Samick. Other than that, I don't know. Early '90s would be the oldest possible date for it, as I don't think there were Indonesian-made guitars (at least not in any appreciable quantity) before that.

 

[JCH]

Make sure you neuter it so that it can't breed.

 

[mewsician2]

I'm thinking Hohner didn't make the guitar, it's common practice to have a company like Samick, make your product for you, then put your name on it, Fender does this with thier cheap guitars, it's easier, more profitable, and most people don't have a clue.

As for yours, it looks a little like a Les paul knockoff, but the important thing is, do you like it? If it plays well, and sounds good, then who cares who made it, or what name is on it!

One of my Telecasters is a cheap Fender Squire, it played so nice, I had to buy it, I put a Duncan Vintage Stack in the bridge position, and it rocks, The pots suck, and the switch will need replaced, they're cheap, but the point is, if it sounds good and it's easy to play, I say, go for it!

 

[muttley600]

I'm thinking Hohner didn't make the guitar, it's common practice to have a company like Samick, make your product for you, then put your name on it, Fender does this with thier cheap guitars, it's easier, more profitable, and most people don't have a clue.
............

Fender guitars are made under license by fender plants using fender tooling and fender designs. They are not made by other manufacturers who make their own range of instruments. Some people don't have a clue about this either.

 

[sjjohnston]

I think (meaning I'm not entirely sure of this) that Squier-branded instruments are sometimes made by other manufacturers, probably including Samick. So while Fender-branded guitars aren't made by Samick, Fender does (I think) "do this," i.e. have a company like Samick make products for it.

 

[diggy_dude]

I had a $300 Samick branded Tele in the mid-90s. Sweetest neck pickup I ever heard.

 

[muttley600]

I think (meaning I'm not entirely sure of this) that Squier-branded instruments are sometimes made by other manufacturers, probably including Samick. So while Fender-branded guitars aren't made by Samick, Fender does (I think) "do this," i.e. have a company like Samick make products for it.

The Squier brand were a brand unto themselves before Fender acquired them via CBS. They have been made under license using fender machines and tooling from the outset. They were made by a company called FujiGen Gakki. Part of the agreement was that they do NOT make instruments for other brands. Something the first choice manufacturer Tokai would not do. Tokai we're granted the right to manufacture some Fender products when they stopped making guitars that competed with Fender. None of the Tokai made Fenders we're ever exported from Japan.

The crucial part is however that all fender guitars whether they be Squire or Fender branded are made using fender tooling and designs. That is not the case with most other contracted manufacturers who are happy for their instruments to be made or branded by others. Essentially they buy guitars made to a common pattern with tooling that has been made and used by others previously. The guitar in the picture above can be found all over the globe with a number of different names on the headstock.

 

[stevieb]

Someone once told me (could have been here, but I dunno) that parts from a Fender were not interchangeable with those from a Squier. The example used was the neck- that the distance between the screw holes was different. I happen to have both USA Fender and a Squier Strats, so I measured them with calipers. Exactly the same, center-to-center. Bridge screw distances- same. I did not measure neck pockets, but you get the idea.

Now that I think about this, it probably has nothing to do with this thread, but having typed it, I'm gonna hit "Post quick reply" instead of the "back" key.

 

[bongolation]

Fender guitars are made under license by fender plants using fender tooling and fender designs. They are not made by other manufacturers who make their own range of instruments. Some people don't have a clue about this either.

Untrue.

For many years Cor-Tek ("Cort") has made huge numbers of Fender US-market contract instruments in Korea and in their PT Indonesian facility, and Dyna-Gakki currently makes the MIJ US-market Fenders. Some different contractors make Fender guitars for the non-US market.

This is just for electrics, too.

 

[muttley600]

Untrue.

For many years Cor-Tek ("Cort") has made huge numbers of Fender US-market contract instruments in Korea and in their PT Indonesian facility, and Dyna-Gakki currently makes the MIJ US-market Fenders. Some different contractors make Fender guitars for the non-US market.

This is just for electrics, too.

Cort or Cor-Tek make Squire guitars under license for fender using fender tooling and designs. Anyone who has been called upon as an independent witness in litigation cases for a few major manufacturers including Fender would be well aware of this. Fender aggressively protect their designs and tooling patents. No one has stated that all Fender products are not sourced outside of fender owned manufacturing plant just that their designs and tooling is not allowed to be used in the manufacture and branding of other guitars however branded. The guitar in the OP's pictures has been branded and sold under many different company names. Not so with Fender products.. With me?

If any of the Fender licensed companies started using anything close to a Fender design or tools in their own or third party branded guitars I can promise you they would be all over them like a rash and certain phone lines quite near by would be buzzing asking for qualified, independant analysis they could present in a cease and desist action.

 

[bongolation]

Cort or Cor-Tek make Squire guitars under license for fender using fender tooling and designs. Anyone who has been called upon as an independent witness in litigation cases for a few major manufacturers including Fender would be well aware of this. Fender aggressively protect their designs and tooling patents. No one has stated that all Fender products are not sourced outside of fender owned manufacturing plant just that their designs and tooling is not allowed to be used in the manufacture and branding of other guitars however branded. The guitar in the OP's pictures has been branded and sold under many different company names. Not so with Fender products.. With me?

Yes, but it's incorrect to the extent that Cor-Tek designed and built a lot of Fender instruments that had nothing to do with Fender designs nor tooling. They were just fairly generic Cor-Tek instruments, pretty much the same as they make for nearly every other brand, merely with the headstock and body outline of a Fender per FMIC contract, vid. "Special Series" instruments for at least ten or twelve years, some of which were so much like Cor-Tek Schecters it was funny.

If any of the Fender licensed companies started using anything close to a Fender design or tools in their own or third party branded guitars I can promise you they would be all over them like a rash and certain phone lines quite near by would be buzzing asking for qualified, independant analysis they could present in a cease and desist action.

This doesn't seem to work very well in China where a huge number of "Fender" instruments are sold domestically that appear to be nothing but Chinese Squiers with the Fender name on the headstock. I'm not entirely convinced that this isn't part of an agreement with FMIC for the Chinese market only, but who knows?

China has a way of baffling western attorneys. If FMIC thinks they can control their Chinese contractors (or the Chinese makers of untold thousands of unlicensed close Fender clones), they're absolutely dreaming.

Anyway, Fender "tooling" can scarcely be said to exist any longer. FMIC is even buying the same generic Asian "Fender" hardware that's seen on thousands of cheap clones for some of its own instruments. The only thing FMIC really can try to control is trade dress and trademark. All the patents on traditional Fender designs have expired decades ago.

Of course, that doesn't stop them from trying to buffalo people into believing they own the letters P, J and T, as they did on eBay a few years ago.

 

[stevieb]

Meanwhile, the OP wonders if anyone gives a damn about answering his question, anymore...

 

[Murdersgalore]

We don't. We only wait for other people to start threads so we can hijack them with arguments.

 

[stevieb]

And a masterful job you do of it, too.