70s Shaftsbury EB-3L slot head, low start

[Paul S]

First slot head copy I have seen, shame it is long scale otherwise I would have been interested.  Not in bad nick, bound neck.  Shaftsbury not too bad?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185830968997

 

[BigRedX]

Strange that the manufacturer goes to all the trouble of replicating the much less common slot-head design, but still uses a bolt-on neck.

[Waddo Soqable]

13 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Strange that the manufacturer goes to all the trouble of replicating the much less common slot-head design, but still uses a bolt-on neck.

The Jap stuff of the era pretty much all was bolt on tho, it's a lot easier and cheaper to manufacture for sure, it may be they produced necks and bodies in completely different factories and assembled them elsewhere? 

[BigRedX]

4 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

The Jap stuff of the era pretty much all was bolt on tho, it's a lot easier and cheaper to manufacture for sure, it may be they produced necks and bodies in completely different factories and assembled them elsewhere? 

 

I have an Ibanez Firebird from 1974 that has a set neck.

 

TBH even with the pin router technology of the time there is little difference in the amount of work required for a set neck or a bolt-on neck joint, and with the right glue, a set neck can be slightly less precise without anyone noticing.

[Waddo Soqable]

I'm guessing the Shaftesbury badged ones are lower end than the ibanez, I remember the Rick copies at the time were mainly bolt on, but there were a few that were set or thru neck, Ibanez were likely those. A bit of a "Mastermind specialised subject" the 70s Japanese guitar market I'd think! 😁

[NikNik]

Calling @Bassassin Is that rotary just a pickup selector, or will it have the choke? I can only see three numbers.

[BigRedX]

2 minutes ago, NikNik said:

Is that rotary just a pickup selector, or will it have the choke? I can only see three numbers.

 

It'll be a simple pickup selector. The Gibson version with the choke has 4 positions. The "Mudbucker" is probably single coil as well.

[Bassassin]

On 28/03/2023 at 10:32, BigRedX said:

Strange that the manufacturer goes to all the trouble of replicating the much less common slot-head design, but still uses a bolt-on neck.

 

Most manufacturers produced different versions of the same designs for different price ranges - there would very likely have been a set-neck version of this from the same manufacturer. We see a lot less of the higher quality/dearer stuff because there would have been less of a market for it.

 

On 28/03/2023 at 11:21, Waddo Soqable said:

I'm guessing the Shaftesbury badged ones are lower end than the ibanez, I remember the Rick copies at the time were mainly bolt on, but there were a few that were set or thru neck, Ibanez were likely those. A bit of a "Mastermind specialised subject" the 70s Japanese guitar market I'd think! 😁

 

This looks pretty early (guessing '71 or 2) but quality got better/more accurate over time. Shaftesbury was Rose-Morris' top-end brand above Top Twenty & Avon and the later stuff - including their through-neck Rick 4001 copy - was excellent quality. Importers' own brands were always less expensive than 'name' stuff like Ibanez or Aria which led to odd situations like Antoria (owned by JT Coppock Ltd) being the exact same guitars as Ibanez, but about 25% cheaper. Ibanez (made by Fujigen) did set/through & bolt-on versions of all their Gibson/Rick knockoffs and the bolt-ons are way more common.

 

Anyway, this is pretty cool because I don't think I've seen one before. I'd put a tenner on it being a Kasuga - the giveaways are the truss cover shape & script, the bridge pickup with the single row of poles (pretty sure it'll be a Maxon but for some reason Kasuga seemed to use this style rather than the more common 8-pole units) and the plain neckplate with no MIJ stamp.

[NikNik]

Speaking of Shaftos - WTF Price??