"A dirty little secret is that Matsumoku actually made Epiphones for Gibson in the early 1970's. When the quality of these guitars exceeded the Gibsons upon which they were based, this alarmed Gibson enough to shut Matsumoku down. The 5202T is a hollow-body Trini Lopezthat Gibson never produced. Due to the age of the pickups I've had to replace mine with Seymour Duncans, and have refused unsolicited offers from others to purchase it once they see my 5202T. Hint to Gibson, you would be wise to make new Epiphone 5202T's with tremolo bar. This would be different enough from the Trini Lopez so that it would not compete with it, and if priced around $2,500-$3,000 would be unique and a best seller. Your customer service rep took my recommendation in November 2018 for Gibson to revive the Trini Lopez (I have the documentation to prove it, although I think it's prohibitively expensive), so you would do well to do follow my advice again with the Epiphone 5202T."
Dirty little secret? It's Epiphone History 101 that with the arrival of the Norlin era on December 19,1969 it was decided that it was no longer economically viable to attempt to compete with a saturated guitar market without an import tier guitar line to compete with the huge influx of Japanese imports while also supporting a second domestic line that had effectively become redundant. The bean counters at Norlin decided to cease domestic production of Epiphone and use the brand to sell a line of imports. Norlin had no manufacturing facilities in Japan so in 1970 they contracted with Matsumoto Mokkou to sell re-branded Aria models with superficial cosmetic changes as these new Epiphones. As well as Aria guitars Matsumoto Mokkou made guitars under many brands including Greco and Arai Diamond. About 1970 Kanda Shokai (who had owned Arai and Greco guitars) who was making a name for himself in Japan producing high quality Gibson knock offs contracted with Matsumoto Mokkou to manufacture some of his Les Paul type of guitars under the Greco brand. The following year Matsumoto Mokkou shortened the name of his company to Matsumoku and began making the import line for Epiphone using the Aria guitar templates (and even using the Aria nomenclature for the first year of Japanese Epiphones (1971) ) Just for accuracy's sake these Japanese Epiphones not only didn't they exceed Gibson quality, they weren't even very good Japanese imports. By the way, the model number for the Arai Diamond (Aria) Trini Lopez was 1232T...and Gibson NEVER shut down Matsumoku (the **** people pull out of their asses)...In fact, in 1974 Gibson recognizing the quality of the Greco Les Pauls then created Epiphone Japan and contracted with Matsumoku to create a near-Gibson quality level of Epiphones manufactured in Japan (Gibson had been precluded from selling their USA products in Japan due to taxes and import tariffs) as a JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) exclusive line. This was somewhat successful and by 1980 the line had global distribution. Unfortunately due to the Japanese economy (over 25% inflation in the mid 70s) many manufacturing concerns went searching for cheaper productions costs. While the JDM Epiphone line remained in Japan much of their other production moved to Korea. One of the victims of the Japanese economic downturn was Singer Sewing Machine Japan which had been entwined with Matsumoku since when they made cabinets for the Singer machines going back to the 1950s. By 1986 Japanese Epiphone production ceased and in 1987 Singer went bankrupt. Fortunately Gibson, which was also on the verge of bankruptcy, was purchased by Henry J and Company who contracted with Samick in Korea to revitalize Epiphone. At about the same time the JDM Epiphones were resuscitated when Terada and Fuji-gen took over manufacturing in 1988. Now, concerning the Gibson Trini Lopez. In 1974 a girlfriend, my best friend (who had previously been the girlfriend's boyfriend-what can I say? It was the 70s) and I were in a music shop where my friend was buying an ES-335. He'd made his decision and they were taking care of business when she turned to me and said:"What are you buying?" I said:"nothing, I don't have any money at present for a new guitar". At this point she said:"You have to get a new guitar too. What do you want? How about that red one you guys were looking at? I like that one. Let me buy you that one." My friend and I were exchanging some very awkward looks because we both knew what she was doing. She was ingratiating herself with me while rubbing his nose in it. I finally said "No" and she used the "If you don't let me buy it for you I'll be very hurt". She then went to get the guy to bring that guitar back out and my friend says to me "Don't be an idiot. Let her buy you the guitar. I'm cool with it". So that day I became the owner of a cherry red 1966 Gibson Trini Lopez. My friend and I had what we called a "left handed compliment" about it.."It's a great blues guitar" (tongue firmly planted in cheek). I was so happy when the girl and I broke up about a year and a half later and within two week I traded it in on a Fender Super Reverb amp lol.. To say I hated the guitar would be too strong so let's just say I liked it very, very little.. I highly doubt your recommendation had anything with the Dave Grohl/Trini reissue that came out in 2014 if memory serves me. As far as the Dave's World of Fun Stuff "Granada" No mystery at all. Granada was one of a myriad brands Matsumoku guitars were sold under world wide. Granada was a UK brand...distributed by Dallas London a large musical instrument concern in the UK such as Selmer and Boosey & Hawkes who re-branded and sold instruments under their brands. If the guy paid $900 in 1980 for that there's probably a future for him being Trump's press secretary because he's either delusional, lying, or both. I bought a brand new white 1974 Gibson Les Paul Custom in early 1975 and paid $600...$900 for an Asian knock off?? I don't think so. Also, you can't really adjust for inflation what the early 70s Epiphones et al sold for back then and how much that would be today because you can get a far, far superior guitar for the adjusted amount to what the 70s guitars were. There are those who'd like to believe these are some desired collectible but at the end of the day they are what they are. Sure, some premium for nostalgia but a thousand bucks today gets you an incredible guitar. I give Epiphone full credit for creating that situation.
Fantastic post with perfect historical review. Folks who wax poetically over early 70's bolt neck Matsumoku hollow's and semi-hollows as Gibson killers crack me up. Are they cool guitars? Hell yeah, I've owned several. But are they high quality superior vintage instruments? Not even close. Now the later built set neck Matsumoku Riviera, Casinos, and Sheratons were and remain super high quality guitars and are gaining a following and increasing in value. They really were truly hand made with superior construction techniques such as non-kerfed solid linings which is more difficult to apply and takes longer and more precision, but provides a stronger sides but less contact area of the top and back and subsequently better resonance per some expert luthiers. Matsumoku's own brand, Westone, produced similar quality semi-hollow guitars under the Rainbow model but these weren't produced until the early 80's and had a pretty short run since they were to go under a few years later. Somewhat ironically, even in the 60's when japanese import guitars were generally kitschy crap (sorry Teisco fans) Japan had luthiers capable of building Set Neck very high quality hollow body guitars. Check out Yamaha SA line. These things were built incredibly well and most still great players some 55 years later. The pickups were an engineering marvel as well with like a p90ish sound but rounder. They were actually a humbucker but with a large main coil and much smaller second coil so no hum but able to get single coil sounds with he best of them. I don't know if anyone stole this design and makes similar boutique pups now but if they haven't they should because those pups are amazingly versatile.
Model labels on early 70s Matsumoku Epiphones
in Epiphone Electrics
Posted
Fantastic post with perfect historical review. Folks who wax poetically over early 70's bolt neck Matsumoku hollow's and semi-hollows as Gibson killers crack me up. Are they cool guitars? Hell yeah, I've owned several. But are they high quality superior vintage instruments? Not even close. Now the later built set neck Matsumoku Riviera, Casinos, and Sheratons were and remain super high quality guitars and are gaining a following and increasing in value. They really were truly hand made with superior construction techniques such as non-kerfed solid linings which is more difficult to apply and takes longer and more precision, but provides a stronger sides but less contact area of the top and back and subsequently better resonance per some expert luthiers. Matsumoku's own brand, Westone, produced similar quality semi-hollow guitars under the Rainbow model but these weren't produced until the early 80's and had a pretty short run since they were to go under a few years later. Somewhat ironically, even in the 60's when japanese import guitars were generally kitschy crap (sorry Teisco fans) Japan had luthiers capable of building Set Neck very high quality hollow body guitars. Check out Yamaha SA line. These things were built incredibly well and most still great players some 55 years later. The pickups were an engineering marvel as well with like a p90ish sound but rounder. They were actually a humbucker but with a large main coil and much smaller second coil so no hum but able to get single coil sounds with he best of them. I don't know if anyone stole this design and makes similar boutique pups now but if they haven't they should because those pups are amazingly versatile.