NGD, a bit of a mystery

[sparquelito]

Hey, ho, hi, good morning.

I picked up a used, elderly acoustic-electric the other day.
A fellow had sold off a dozen guitars to my nearest music store/band supply house, as he was headed off to seminary college up north, and didn't need all of them.

I visited my friend Frank (the owner), and chatted him up about the collection.

The one head-turner was this mysterious guitar here.
I played it both unplugged and plugged in, and was smitten.
Paid $200 American dollars in cash, and headed home to clean it up and re-string it.

I searched inside the guitar with a lantern and inspection mirror, and could find no inner markings or sound hole sticker.
The only exterior markings are a factory label on the front of the headstock, "Shadow Bridge Installed".
On the back are a couple of gold foil stickers that display (I assume) some sort of model number and serial number.
Missing is one that (I found an identical guitar on the interwebs) said "Made In Korea".
Dove inlays on the fretboard.

Interesting, this Shadow bridge. Piezo-electric under the bridge, and passive. (No battery involved.)
Primitive but charming Volume and Tone control sliders.
I emailed Shadow Electronics, who have been in bidness since 1971, and asked them about the guitar.
No answer yet.

It plays great, and weighs just four pounds, one ounce.
I love it, and plan to haul it to the next gig, an old people's high school reunion.

But what is it?
Who made it in Korea, back in the day? (Late 1970's, early 1980's, I am guessing.)

If you have any idears, by golly, I would love to hear them.

🤫

 

[fortyearspickn]

Hard to tell from photos usually -   but that looks to be a quality made guitar from the outside.  And in excellent condition.  I think you won the lottery !    Just enjoy it - A Rose By Any Other Name ..."

 

[Karloff]

nice Sparks . and as before, very cool table & chairs lol. 

[jdgm]

Shadow is a German company so I would 'click to visit our German site' (as it says) then email them.  It's stilll owned by the original guy and I think maybe Bill Lawrence used to be involved with them early on. 

The neck inlays must be a clue.   

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by jdgm

[merciful-evans]

Seen plenty of tuners like those on older Asian guitars. 

As has been noted, it looks in great condition. MIK is encouraging too. How does it sound?

[Rabs]

From what I saw on the internet it is a guitar made by the Shadow company between 1988-94....  Not much info out there about it at all.

[jaxson50]

That is a cool gitar,  an Ovation headstock, Washburn style bridge, and doves inlaid on the fretboard.  Maybe it's a prototype . 

[mihcmac]

It might have been built to demo the Shadow Piezo Bridge for Ovation.

http://ovationfanclub.com/megabbs/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=29332

Edited April 29, 2022 by mihcmac

[Erin_Jacob]

On 4/26/2022 at 1:54 PM, sparquelito said:

Hey, ho, hi, good morning.

I picked up a used, elderly acoustic-electric the other day.
A fellow had sold off a dozen guitars to my nearest music store/band supply house, as he was headed off to seminary college up north, and didn't need all of them.

I visited my friend Frank (the owner), and chatted him up about the collection.

The one head-turner was this mysterious guitar here.
I played it both unplugged and plugged in, and was smitten.
Paid $200 American dollars in cash, and headed home to clean it up and re-string it.

I searched inside the guitar with a lantern and inspection mirror, and could find no inner markings or sound hole sticker.
The only exterior markings are a factory label on the front of the headstock, "Shadow Bridge Installed".
On the back are a couple of gold foil stickers that display (I assume) some sort of model number and serial number.
Missing is one that (I found an identical guitar on the interwebs) said "Made In Korea".
Dove inlays on the fretboard.

Interesting, this Shadow bridge. Piezo-electric under the bridge, and passive. (No battery involved.)
Primitive but charming Volume and Tone control sliders.
I emailed Shadow Electronics, who have been in bidness since 1971, and asked them about the guitar.
No answer yet. 

Music has been my hobby since college, but I had very little time for it. Here also I would like to share with you https://essays.studymoose.com/writers-for-your-essays service where you will find writers for your essays and can save time on all tasks. By the way your grades will also improve a lot. 

It plays great, and weighs just four pounds, one ounce.
I love it, and plan to haul it to the next gig, an old people's high school reunion.

But what is it?
Who made it in Korea, back in the day? (Late 1970's, early 1980's, I am guessing.)

If you have any idears, by golly, I would love to hear them.

🤫

 

Very cool guitar on the photo. I had a somewhat similar guitar in college. Everyone loved the way I played it. It seems to sound pretty good. 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Erin_Jacob

[RBSinTo]

Perhaps your friend, the  store owner could contact the seller on your behalf and get more information on the origin of the guitar.

RBSinTo

[badbluesplayer]

Very cool!

[Raoul Thompson]

 I have one much like that.  Currently researching, trying to replace one of the tuners.  Pretty sure mine's older; it's number is 559-1295.  Mine requires a 9V battery (which think was eliminated later) and has a more complex slider set than others.  There are four sliders on the rosewood mount, basically looking like an equalizer setup...3 different frequency band sliders, one volume slider.  The "Shadow Bridge Installed" label on the head is much more predominant (same style, just larger).   The cord jack is incorporated in large metal strap knob, instead of having its own mount like the one on this site.    I have been able to learn little about it so far.  Pretty sure it was made by Samick, like for Shadow Bridge (or maybe Ovation) to highlight their product in the 80's.  The fretboard/dove inlays are the same.  If anyone knows who makes/where acquire those tuners, I need one....they are NOT the same screw spacing/base plate as most current 3x3 semi enclosed chrome tuners today.  No answers from Samick yet, to my inquiries.  The look and feel of the catalogue sticker, and the numbering conventions , and the keys match a Gibson Epiphone PR-715 made by Samick in the same time frame under license.  Mine came into the family about 40 years ago by way of my dad; I picked it up after he passed.  Good daily player as the acoustic is loud enough/okay, and the electric is fussy about "dust" static (ie, you're gonna need to clean those quaint controls/connections) unless you like LOUD rice krispies for an electric accompaniment.  Shadow seems to be a pretty well know electronics company for music, then and now, German based originally.  The piezo electric pickup was their original claim to fame, I think.  Haven't hit them up yet, but just found where they were also guitar makers (more electric than acoustic/electric).  Apparently the original owner now has his own factory in China (google-wike sourced).  Hadn't thought about Ovation, but the commentary on the headstock is right.

[Guest]

Strangely I have picked up an identical (I think) guitar in a music shop in South London (very south, almost not London at all, Coulsdon, for those who know where that is) about 8 years ago. It was also really nice sounding and nice to play. The price was £450 I think and I wasn't going to pay that for something I didn't recognise, made in Korea. $200 is way less than half that, about £170, and I think I'd have bought it at that. 

I'll be interested to read anything you find out. 

Edited October 6, 2023 by Farnsbarns

[sparquelito]

I am glad to hear that there are cousins to the mystery guitar out there.
And halfway around the world at that.

I must confess, I sold my Shadow Bridge mystery guitar last December, as I was cleaning out my office, and preparing to retire out for good.
Our Safety Officer was enamored with it, and it looked good on him, so I let him have it for a hundred bucks.

I'll get to see it every now and then, as I am the volunteer musical director for the flight test agency's annual Christmas party in the big hangar (coming up on December 15th).
The fellow who owns the guitar is working on his cowboy chords, and I'll be practicing him up to play on a few songs on the big flatbed stage.

We have  ten or more players and singers in the organization, and my goal is to get them all practiced to the point where they are comfortable playing in front of a few hundred coworkers, family, and friends.

Good times.

🤔