Matsumoka guitars

[supernova1281734074]

I have a 1983 Wine Red Riviera with the stop bar tail piece, and paid £650 in England, 2 years ago. People say these are fantastic guitars. I love the neck on it, although it feels quite chunky.

 

Does anyone know what the specs of this guitar are?? how do the guitars compare to Japanese Elite/Elitist models?

 

When the guitar was introduced, being made in Japan were they sold in most guitar shop like modern epiphones or mainly for the Japanese market. I haven't seen many for sale, and if they do come up, how much are they worth??

 

How much did the Riviera cost when introduced?

 

Any help would be appreciated

 

John Bullivant

[AS90]

One of these then...

 

[frenchie1281734003]

I have a 1983 Wine Red Riviera with the stop bar tail piece' date=' and paid £650 in England, 2 years ago. People say these are fantastic guitars. I love the neck on it, although it feels quite chunky.

 

Does anyone know what the specs of this guitar are?? how do the guitars compare to Japanese Elite/Elitist models?

 

When the guitar was introduced, being made in Japan were they sold in most guitar shop like modern epiphones or mainly for the Japanese market. I haven't seen many for sale, and if they do come up, how much are they worth??

 

How much did the Riviera cost when introduced?

 

Any help would be appreciated

 

John Bullivant[/quote']

 

My favourite subject, 80`s made Matsumoku hollowbody guitars.

 

RIVIERA.

 

Specs- 5 ply Maple body, with Mahogany centre block. Three piece laminated (Longways) Long tenon Maple neck, with Rosewood (Sometimes even Brazillian) fretboard, with pearloid inlays and fret end neck binding. The pickups are MMK-61 PAF clones, which are very nice actually, and the pots have shielded casings. Finish is poly, available in Wine Red, Antique Sunburst, and more rarely Antique Natural.

 

They were originally made for the Japanese domestic market, hence no "Made in Japan" on the guitar, unless you look underneath the bridge.

Some guitars from 82,83 & 84 made it into Europe in the mid 80`s. When I bought my Blonde Sheraton (Now sadly gone) in 1984, it cost £325 with a hard case, at that time both the Riviera & Casino were £295 inc hard case. Ebay value now is somewhere between £400-800, with the top end being a bit optimistic in my opinion, although one very nice all original example, went for £795 recently.

 

In construction and material terms the Matsumoku Riviera is quite close to the Elitist version, but with the bigger humbuckers, they sound closer to the Gibson ES335, and I would even suggest they are a viable alternative for those on a tight budget. I have found my Matsumoku Epiphones to have a more organic/vintage feel to them than the Elitists, and on top of that, they have such playable necks.

 

If you wish to date your guitar, you will need to decipher your 7 digit serial. Bear in mind Matsumoku used serials from 75/76-87 when the factory ceased production. So you have, first digit= year, next two= month, and the last four= production number, eg 4053615, would equate to, May 84 production number 3615.

 

Hope this helps, and lucky you on owning the Riviera. Any chance of seeing some pics John?

 

Steve.

[supernova1281734074]

Thanks for the info everyone. I'll certainly post some pics of it. I bought it because a certain guitarist from Oasis had one, and used it from 2004-06 until the Don't Look Back In Anger video.

 

I keep looking on ebay but don't see many Matsumoka made epi's.

 

When I first had it, it was set up with gauge 9 strings, and the tone wasn't there, so had it re-set up recently with 11's and the difference is fantastic, it playds well, and the neck is on the chunky side but great.

 

I keep looking out for Matsumoku models, or an elitist guitar - don't see many though. I'd like a guitar that AS90 uses as his avatar. However i can't find much info about it. People say Noel had a 60's Epiphone Riviera, 1 re-sprayed with Union Jack & the other in vintage sunburst. However, the fret markers go all the way down the neck, and the guitar has a sheraton style headstock.

 

When I was in Memphis in 2006, at the Gibson guitar factory, they say it's possible to re-create any guitar in the custom shop, and when asked if they did the Noel Gallagher epiphone's they didn't say either way. They said they'd done JLH's elitists there, so have a feeling it was prob 2 custom jobs.

 

John

[jonnyg]

I bought my Riviera new in 1983. At that time there were only 3 Epiphone models available in the UK to my knowledge, these were the Casino, Riviera and Emperor. The Casino was £200.00 the Riviera £250.00 and the Emperor £325.00 all including hard case. Two finishes were available, Antique Sunburst and Cherry although I don't think Cherry was an option on the Emperor. The Emperor was a very different guitar to the later models of the same name being far more like a Gibson L5 (I still beat myself up about not buying one). I didn't see Sheratons until mid '84, but that doesn't mean they weren't available before, around the same time that the Blonde (Natural) finish appeared. I found the Blonde a bit insipid, it was too pale and with the natural maple neck it looked anaemic.

 

There's an '84 Riviera on ebay now. The sale has about 24 hours to run and the current bid is £475.00.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Epiphone-Riviera-Guitar-/260619979858?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3cae294c52

[AS90]

Thanks for the info everyone. I'll certainly post some pics of it. I bought it because a certain guitarist from Oasis had one' date=' and used it from 2004-06 until the Don't Look Back In Anger video.

 

I keep looking on ebay but don't see many Matsumoka made epi's.

 

When I first had it, it was set up with gauge 9 strings, and the tone wasn't there, so had it re-set up recently with 11's and the difference is fantastic, it playds well, and the neck is on the chunky side but great.

 

I keep looking out for Matsumoku models, or an elitist guitar - don't see many though. I'd like a guitar that AS90 uses as his avatar. However i can't find much info about it. People say Noel had a 60's Epiphone Riviera, 1 re-sprayed with Union Jack & the other in vintage sunburst. However, the fret markers go all the way down the neck, and the guitar has a sheraton style headstock.

 

When I was in Memphis in 2006, at the Gibson guitar factory, they say it's possible to re-create any guitar in the custom shop, and when asked if they did the Noel Gallagher epiphone's they didn't say either way. They said they'd done JLH's elitists there, so have a feeling it was prob 2 custom jobs.

 

John [/quote']

 

Do you mean 94-96? Noel and Bonehead (pictured above) both used them during this time, Gem has also used one from 1999 to present.