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Matsumoku 73 Black Strat

Price

£1,600 GBP

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This delightfully road-worn Greco graced our studio in late 2023 and like all other '73s, it felt perfect. Its Maxons and 1 meg pots were missing and a previous owner had failed to fit a locking tremolo to it - making a right mess of the nut. Every 73 is worth rescuing and this was no exception. Tony worked his magic on the headstock and a proper nut is now fitted. OK, it isn't an invisible fix, but that's not really the point here - the body has taken its fair share of knocks over the years, the fretboard has that "best friend" look and I don't want to change any of it. The frets are a little low, but level and have plenty of life left in them - its slick and comfortable. In place of the Maxons is a set of Clausen A5 - a SuperBlues wind that Tony produces for our old Grecos. They retain the brightness and airiness of the Maxons but deliver a more defined and powerful output - especially the neck and bridge units where most of the action usually is. These pick-ups run through 250k pots which makes future maintenance a little easier. The middle has a scooped tone that pairs up with its neighbours perfectly. It makes a lot of sense on its own too. We always give these a 5-way selector and a RWRP middle, as hunting around for the in-between settings on the 3-ways is never a great idea. Just in case you find yourself being Gilmour for a moment, I have converted the lower tone control into a neck-blender which operates in all but the middle position and fades in the neck or the bridge depending whether you are bridge or neck selected. That wide open parallel sound is very useful, and you decide how much of it you want - so much more versatile than an all-or-nothing mini-switch. You govern the guitar with a master volume and master tone - all controls are CTS or CRL, and we have a MOD PIO capacitor which tames the brightness wonderfully.




To each end we have some more magic - the tuners are Gotoh SDS510. These have a well-deserved reputation for being the ultimate quality for a Kluson style - a set costs more than some budget guitars! At the other end is one of the ultimate vintage style tremolos - a Gotoh NS510TS. This has the right string spacing for these early models and the stainless steel block gives the guitar an incredible sustain. Final touches to this guitar are the new Gotoh string trees, new Gotoh strap-locks and soft-touch knobs Like all 73s, this upgraded SE-500 is 4.1kg (a whisker over 9lbs) so a fair bit heavier than the later Fujigen built models. Also, like all 73s, the 5-piece big-C neck is sublime - the 7.25 radius familiar and welcomes a brave bend. This is a faithful 25.5"scale unlike some of the 73s that can be 24.7". Forget the super-skinny JV necks - these are substantial. The prospect here is a proper vintage feeling guitar that has seen a lot of action, but has now been refurbished and re-specified to overtake modern more expensive traffic. As always, specs are never finalized until the new owner gets all the boxes ticked, so feel free to discuss any changes to this spec, but we urge people to try it as it is before requesting pick-ups from Thomann or Fender. There are reasons we choose the pick-ups and hardware we fit. We have lots of these in original restored specification too.
Details
The Look

Roadworn but scrubs up well - the top end hardware is all new and shiny. Old and new where it matters most.

Headstock

Big headstock style retaining its original Gneco decal perfectly presented with new Gotoh trees and SDS510 tuners.

Neck

Big C 5-piece maple neck and board with new 43mm nut - more Harayama magic. Worn like you bought it in the 70s. Run-in but level frets - plenty of life left.

Pick-ups

3 x Clausen A5 custom wound for us, and based on a SuperBlues wind. Bright yet warm - the middle wound to get the best in-between tones possible.

Bridge

Luxurious quality and totally appropriate for these guitars - the Gotoh NS510TS with a Stainless block. You'll enjoy playing this acoustically as much as plugged in.

Controls

CRL 5-way selector and 3 x CTS 250k pots. Master volume and tone with blender on the lower tone knob. Soft touch knobs for accuracy and comfort. Paper-in-oil capacitor for good taming.

Gallery
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