Matsumoku Monaco C78

Price

££££

Missed out on this model? Talk to us for a rebuild!

Back in the mid to late 1970s, factories such as Matsumoku, Fujigen, and many others were working hard to produce viable guitars to be sold with the Fender name on the headstocks. A chap called Norikatsu Harayama had mastered not only the Fender style neck, but also designed and produced his own take on it - these guitars have a quiet but solid following and respect. Harayama worked at Matsumoku throughout this period before going out on his own - one of his prodigies was the very same H Noble whose name graces the headstocks of many collectible guitars from this era. H Noble (Nobuaki Hayashi) was in charge of Matsumoku when the Stagecasters and Strikin' Sounds models were in production. Ol' Lumpy started life in March 1978 as a tobaccoburst Aria Stagecaster ST-600 with the SP-1B Fat Strat pick-ups. It had been gigged relentlessly by a guitarist under the influence of Pete Townshend - this poor old ST-600 had battle scars that defied belief, but had a fretboard that indicated proper constant use. No relic'ing here - this is all real. Passing the guitar around a team of professionals and luthiers for their comment, the absolute consensus was that the guitar played brilliantly - absolutely worth saving. A plan was drawn up, a willing new owner found, the project began. We decided to produce a tribute to the Fender International range - the gorgeous Monaco model in particular. Yellow guitars are always great. We specifically tried to blend the new and old - the only perfection required was the hardware and electronics - the perfect sound and playability with the 'old friend' look.

The look of the fretboard was retained beneath its new Dunlop 6000 frets, the lumps in the bodywork also retained under its new nitrocellulose yellow finish. A set of custom wound Häussel AlNiCo5 pick-ups configured in a Gilmour fashion - the bottom tone control acting as a blender for the neck pickup - are now fitted. The bridge is now a Gotoh 510TS in Cosmo Black with matching Gotoh SGS510 locking tuners at the other end on a black headstock. A new nut and matching Cosmo hardware elsewhere complete this fascinating instrument. We played the guitar for a few months to check the decisions made, and then gave it a master-luthier set-up. The brief achieved, we now move on to produce more of these. We have a stock of donor instruments, a mature list of options that work well, and have 2 more in production currently. There remains the option of using your Aria Pro II guitar as the donor - some basic fundamental checks on the instrument will declare it fit to proceed or not. Doesn't have to be yellow, but to wear the Monaco name on the headstock, it ought to be! The choice of pick-ups and configuration will depend largely on how you'll use the guitar - the mega-bucks Häussels are only one of the options. We have plenty of other recommended pick-ups to suit different budgets. Ol' Lumpy was commissioned for a close "friend of the show" and the guitar is often here at the Hall and available to be sampled. Attention left-handers! We have one remaining ST-500L in stock here - one of the very few left handed guitars produced in 1980. The perfect donor for an upgrade project.

Details

The Look

Refinished over those scars and lumps with cheerful yellow nitrocellulose paint. Cosmo Black Gotoh hardware with black plastic parts. A nod to the Fender International range produced by Fuji in the early 1980s

Headstock

Matsumoku logo with Monaco model name in Japanese. Cosmo Black Gotoh SGS510 locking tuners for stability and fast string changes

Neck

New Dunlop 6000 frets on original neck. Gibson frets on a Strat was a thing back in the 1980s according to the members of the team here who are old enough to remember. There is no relic'ing here - this is natural and real board wear.

Pick-ups

3 x Häussel AlNiCo5 custom wound (Desperado spec) with black covers. A great output - not too hot, yet the perfect amount of mids for clean and crunchy tones. A neck blender tames the aggression from the bridge if you need to dial it back.

Bridge

The Gotoh 510TS in Cosmo Black has smooth solid saddles - comfortable and ultra high quality.

Controls

Traditional 5 way selector blade working in conjunction with the lower knob to blend the neck pick-up into the mix. Master Volume and Master Tone controls - highest quality 250k.