"Conn" Les Paul copy

[westtexasred]

I got this 1980 Conn CSE-4V (link) at my friends store today for $200.









Some close ups. The mini switch is for series/parallel the neck pickup is original but the bridge pickup is a DiMarzio Super Distortion. The Bridge is made by Schaller







It had a brass nut and Gotoh tuners.Abalone inlays on the headstock binding too.

[westtexasred]

With my Gibson Les Paul Special

[Sloan]

need moar details on the X-TRA TOGGLEY and BRIDGE

[AaronGuitarDude]

do an demo of the bridge pick up

[paul_]

I would sell the TP-6 tailpiece and Super Distortion and replace them with GFS stuff, they'd fetch some bucks.

[Fakir Mustache]

I didn't know there is a market for naturally aged 1980s parts. It's obviously not original from the guitar because it's gold.

The Super Distortion might do o.k., even though it's still being made. Although it might fetch more on the guitar if you decide to sell it. Nice guitar.

[paul_]

I didn't know there is a market for naturally aged 1980s parts. It's obviously not original from the guitar because it's gold.

Yeah but it's a tp-6 fine tuner tailpiece which sell for $125 new, or at least an older Schaller version which more closely resembles the Gibson variant (Schallers don't anymore), so it probably has some decent value on its own. Gold ones are OEM on the BB King Lucille model.

As for the SuperD, it's got at least $50 in it but if its an old enough one (or a 3-conductor "dual sound" which is the same thing but can be split) it might fetch more because some people think they sound better due to a different gauge wire or something like that.
Modern SuperDs and Dual Sounds are 4-conductor and the exact same thing as each other, the dual sound just comes with a switch I think?

[robert(original)]

ive had two conn organs. it seems that they made good stuff, i wonder why they never took off

[westtexasred]

Thanks for the posts! I'm not parting this out.It's a nice guitar. The top is hollow but the back is sold mahogany. It weighs 9.4 lbs.The neck is one piece mahogany and it has a unique profile. It has a volute and is sorta like a 60s thin but it gets wider and flattens out as you go up the neck.I think they called it a heelless design in the literature. The neck pickup is the original "Goto"(Gotoh) with 12 adjustable pole-pieces. It has a nice woody PAF sound.I think the Shaller TP-6 is brass like nut. With the Series/Parallel switch you can get a clearer single coil kinda sound if I play clean.If I add distortion I can't hear a difference.

It is really hard to find out much info on these guitars.According to info I found at Japanaxe:

"Conn electric guitars were introduced in 1979 but were only made and sold for a short time. Catalog info for electrics is only available for 1980, and that may in fact be the only year they were made, distributed, and soldThere are few records that exist about Conn's history before 1981 because, according to the Conn-Selmer company, all records of that era 'were destroyed'. Any and all remaining information, including catalogs and brochures about the former company are in the hands of private individuals. Research into 9-year Conn guitar history is somewhat inhibited by these facts, and information becomes increasingly difficult to obtain as former employees of that era are aging, and others are either no longer alive, or may not remember."


1980 CONN ad

[westtexasred]

Here are some other CONN Les Paul copies.The finish of the 2 on the left look like Marc Bolan's Les Paul.

[61fury]

super sweet and cheaper than an Epi, I'd buy it

[westtexasred]

Thanks! It's a really nice guitar. Have you seen any other Les Paul copies with a neck like this?











The Goto neck pickup is original,I read some these can be found in some Tokai guitar from the same period

[paul_]

Thanks! It's a really nice guitar. Have you seen any other Les Paul copies with a neck like this?

My '96 MIK Epiphone Custom (made in the Fine Guitars plant) has an '80s style volute, the Conn seems to be more '70s styled. I'm sure there were a lot of specs floating around asian factories for Les Pauls in the '70s - mid '90s depending on what they were reverse engineered/eyeballed from, due to the variation in Gibson neck designs throughout that era before Gibson reverted back to more '50s-1960 specs for the majority of models and eventually had the Epis more uniform in spec. I've seen Epiphone Customs from the same era as mine with no volute at all (likely the more common Saien/Samick made ones), and nowadays most Epi Customs are really just dressed up Epi Standards that use the same base bodies/necks with different binding and inlays (certainly the Gibson Qingdao examples).
That's pretty cool that the neck is one-piece, sounds like you got an amazing deal on a proper-sort Les Paul.



'80 LP Custom volute VS '74 LP Custom

[westtexasred]

Thanks! It's a really nice guitar. Have you seen any other Les Paul copies with a neck like this?

My '96 MIK Epiphone Custom (made in the Fine Guitars plant) has an '80s style volute, the Conn seems to be more '70s styled. I'm sure there were a lot of specs floating around asian factories for Les Pauls in the '70s - mid '90s depending on what they were reverse engineered/eyeballed from, due to the variation in Gibson neck designs throughout that era before Gibson reverted back to more '50s-1960 specs for the majority of models and eventually had the Epis more uniform in spec. I've seen Epiphone Customs from the same era as mine with no volute at all (likely the more common Saien/Samick made ones), and nowadays most Epi Customs are really just dressed up Epi Standards that use the same base bodies/necks with different binding and inlays (certainly the Gibson Qingdao examples).
That's pretty cool that the neck is one-piece, sounds like you got an amazing deal on a proper-sort Les Paul.



'80 LP Custom volute VS '74 LP Custom

Thanks! Here is the volute on mine for comparison



Here are the control cavities

[westtexasred]

This is some other info FROM THIS LINK: http://theguitarmedic.sharepoint.com/Pa ... itars.aspx

CONN ELECTRIC GUITARS BRIEF HISTORY
Conn electric guitars may have only been made in 1980. This short run of electrics followed Conn's departure from making acoustic guitars from 1969 through 1978. It is thought that the attempt to enter the booming electric guitar market was a "last hurrah" attempt to capture some the market in the burgeoning electric guitar sales of the 70's and 80's. However, it was probably too little too late since many other manufacturers, who had seen the opportunity much earlier on, had already captured the loyalty of followers for their brands (examples, "big brands" Fender, Gibson, Washburn, etc). The quality of the electric guitars in the Conn line was rather good. Both quality and price were competitive with that of the big brands, but sales were too low for this essentially "introductory" line of guitars, so the project was scrapped.
This is all of the historical information that is currently known about G.C. Conn company's line of electric guitars. However, as new information is discovered, it will be included here.
G.C.Conn also had spinoff electric guitar brands which may have even continued on after the actual CONN brand was dropped. These spinoff brands--which may have actually become independent--are not not the subject of this web site (spinoffs include the brands "Continental" and "Drifter" and possibly others).

Below is a previously undocumented CONN electric

[westtexasred]

Check out this CONN 335 copy

[youtube][/youtube]

[iCEByTes]

wow a cheap guitar at neck-thuru . Solid wood , quart-saw wood cut and looks well made.

[westtexasred]

I had thought that the mini switch on my guitar was a modification but now I am wondering it it might not be original. Here are some CONN guitars from the same period and 2 of them came from the factory with mini switches installed.



This one below is a CSE-5.It is a neck thru and it looks alot like a Takamine GX-200. Maybe Takamine made these for CONN?



This is a CSE-7



It has a coil split and a built in preamp.

[robert(original)]

those conn strats thro me for a loop, they look bolt on, but the back reveals they are neck thru, and it looks as if the fit and finish are really good.

[westtexasred]

Looking inside does it look like the the wiring was modified to add the mini switch and the DiMarzio or do you think it could have come from the factory like this?
I know the Goto pickup is original and the wiring looks factory. If the Mini switch was added aftermarket why would they put it in such an inaccessible place?









Goto neck pickup is definitely original



The DiMarzio looks like it is from the same time period(1980)



All the wiring looks original