Vintage Conrad electric 12 string hollowbody on CL

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Fri Jun 20, 2014 5:15 pm

I saw this vintage electric 12 string on CL and wondered if it was any good.

I couldn't find any videos on YouTube so not sure. It has tort on the headstock.

Anybody owned one of these? Worth $200?

Conrad electric 12 string guitar

sunshiner · Post by **sunshiner** » Fri Jun 20, 2014 5:58 pm

I believe it is Japanese and it has the body that was made at the same factory as the bodies for Dan Auerbach's Harmony H78. Maybe Harmonies and this guitar were entirely produced at the same factory. I know that hollow body Danelectros of that period like Coral used Japanese bodies and only necks were produced in the US. For Harmonies it could be a case of a rebranding of entire guitar. I guess they are not perfect guitars with high action, bad tuners and maybe dead pots, but where you can find another twelve string electric for $200. And it is hollow body and vintage.

spellcaster · Post by **spellcaster** » Fri Jun 20, 2014 11:13 pm

That guitar was built Matsumoku in 1968-1970 and was sold under several brand names.....Aria, Univox, Conrad, Raven, Toledo, and perhaps others. I owned one a couple of times and they're not bad. Intonation isn't perfect because of the six shared saddles, and the fretboard's fairly wide on them. The tuners are typical of Japanese manufacture at the time, pickups are nice sounding. If it was here, I'd jump on it at 200.00.

cur · Post by **cur** » Fri Jun 20, 2014 11:25 pm

Yeah, that is pretty cool. If there was no playability problems I would jump all over it. Those pups are standard aria's of the time and sound pretty nice.

Rox · Post by **Rox** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:01 am

spellcaster wrote:That guitar was built Matsumoku in 1968-1970 and was sold under several brand names.....Aria, Univox, Conrad, Raven, Toledo, and perhaps others. I owned one a couple of times and they're not bad. Intonation isn't perfect because of the six shared saddles, and the fretboard's fairly wide on them. The tuners are typical of Japanese manufacture at the time, pickups are nice sounding. If it was here, I'd jump on it at 200.00.

I was about to say that. A buddy of mine had that in a six sting . Had no name on it though ( name plate on headstock fell off somewhere in time) . It was pretty cool. Pickups were a little weak but it was well made. I'd certainly jump on it if you have the cash laying around.