NGD Tomson Mustang copy

[MattK]

Mustang copy? In the "All Other Guitars" forum? Surely some mistake?
But no:


Early 70s Suzuki made Tomson Splendor Series Mustang copy with a long scale neck. Picked it up from the local classifieds yesterday and had friends over for dinner, so only time for a quick clean and a pickup test (they sound great, raw and P90ish).
Neck will need some work - the back is rough, nut and tuners non original, too much relief. Overall pretty solid otherwise. Bridge is one of those weird space-adjustment ones where the saddles spin on a threaded rod, it's janky but cool.

[Nick]

I kind of love it! Congrats!

[Bacchus]

Also kind of love it.

I thought the headstock said "INDOOR SERIES" which excited me. Thoughts of some sort of "OUTDOOR SERIES," possibly involving gore-tex.

[NickS]

Bridge is one of those weird space-adjustment ones where the saddles spin on a threaded rod

Does that mean they act as a roller bridge?

[sunshiner]

Looks rad!
Looks like one of them old Gretsch bridges. I never understood how intonation worked on them

[MattK]

It doesn’t. Can’t change the string length except by angling the whole bridge. But it would be a roller bridge, yeah.

[Bacchus]

That's quite clever. The saddles are nuts with a grooved, circular outer, so can be placed at any spacing. Clever manufacturing, that.

I doubt they would roll. I doubt the tangential force acting on the saddle's outer edge is enough to overcome the friction at the thread. I'd imagine the sum of the forces exerted by the string is still more or less going radially towards the bolt.

[Freddy V-C]

Absolutely love this, red guitar/black pickguard is pretty much always a winning combo in my book - I used to have an ancient Encore Strat copy in the same colour scheme.

The gold wear on the pickups looks sick as well.

[taylornutt]

This guitar is fascinating.

Is the scale length 25.5"?

[Thomas]

Super cool little guitar. That bridge is bonkers. I wonder if a Gretsch one would work as an alternative (that you could set the intonation on).

[MattK]

Taylor I just measured and it's 24 3/4" actually! So Gibson scale I guess. And the bridge sure is weird but I like it. My plan is to string it with 11s and a wound G (seems most likely to work with the setup) and then cut a new nut, the fretboard is flatter than the crappy plastic replacement. Then I can see where we're at and decide if I need to modify the bridge. I suspect it'll be fine.

[taylornutt]

Taylor I just measured and it's 24 3/4" actually! So Gibson scale I guess. And the bridge sure is weird but I like it. My plan is to string it with 11s and a wound G (seems most likely to work with the setup) and then cut a new nut, the fretboard is flatter than the crappy plastic replacement. Then I can see where we're at and decide if I need to modify the bridge. I suspect it'll be fine.

I just got my first 24.75" scale Fender this year and I have enjoyed it. The new nut and .11s are a good call. Did it come with the Vibrato arm? I love all the wear on the pickup covers.

[sunshiner]

One of the Japanese manufacturers, I think it was ESP, used to make an almost exact Mustang copy but in 24.75" scale. I wonder if it was the same manufacturer that had made your guitar as in the 70s all the now respectable Japanese companies were only learning how to make proper replicas by putting out "funky" guitars

[MattK]

My very knowledgeable friend Craig tells me Tomson is a cheap mail order brand made by Kiso Suzuki who made a few other brands of varying prestige. As far as I can make out ESP is its own thing, and manufactures its own instruments. Who knows who shared what plans or designs tho!

[sunshiner]

Maybe it was done the Cold War style where CIA and KGB swapped captured agents on a bridge in Berlin. "Psst, where are those Les Paul plans. Are they real? Good, here are the tabs for Little Wing"(goes home builds a Mustang)

[MattK]

OK here's the interim report.
A solid body (not ply) but a very non-solid neck heel. Drilled, dowelled, now a solid joint.




New bone nut (cut down from a 7 string), fresh set of 12s (wound G), three anxious turns on the truss rod (still works !?!), setup, shims and saddles ... it's playing well and sounding great.

[taylornutt]

Nice work on the neck.

I am glad you took it off and made those repairs. Those were some pretty deep holes and cracks.

Did you have a finished photo after the repairs were completed?

[sunshiner]

Nice work indeed. Did you use a chisel to plan the dowels flush with the neck hill? Also how did you go about drilling the new holes?

[Bacchus]

Is it just the camera angles, are are the competition stripes not parallel?

[plopswagon]

Illusion from the glare. They look parallel when you zoom in.