Best Guitar Lessons in Newbury

Here is a picture of a nearly 50 year old (thought to be 73/74) Kimbara white Strat Copy I was recently given and have performed a set-up on it. In the second picture I have placed in next to my 1983 Squire Strat - you can see the rather amazing similarity !! The Kimball has quite a story, that I have written about below, but first here's what I did on the set-up. I slightly reduced the string action by a small neck relief adjustment, saddle heights adjusting and nut filing to bring it down to 2.32mm (low E) tapering to 1.81mm (high E). The 1st fret string heights are 0.48mm to 0.32mm. A good dose of lemon oil for the neck and a smear of nut oil helps give a smooth glide to the new set of .010s. These measurements are probably lower than I would use for myself but it was interesting to see where this guitar would go when considering this was produced before Japanese factories modernised and became the production beds for guitar making when US companies outsourced production to Japan in the late 70s. If you are interested in the history of guitar making – read on.nnThe owner was throwing the guitar away as it had spent 47 years (!!!) in its case in his loft after buying it second hand in 1975. He was told it was a year or so old at the time and he decided that electric guitar wasn't for him and like sleeping beauty it was put to bed. I'd never heard of Kimbara guitars but the second photo shows that it seemed to an older brother of my 1983 Japanese Fender Squire – this definitely required further investigation! As you can imagine a guitar that has slept for such a long time after practically no playing was pretty much in pristine condition for close of 50 years old (I can only find two minor bodywork dings).nnKimbara guitars were made by Matsumoku in Japan under license from a UK supplier FCN. They were sold mainly in London as a higher range budget guitar to Fenders and won general approval on that basis. It is clear that production records are practically non-existent and Matsumoku's role in the production (as an OEM, original equipment manufacturer - is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer) of guitars in Japan under contract to other was largely unknown outside of Japan's guitar-making circles. However they are known to have produced part or guitars for FujiGen who were also based in the same city of Matsumoto. We now have some form of connection with my Squire Strat as In 1981–82, FujiGen obtained the Fender Japan contract. My Squire Strat is the 2nd production of Squires (the first run had Fender on the Headstock) but still used USA parts added to the body that was made in Japan. nnWhat is amazing is that even though this guitar is likely to be 8 years older than my Squire it is practically identical except the headstock has bigger profile – even the colour is similar and may only be different due to the fact the Kimbara has been boxed away for so many years. The neck profile is almost identical to about 0.5mm using Rosewood fingerboard over a Japanese SEN Ash neck and body. Sen Ash is a wood species that typically grows in Japan. Besides its open grain and great looks, the Sen Ash wood produces a great tone with great presence in the bass frequencies and slightly brighter tone in the midrange. The body itself is about 1-2mm larger in profile and this explains the slightly heavier weight. It is clear that Matsumoku had copied the USA strats pretty well and by using a different shape headstock were trying to avoid copyright issues (there's a whole story behind the 'Vintage' Japanese Guitars that led to infringement legal action by UA companies around this time).