_MIJ__FAQ_+_Links

[reborn old]

Originally Posted by slapshot

add a spare parts list to the faq?

Sure guys, anything LP related you deem useful.

I've only come across a 1980 Greco parts catalog so far, and posted it here:

High res pages for hi speed connections:
MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !


56k friendly: (instructions to enlarge pages at top of 1st post)
MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly

[Mr Teeny]

Would be good to have a list recommending spare parts like the pup rings, scratchplates,back covers, knobs etc. Always a problem getting plastics that are a decent fit most sellers/sites don't stick up reliable , or any, sizes. Even just getting the support bracket for the scratchplates can be a problem with being too short at the bend.

MIght be an idea for people to post any sellers and part numbers for replacement parts they've bought that are a decent fit.

[slapshot]

Made In Japan parts/upgrades/fixes
readily available from stewmac,guitarpartsresource,ebay ect
Bridges
The Gotoh aluminium tailpiece with metric threads is your ticket to '59 LP specs here.
$30-35
part # 5740-N (N is for nickel) they also make chrome



There's also the regular Gotoh stop tailpiece. part #0168 $15-25 nickel,chrome & gold
these bolt/screw right in and since all your old mij's used gotoh hardware to start with ....

Gotoh ABR bridge part #0167 $20-25 in chrome,nickel,gold
small M4 posts.drops right down on your existing studs.pre-notched saddles



Tuners
Gotoh part #0912 (nickel or gold) are a direct drop in replacement to the standard vintage style keystones with press fit bushings.$35-40

For the customs & 70's Burnys or anything that came with either grovers or metal keystone grover copies with a screw in bushing
To replace them with kidney bean buttons & tulip buttons.$50

Wilkinson also makes a damn fine alternative for around $20 though and better than the chinese grovers.
essential is getting a tuner with a vertical mounting hole not angled
To switch from grovers to vintage style you'll need either:
1.standard vintage style klusons with a set of conversion bushings to reduce the peg head hole from 10mm to vintage smaller size
2.buy some kluson deluxe tuners with the screw in bushings.

Plastics
dimarzio pickup rings (white,cream,black) ebay $5
allparts pickguards (they're actually stickered made in japan)
backplates the same.
knobs from anywhere really just get metric ones
$2 chinese 2 screw truss rod covers

Electronics
you don't really need CTS pots.besides they require enlarging the holes in the top.
if you must then you should get long shaft pots.and will more than likely require new knobs made for said pots.coarse knurled

alpha pots are just fine & dandy
any sort of orange drop,PIO cap will do just fine & be lightyears better than the lil green tic tacs it came with.Vintage high priced caps are irrelevant.ebay PIO cap $10 a pair
switch crafts require making the hole bigger

[reborn old]

Burny

1980 - 1984 Burny: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !
1985 - 1987 vol 1 Burny: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !
1987 vol 2 - 1989 Burny: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !
1990 - 1992 Burny: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !

Epiphone Japan

Epiphone Japan 2001: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !
Epiphone Japan 1999: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !

Greco

1977 Greco vol 8 (below Burny cats): MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !
1978 - 1979 Greco vol 9 - 11: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !
1980 - 1981 Greco vol 12 + 13: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !
Greco Mint Collection English catalog: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !
1980 Greco Parts catalog: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !

Orville by Gibson

Orville by Gibson vol 1+2: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !
Orville by Gibson vol 3, 1990, 1993, 1996):MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !
Orville by Gibson 1992: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !

Tokai

Tokai 1978 - 1980: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !
Tokai 1981: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !
Tokai 1982 spring ed: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !
Tokai 2010 vol 25: MIJ Catalogs thread - with a 56k warning !

==============================================

56k friendly format:

Instructions for converting 56k thumbs to full size catalog pages:
You can view or save full size catalog pages in a separate internet browser window using the following steps:
1- Right clicking the image you want to enlarge,
2- Select "properties" from the drop down menu, thrn select the URL link
thenpress control C to put address into memory.
3- Click a cleared browser address bar for a command prompt only and press Ctrl + V keys to paste address to url bar.
4- Change the "m" that appears right before .jpg to a "b" in the url image link, and press enter.
You should now be viewing that catalog page full size. Repeat with other pages.

Burny

1980 - 1984 Burny: MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly
1985 - 1987 vol 1 Burny: MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly
1987 vol 2 - 1989 Burny: MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly
1990 - 1992 Burny: MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly

Epiphone Japan

Epi Japan 1999 MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly

Greco

1977 Greco:(below Burny cats): MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly
1978 - 1979 Greco: MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly
1980 - 1981 Greco: MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly
Greco Mint Collection with English descriptions: MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly
1980 Greco Parts Catalog: MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly

Orville by Gibson, Epi 1999

Orville by Gibson Vols 1 to 3: MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly
Orville by Gibson 1990,'91,'93,'96 + Epi 1999:MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly
Orville by Gibson 1992 (small): MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly
Orville by Gibson 1994 (small): MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly

Tokai

Tokai 1978-1980 (catalogs 1-3): MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly
Tokai 1981 (catalog 4): MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly
Tokai 1982 (catalog 5): MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly
Tokai 2010 (catalog 25): MIJ Les Paul Catalogs ... 56k friendly

Because full size catalog pages are so pic heavy, links locations may hold only momentarily until pics finish loading. I suggest monitoring initial location of right page scroll button or just refreshing the URL address once all pics have loaded (F5)

[reborn old]

"open book" MIJ brands:









Notable missing MIJ examples are: early open book FGN (Fujigen brand), History, Orange (Fernandes), and a host of "house" brands produced in the 70's and 80's, mainly by Matsumoku, Kasuga, Dyna and others.
I think JoDee and Heerby were produced by Kasuga.
Sigma was made for Martin (some by Tokai). Grandy was made by Tokai .
Fernandes sometimes used their company logo on Custom models and Standards normaly had the Burny label, but the Fernandes shown above is a Standard.

Thanks to all headstock pic contributors.

[vivanchenko]

As far as I know the information provided about Edwards is misleading. Just saying "they are made in China and checked by Japanese inspectors" sounds misleading. A product is not "made" until it is finished, right? According to all sources the Edwards is at least finished and set up in Japan. This is a world of a difference! Sometimes, a set up is all the difference! Also, it is not just "inspectors". According to the e-mails from ESP, on which the whole MIC theory is based, all of the key operations are made by the Japanese professionals and local stuff is involved only in doing simple tasks such as sanding, so it is not just "inspectors"

All of the above is very different from just "MIC" and "Japanese inspectors". This "inspectors" thing leaves false impressions.

Also, as far as I know, there is a law in Japan that says that only products of which at least 65% made in Japan can be labeled as MIJ. I do not think that a Japanese company can brake Japanese law so easily.

All that matters is that buying Edwards a costumer gets a MIJ quality - period.

[tonebone]

post #35 ... MIJ overload!

[reborn old]

I thought headstock pics might be useful for identification purposes,
and was hoping owners of these, and other MIJ open book headstock brands,
would post pics + info on them.
There are many more of course, but thought it was a good start at least.

[JamesT]

You've got it!

90's Bacchus Live Road, Bacchus Vintage Series



'83 Burny Super Grade, Mid 80's Burny Custom



'80 Burny FLG Super Grade, Late 80's Edwards Custom



'78 Fresher, '77 Greco Custom



'80 Greco EGF-1200 Super Real, '80 Greco EGF-1000 Super Real



'82 Greco Mint Collection, '82 Greco Custom



'89 Greco, '78 Guya



'78 Heerby, '80 JooDee



Early 80's Navigator, '79 Tokai Reborn



'81 Tokai Love Rock

[o0mobius0o]

1975 Burny FLG:

[o0mobius0o]

1978 Burny FLC:

[o0mobius0o]

1973? National hollow body:

[wulfman]

A few to add:
Tokai custom blank headstock:


Epiphone Lacquer Series LP:


Epiphone Elite/Elitist Japan market:

[GammyBird]

Orville Custom and Orville By Gibson 57C




Orville By Gibson Standard. Take note of the wonky script.

[jeffrey]

?Googled

[reborn old]

A few more from '70's to date :
1970's Antoria
1984 Fernandes RLG (with Fernandes headstock like the one 5 rows down in this post: _MIJ__FAQ_+_Links .) Otherwise identical to same model Burny RLG
History
Seville (sold by History, Fujigen made )
Momose

[slapshot]

variations count?
early supergrade with gold logo

late 80s rocknroll line

70's FLG

late 80s RLC

90s rock spirit

early edwards

[GammyBird]

How about some pictures and information on cavity routings? I know some guys here can tell a lot by those....

[JamesT]

I thought pickup routing shots would be worth a go....here's a few.

'82 Greco EG-600 Mint Collection



'80 JooDee Artist



'85 Burny RSC-80



2011 Bacchus Classic



2009 Edwards Pure Material

[slapshot]

not to split hairs but you mean pickup routes right?

[GammyBird]

Yep slap. Tenon's are good too James

[reborn old]

Tokai old vs new routing ... the main difference being an empty tenon cutout on vintage 1978 - 1985 models pics #1 + #2
...and a long tenon on modern LS models, pic #3.
All feature same squarish pick up ear cutouts, (as do 1978 Tokai made Burnys, and mid '80's Tokai made Grandy's)
and Tokai's tenon offset to the base side of the neck on all LS models. Vintage models have a characteristic 1mm surface rout between ear cutouts that newer models don't.

1979 to late 1980 EGF routings with medium or extended tenon pics #4 + #5 + pic # 6 next post.
(tenon type is impossible to prove or disprove outside of a neck break),

No dowels, were used in EGF's from late 1980 to the end of 1981, but dowels continued to be used on Greco models below EGF-850's throughout 1981. All 1982 mint collection models have long tenons and no dowels like
James's 1st pic here: _MIJ__FAQ_+_Links

[reborn old]

Diagram of an extended EGF tenon below.



Note to owners of early 1970's MIJ Les Pauls =>

matsumoku forum has members who are knowledgeable about
many early '70's MIJ Les Paul brands, some with bolt on necks, 3 screw TRC's, white plastic covers,
including Fender copy guitars.

Thanks to Ohjay for that link.

[reborn old]

MIJ hardware compatibility, Burny Greco and Tokai:

(all measurements center to center, the Tokai is a recent model,
vintage Tokai examples may vary.)

All Burny Greco and Tokai Kluson style tuners are compatible with tuner mounting screw distances set 23 mm apart.
Tailpieces and posts are all compatible as well, with 51 mm post measurement for all 3 brands.

Bridges, bridge posts and thumbscrews aren't interchangeable due to thread differences and bridge hole spacing.
A Greco bridge slides onto Tokai or Burny posts, but not a Tokai onto the other two brands, not sure about a Burny bridge on a Greco. Spacing is the same , but unsure about untested post thread sizes.

Pickup surrounds vary by 1mm, brand to brand:
Tokai 81mm x 37mm
Greco 81mm x 38mm
Burny 82mm x 37mm (1982-1990 RLG)

Pictured below are polished Tokai hardware, with brass bridge saddles
next to aged nickel 1980 vintage Greco EGF hardware.

[reborn old]

I thought I would post Burny ID and dating info here in the FAQ,
since Fernandes - Burny manufacturer and production dates can be pretty confusing to newcomers.

For individual Burny model specs please check the first FAQ post: _MIJ__FAQ_+_Links

I would first like to thank doublecut (aka JapanStrat), for doing much of the research and
providing much of the dating and ID info found in many of these Burny posts.
Thanks to Nils, Jacco and Udonitron for their contributions as well.
Thanks to members here at MLP, and other sites, for pics and info that make identification a lot easier for us all.

There are 8 known date ranges for Burny production (2 of which overlap between 1982 and 1986 or early '87),
with at least 7 different manufacturers and possibly other smaller industry neck and body suppliers (like Atlantasia).
The difficulty in dating Burny's, is that RLG's produced from 1982 to date, don't have serial numbers.
FLG's all use early Japanese serial number dating conventions, with the 1st numeric digit being the year of manufacture.

The best strategies for dating RLG Burnys, lie in identifying unique features of each manufacturer and production era, and combine this info with pot date codes, usually found below stamped pot resistance values (on US produced Noble pots anyway).
The significant year number is circled in yellow in the pic below.
This pot was produced in 1986 and the RLC it was installed in, produced in 1986 or 87.
If not present on the pot rear face, numbers can sometimes be found on pot side edges (last pic in this post).



The 8 date ranges for identification purposes are:

1975-77 Terada FLG
1978-79 Tokai FLG
1980-81* Terada FLG

1982-86* Kasuga RLG
1982-86* Matsumoku RLG
1987-90* Dyna Gakki RLG
1990-94* Fujigen RLG
1995-date Yako RLG (Taiwan)

*Since pot code dating is far from an exact science, year ranges posted are general guidelines only
and production may sometimes in fact extend into year ranges of other listed manufacturers.
There is always a possibility pots weren't used quickly or in rotation, but it remains the best method
for narrowing down the above date ranges.

Fernandes used their own name instead of the domestic Burny name on export Les Paul models.
All FLG's + RLG's were produced in Japan except for 1995+ Yako Taiwan models.

If you find inaccuracies in the Burny info posted here or have suggestions on how to improve it,
kindly PM me, rather than posting comments below. Thanks !

Headstocks in pic #1 below are :
1975-77 Terada FLG, 1978-79 Tokai FLG, 1980-81 Terada FLG
Headstocks in pic #2 below are :
1982-86 Kasuga-Matsumoku RLG, 1987-90 Dyna-Fujigen RLG, 1995+ Yako RLG (Taiwan)

[reborn old]

1975-77 Terada FLG

1975-77 Terada FLG's are unique amongst Burnys due to the "Les Paul model" script below the Burny pearloid inlay.
Serial numbers are preceded by a letter (usually z) and then the year of manufacture digit (5,6,7 or 8)
All Terada Burnys are different from other manufacturer brands for their control cavity routing with pickup wires entering close to the outer edge of the guitar next to the bridge volume pot (see yellow arrow in last pic below). Other manufacturer's pickup wires all enter the control cavity at the neck volume pot just left of where the ground wire enters the cavity, or else between both volume pots in the case of Kasuga, Yako and a few Dyna and/or Fujigen examples.
1975-77 models come with all metal tuners (instead of double ring or single ring plastic tuner tips found on post Tokai FLG's). Finish on backs and on headstock backs are sprayed so thin, that wood pores show through the finish.
Pickup cavity wire routing is actually drilled through the mahogany layer at the middle of the neck cavity through to the middle of the bridge pickup cavity, before the neck is glued on, also unique to Terada made models. All Terada models have stamped rear headstock serial numbers.
Fernandes export model Les Pauls are stamped longitudinally between tuners instead of behind the front inlay.

[reborn old]

1978-79 Tokai FLG

1978-79 Tokai FLG's are easy to date, with Tokai 7 digit ink serials and blank headstocks below the Burny pearloid inlay.
Serial numbers beginning with 800xxxx are 1978 models and serial numbers beginning with 900xxxx are 1979 models.
Additionally, Tokai uses wire channel routing and square end tab routing (with rounded corners)
In the control cavity, Tokai is the only manufacturer with all 4 cavity lobes flattened at edges.

[reborn old]

1980-81 Terada FLG

1980-81 Terada FLG's are similar to pre-Tokai versions.
The unique feature of these last FLG's are the Super Grade model script combined with the white
pearloid Burny inlay and return of stamped headstock serial #'s.
The serial number is not usually preceded by a letter so the 1st digit is probably the production year digit (0 or 1)
Wiring to the ouput jack is housed in a clear plastic tube and control cavity shielding foil is used.
Pickup cavity routes and wire layout are the same as earlier Teradas.
1980 double ring Klusons are dropped sometime in 1981 for single ring version.

[reborn old]

1982-86 Kasuga RLG

Wire channel routing is reintroduced and Kasuga produce some "not so plain top" base model tops complete with fret edge binding. Many feature birdseye artifact tops and or flame figuring, or both. Multipiece backs become more common place than on earlier FLG's (on base models at least). Gold color Burny inlays are introduced along side Matsumoku produced RLG models. RLG-90+ models also have a tenon lip cutout similar to vintage Tokais. Kasuga tenons are medium length, ending at the top edge of the pickup cavity.
Kasuga control cavity lobes are the narrowest of all Burnys. Kasuga models have unique wire channel routing amongst Burnys (different from Tokai's) and share many attributes of Kasuga produced Heerbys and Freshers. (see comparison pics below)

Kasuga Burny pickup cavity routes:



Kasuga Fresher pickup cavity routes:



Kasuga Burny control cavity route on left + Kasuga 1979 Heerby control cavity route on right:

[reborn old]

1982-86 Matsumoku RLG

Matsumoku RLG'shave unique Burny long neck tenons that fill the center of the neck pickup cavity and have a large phillips flat head screw installed into the tenon during the neck bonding process. Matsumoku Aria Les Pauls share this attribute.
They don't use wire channel routing and the control cavity pickup wire hole is located 1/4 in below the mahogany back's outer surface, where other brand routings are all much closer to the maple top cap. Control cavity lobes are medium sized.