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Topic: A Poor Man's Stringmaster - Guyatone D-8 |
Mike Harris
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 11:25 am |
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C C,
I've been teaching guitar for a lot of years now, and I see far more strats than teles come into my studio--maybe that's the difference between Killeen and Austin? |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 12:26 pm
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| Quote: |
| I see far more strats than teles come into my studio-- |
Same here Mike. I teach guitar four days a week at a music store that sells Fender, and many other brands, and the Strats outsell the Teles by at least 6 to 1, maybe even more. Stratocaster is the most popular electric guitar in the world. And the most copied. Personally, I don't like them. I prefer Telecasters, after steel guitars, of course. 
_________________
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25 Songs C6 Lap Steel / 25 MORE Songs C6 Lap Steel / 16 Songs, C6, A6, B11 / 60 Popular Melodies E9 Pedal Steel
Last edited by Doug Beaumier on 21 Dec 2008 1:04 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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c c johnson
From:
killeen,tx usa * R.I.P.
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 12:46 pm
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| You Austinites have always been more sophisticated than us cotton choppers in Killeen. cc |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 1:55 pm
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| Doug Beaumier wrote: |
| ...I prefer Telecasters, after steel guitars, of course. |
I have a Telecaster and a Stratocaster, and I prefer the Telecaster. But then, I prefer the Fender Coronado over both of them.  |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Laurent Arams
From:
Edmonton,Alberta, Canada
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Posted 5 Jan 2009 7:14 pm Guyatone D-8
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| I got the exact same guitar, a D-8. I love it. It was my first steel. Wow was white the only color they used back then. I would love to know more about Guyatone steels. Just my 2 cents. |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 6 Jan 2009 7:29 am
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We had a mild earthquake a few days ago, during which my Guyatone fell off the Sho-Bud it was resting on, and took a dive to the floor, sustaining a few more dents. I don't know whether the moral is to not live in earthquake country or not to stack instruments on top of each other.   |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Jimmy Douglas
From:
Raceview, Queensland, Australia
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Posted 2 Feb 2009 8:44 pm Guyatone D8 schematic
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Hi, I have a Guyatone D8 like the one being discussed. I wonder if anyone has a schematic for the switches which are not working properly. I also wonder if anyone knows if the Lollar stringmaster pickups would fit these guitars?
Regards,
JD |
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Jackiso
From:
Yokohama, Japan
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Posted 9 Feb 2009 4:38 am
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removing double posting
Last edited by Jackiso on 9 Feb 2009 4:45 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Jackiso
From:
Yokohama, Japan
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Posted 9 Feb 2009 4:42 am
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I know this is a belated posting but I felt I should share with you the history of GUYATONE the way I learned it:
MATSUKI MFG, a predecessor to GUYATONE, was founded in 1933 to make wooden housing fixtures like Shoji screen. Other than that its pre-war activities are little known. Soon after the WWII, some manufacturers turned their attention to the merchandise whose manufacturing had been banned during the war. Hawaiian steel guitar was one of those target products. At first MATSUKI MFG was providing a body of the steel guitar for TEISCO who was a forerunner to make a steel guitar in commercial quantity. MATSUKI realizing its sales potential, decided to make a steel themselves under their own brand of GUYA. What does GUYA mean? In Japanese a shop to manufacture or sell housing fixture for a Japanese house was called “TATEGU(housing fixture)-YA(shop)” or “GUYA” in short as a musician likes to shorten any word.
In 1948 MATSUKI MFG was renamed as MATSUKI ELECTRIC SOUND LAB to signify its corporate goals looking toward the post war era. Next year when they were to start assembling a guitar amp, they changed the brand name to “GUYATONE” hoping “TONE” added would give the brand more flavor of a musical instrument.
In ‘50s and ‘60s the demand for a steel guitar soared in line with rising popularity of Hawaiian music and C&W. GUYATONE along with its competitor TEISCO provided steels at an affordable price with an acceptable quality. When I first bought a GUYA 6 stringer in 1960, a double neck Fender Stringmaster was sold here for a price equal to an year’s salary of a college graduate. It is fair to call it a poor man’s Fender or Gibson as we felt exactly as such thinking that some day we would get the “real” thing.
Craze for Rock music, Ventures syndrome in Japan, helped to expand GUYATONE market globally and they shifted their main product from steels to solid body guitars according to the evolution of the guitar market. In 1956 with global marketing in mind MATSUKI ELECTRIC changed its corporate name to more recognizable TOKYO SOUND CO.
Attached is a catalogue of this transitional period:
http://www.guyatone.jp/sub_menu/catalog.htm
TOKYO SOUND was also known among audio buffs as a manufacturer of quality phonograph cartridges and tone arms.
Late ‘50s and early to mid ‘60s were best years for GUYATONE guitars. To meet soaring demand they not only built a new factory in Tokyo suburbs but had to subcontract the production of the body of the electric guitar to YAMAHA. With the craze of guitar market subsiding, however, their sales fell and in August 1969 they went broke. In September they were back as GUYA CO refocusing their business goals and in 1976 it was renamed back to TOKYO SOUND CO.LTD.
When you were to keep up with the growing market under severe competition, it was a safe bet to make your product as close as to a best seller looking-wise or function-wise or both. To penetrate into overseas market you would have to listen to what your local dealers demanded. GUYATONE was no exception. But from late ‘70s the company seemed to have changed its policies leaning more toward originality. Here’s a catalog from that era and you don’t find many copy product there.
http://brochures.yokochou.com/guitar-and-amp/guyatone/1979/
(BTW, did you know they made a pedal steel then?)
One last remark on GUYATONE steel: Deluxe 8 made by Fender Japan sounds very much like GUYATONE 308 IMO. The person once responsible for manufacturing GUYATONE guitars moved out to start Fender Japan and oversaw, among others, production of Deluxe 8. |
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Tom Pettingill
From:
California, USA (deceased)
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Les Anderson
From:
The Great White North
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Posted 9 Feb 2009 12:37 pm
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Being that I have a Guya does this mean that my D8 Guya is possibly pre 1948?
I am now beginning to wonder if the market downturn during the 50s was the reason some people have laminated or plywood type bodies on their Guyatones.
Doug's last post about his Guyatone possibly being a laminated wood body got the best of my curiosity so, I actually took the tuning pan off my steel and drilled a 3/4" deep hole in my Guya to see if was in fact actually laminated wood or solid wood. My Guya is solid wood without the slightest doubt. Possibly white birch or white poplar. I cannot find a serial number or production number on the D8. |
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Jackiso
From:
Yokohama, Japan
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Posted 9 Feb 2009 6:32 pm
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| Quote: |
| Being that I have a Guya does this mean that my D8 Guya is possibly pre 1948? |
Unlikely. I doubt if MATSUKI people were that fast in making a D8 almost concurrently with Fender's introduction of Dual Pro. Although in 1948 "GUYATONE" was introduced as the brand name, they have not discontinued the use of "GUYA" as the logo until very end of the lifespan of their steels. I had one beautiful S8 made apparently late '70s or even later that had a very artistic GUYA script logo on its front and on the case.
Jack Isomura |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Les Anderson
From:
The Great White North
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Posted 10 Feb 2009 2:35 pm
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Damn, my bubble has been burst so many times on this subject that I am beginning to feel like a cheap hooker.  |
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Bill McRoberts
From:
Janesville, Wisconsin USA
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Posted 10 Feb 2009 3:27 pm
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Sorry for jumping in so late on this thread. Here is a pic of my Guyatone six string.
Doug, I'll bet your guitar sounds as sweet as it looks.
Bill |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 11 Feb 2009 7:39 am
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| Doug: What sort of amp and processors are you using on How d'ya do ? |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Posted 11 Feb 2009 8:50 am
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Alan, I didn't use an amp. I just patched the steel guitar into a Black Box (tube filter), then into a reverb (Holy Grail II), using a very minimal amount of 'spring reverb', and then into the computer. No volume pedal. I monitored through the computer speakers.
steel guitar ---> black box ---> reverb ---> into computer
The pickup on the guitar tends to break up a little, which adds some warmth to the tone, in my opinion. I wouldn't say it's a clean sound, like a Fender, but it's good sound nonetheless. Thanks for asking about it. 
_________________
My Site / My YouTube Channel
25 Songs C6 Lap Steel / 25 MORE Songs C6 Lap Steel / 16 Songs, C6, A6, B11 / 60 Popular Melodies E9 Pedal Steel |
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Iain
From:
Edinburgh, Scotland
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Posted 12 Feb 2009 2:31 am
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Here's my Guyatone, which I got for a mere £25 in a junk-shop in the Scottish Highlands.
Pickups (are these the Cooder-approved gold-foil ones?) sound really sweet and it's very portable: great for a few tunes on steel in mainly-guitar gig. Very light, too.
I like it.
Oh, seem to be having trouble uploading the picture: I clicked on "upload picture" and "browse", then "send"...then nothing happened. Odd. Oh, well, I'll try and add the pic another time, maybe. It's a wee blonde 6-string, 2 pickups. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 12 Feb 2009 7:42 am
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| The Forum Computer wrote: |
| ...okay, Brookes, you Dufus, you're making duplicate posts again |
Ooooops 
Last edited by Alan Brookes on 12 Feb 2009 7:48 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 12 Feb 2009 7:45 am
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| Iain wrote: |
| ...seem to be having trouble uploading the picture: I clicked on "upload picture" and "browse", then "send"...then nothing happened.... |
That's what usually happens if your image is a bitmap, or if it's too big. Go into Paint, open your file, go to Image/Stretch/Skew and set both to 40%. Then save your image as a .jpg file with a different name. Load that image into the Forum and I bet it works.
| Doug Beaumier wrote: |
| ... Thanks for asking about it. |
Well, thanks for posting it. I always appreciate your work, and I've been trying to get a similar sound, but my Guyatone doesn't sound like yours. I think I'll pull out my old 50s Watkins Copy-Cat tape-echo unit, instead of the electronic ones I've been using.
| Jackiso wrote: |
| I know this is a belated posting but I felt I should share with you the history of GUYATONE the way I learned it:... |
The more I learn about the Guyatone D8 the happier I am that I bought two of them.  |
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