Owning a Vintage Guitar
I was born in 1978 and for the last few years, I’ve had a desire to own instruments and amps from the year or, at least, the decade I was born in. Unfortunately, vintage instruments have increased considerably in price. This has tempered that desire quite a bit.
Recently, however, I came across someone on Craigslist that had a 1980s Burny Les Paul copy for sale.
The Japanese-made Burny models, along with Orville and Greco, are often spoken of quite highly as quality instruments that compared favorably to their American counterparts.
That made me realize that there was a whole slew of guitars out there that would fit the “made in the 70s”, as long as I was okay with not having a Fender or Gibson. I was and still am.
Does it Have to Be a Fender/Gibson?
I poked around on Reverb searching for some 1978 made guitars. I found one that really interested me, a Hohner Telecaster Deluxe, but it sold a few days after I added it to my watch list. My hesitation to pull the trigger cost me the chance of obtaining it, as when I’d gone to add it to my cart, it had been sold.
I then started searching again and found the Session for $400 and it was being sold by someone local. I reached out, asked a couple of questions, and off I went. I talked to Big John, the guy who does my guitar work, most of the way there and what to check and look for based on the pictures in the listing.
I walked away with the guitar.
One of the very common feature of import Les Paul copies is that the necks are bolt-on necks instead of set neck, or glued in, like actual Les Pauls are. This results in a lower cost to produce and a lower price to pay nowadays. You can find some import Les Paul copies, especially Korean (MIK) or Chinese (MIC) models, for $200 or so.
The fact that this had a set neck for the price was pretty nice. The neck is very comfortable to play, the frets have plenty of life left in them, and the only gripe about it is that it’s set up a bit slinky for me, which means the previous owner like used a set of .10s instead of the .11s I favor for Les Pauls.
The binding on the side of the neck has cracked where the frets are, which seems to be a common trait in the guitars I’ve looked at. The neck ends in the Gibson open book headstock, and the tuners aren’t the typical cheap tuners found on these imports. They aren’t GREAT, but I can buy nicer tuners and not have to drill new holes in the head.
The Body is Laminate Wood
Like the Hondo H-737 that was in my possession for a little while, the Session has a Mahogany or Nato laminate body. In other words, plywood. After I sent pictures to Big John where he confirmed it was plywood before we even saw the side of the body, he explained that the glue used to form the body made for a lighter, more resonant body (sorry if I botched that explanation, John!).
How did he know it was plywood from the picture I sent him? He was able to tell from a shot of the control cavity because the grain of the wood went across the body instead of up and down it. The more you know.
Now, how can I tell it’s plywood outside of how Big John saw it? When you look at the curves of the guitar, you can see the lines of the plywood clearly visible in it.
Does that both me? Nope, not one bit. It actually sounds great. Interestingly, so did the Hondo. Perhaps I need to rethink Mahogany/Nato laminate bodies, eh?
Is it MIJ or MIK?
When trying to find out more information on the guitar after I’d bought it, one of the first things I tried to determine was whether it was made in Japan (MIJ), or made in Korea (MIK) I came across a bit of info that MIK, Les Paul copies tended to have 45 degree angles cut in the pickup cavities, and something about the route from the pickups to the control cavity, but I can’t remember or find the bit about the latter.
The pickup cavities in my Session Les Paul are right angled, which was typical of the MIJ imports. MIK models also often have bolt-on necks, but that’s not completely indicative of being the country of origin.
Leaning towards the MIK is the fact that the truss rod cover has three screws vs. two and that the bridge posts are slotted instead of just posts. That being said, I have read and seen pictures of MIJ copies that had those, especially ones made earlier in the ’70s.
Other Aesthetics
The body itself is actually in pretty sold shape. There’s some wear and tear but for a nearly 50 year old lower end guitar, I have zero complaints. I filled it in with some black paint and, at a glance, you’d never know it had the damage. Up close, of course, that changes.
The body has double binding, which I’ve long been a fan of. The pickguard was missing but I bought an all black one, including a black bracket, from Amazon for $8 and it was a cinch to install.
The Pots and Wiring
When it comes to these import models that sat in the lower-end of the cost spectrum five decades ago, the electronics are often garbage. The pots, the wiring, the pickups are garbage and one of the first things people look to replace.
This Session definitely aligns with that for the post and wiring. I believe I saw 500k on one of the pots when I looked, but they are about the size of a dime, so it’s pretty hard to read much of anything on them. The pots also don’t have a ton of range. I’d like to replace them, but the pickup cavity will likely have to be routed out a bit to fit the normal quarter-sized pots. The wiring is also such a small gauge and will likely be replaced.
The Pickups
The humbuckers in the guitar are not microphonic, another cost-cutting feature that you see more commonly in, but not limited to, the MIK models. This might mean that they are indeed potted but I haven’t taken the pickups out to check.
When comparing the pickups in the Les Paul Classic I had and the Les Paul Traditional I just traded for, they hold their own. The pickups handle any drive pedal I throw at them and sound great. They are bassy but articulate what I play well enough. It’s not the clarity that I felt the microphonic pickups in the Hondo, but it’s solid. I think pairing them with better pots might open them up. That’s a long term goal.
The Switch
As far as I can tell, the switch is fine. It’s a three-position switch that doesn’t have any noise when I switch pickups.
In Conclusion
Was buying this maybe MIJ/maybe MIK guitar for $400?
Yes. I’d invested roughly $200 in the Hondo H-737 and was willing to accept it, warts and all. The Session is a significant step up, not only in aesthetics but with the set neck, tuners, and sound.
I picked both the Hondo and the Session because I wanted to have three humbucking guitars: the Les Paul Classic, the ES-339 semi-hollow, and the Hondo/Session. However, I recently picked up a Les Paul Traditional that functions as a different sound from the GFS Professional AlNiCo V humbuckers. The Hondo was sold to a friend and that leaves me with a fourth humbucker guitar. The question becomes, “Do I sell the Session” or “Do I do some really interesting things, pickup-wise, with it”?
If for some reason I ever sold the Les Paul Traditional, it’d be great to have this fill that role again. I can only imagine that 197x guitars are going to get more expensive and to have one that’s already a “winner” would present a great solution to a currently non-existent problem.
Would I suggest you buy a Session, Gession (might might be related to the Session brand), Memphis, Hondo, Aria, or any of the other countless copies? If you can play it first, or buy it from a place that has a good return policy? Sure. 100%. Unfortunately, there are A LOT of stinkers out there, and I believe I’m lucky to have found two, especially back to back, that were diamonds in the rough.