1960s Conqueror (Japan) Hollowbody Electric Guitar
While this fella has a Conqueror brand, it's a Japanese-made guitar model sold under many other brands, too, including Aria and Univox. Word on the street is that they're either Matsumoku or Fujigen-made and it's definitely a model made in the late '60s. It apes the dimensions and vague look of a Gibson ES-335 but the body is hollow with a center soundpost and the neck is bolt-on.
These always need a bit of work to make them good players but this one got that work via a tag-team approach with myself and Ancel, and now it's playing spot-on and is good to go.
Beginning about a year or two ago, every time I see one of these bolt-on neck Japanese electrics come in, I automatically install a 1/2" dowel that's glued and pinned in both the neckblock and endblock through the center of the body. This makes these hollowbody, bolt-on neck instruments much more stable and removes the "fuss" aspect of these cool old hollowbodies -- that being the inward-caving neck and always-drifting setup.
Tone on this guy is bright and snappy for the humbucker-sized pickups but with a good midsy bite.
Repairs included: reinforcement dowel installed, a fret level/dress, bridge modification so it intonates well with modern 3-wound, 3-plain stringing, minor wiring repairs, seam repairs, cleaning, and setup.
Weight: 6 lbs 0 oz
Scale length: 24 3/4"
Nut width: 1 5/8"
Neck shape: slim-med C
Board radius: 14"
Body width: 15 3/4"
Body depth: 1 1/2" + arching
Body wood: ply maple
Bridge: archtop-style rosewood, 3-plain/3-wound stringing
Fretboard: rosewood
Neck wood: mahogany
Pickups: 2x original
Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 46w-10
Truss rod: adjustable
Neck relief: straight
Fret style: medium-wider
Condition notes: the bridge is unoriginal and it's missing its whammy's arm and spring but otherwise it's original throughout. The whammy on these is a terrible design, anyhow, so it's better in this capacity as a "normal" tailpiece. The neck pocket has been shimmed to get better back-angle. There are a few repaired side/back seams and not all of them line up exactly-perfectly but they don't look bad, either. There's, of course, general usewear/small scratches/etc throughout the finish.
It comes with: sorry, no case.
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