Dalmation Pick guards

[John Arnold]

Omitted from the story is the fact that some of those early Saga guitars had real tortoiseshell pickguards. Before the current round of Chinese-made Blueridge guitars, Saga sold Japanese guitars under that name. If I recall correctly, some of those were the ones that had real tortoise.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by John Arnold

Omitted from the story is the fact that some of those early Saga guitars had real tortoiseshell pickguards. Before the current round of Chinese-made Blueridge guitars, Saga sold Japanese guitars under that name. If I recall correctly, some of those were the ones that had real tortoise.

Interesting. Richard never told me that part of the story.


whm

[dan!]

Great stuff, Wade. Thank you.

I doubt there’s a better example than this thread for why internet forums should exist.

But now I gotta worry about my pick guard AND my bridge pins? I should have found an easier hobby.

[Wade Hampton]

dan! (and his hillbilly cousin BillyBob!!) wrote:

Originally Posted by dan!

Great stuff, Wade. Thank you.

I doubt there’s a better example than this thread for why internet forums should exist.

But now I gotta worry about my pick guard AND my bridge pins? I should have found an easier hobby.

Quite honestly, dan! (does your mother call you “Daniel!” ?) I wouldn’t worry too much about it. If in fact some of the Japanese-made Blueridge guitars have genuine tortoiseshell pickguards, the US Customs Service has bigger fish to fry than to kick in the door of your music room looking for them.

What’s more, I’m not even certain that Saga even imported any Japanese-made Blueridge guitars. The Blueridge brand was a somewhat later development for Saga, and I don’t think that it preceded the shift from Japanese subcontractors to Korean subcontractors building instruments for Saga. The earliest Blueridge guitars that I can remember were Korean-made.

1985 was a disastrous year for the Japanese musical instrument industry because the Japanese yen rose steeply against the US dollar that year. I remember that quite clearly because I spent half the summer of 1985 playing a concert tour of Japan.

I did okay because I was getting paid in yen, not dollars, but the steep currency rise killed all of the Japanese guitar manufacturers that catered to the low end and midrange guitar markets. Only the companies that served the upper end of the Japanese domestic market made it through that particular firestorm, and most of them did so by shifting their manufacturing offshore.

Anyway, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and Richard won’t be in the office, but the next time I speak with him I’ll ask him whether there even WERE any Japanese-made Blueridges. I don’t remember any, but I’m hardly an infallible source of Blueridge guitar history.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Silly Moustache]

And the research goes on! All fascinating stuff . I had assumed that the so called "dalmation" patterns went back to the thirties or forties.

Never stop learning - or passing on our knowledge.

[rmgjsps]

Wade, Loved the history lesson. I am suddenly much prouder of my BR-142 with a fine Dalmation pick guard and decorated headstock! Since I live in San Francisco, the background info on Saga was also very interesting. Thanks again.