Help identify this guitar

[Joshua88]

Hello everyone, I’m new here this is my first post, I purchased this guitar from a old guy he said it was a 1930’s maestro by Gibson but upon viewing the guitar I instantly knew it wasn’t. the guitar says maestro on the headstock but it looks like sticker that’s been laminated over, the fret board is questionable if it’s even rosewood it has some strange wax coating or paint on it, there’s a 0 fret and the nut is really large and looks plastic, the inlays are all over the place and just stickers they have fallen off mostly since light playing, and the neck is just overly large. There has been some wood filler added around the neck seam, I’m guessing to cover cracks it was painted black or I think they used a sharpie. I feel like it’s a cheap Chinese knock off but can’t find anything online.









I wanted a unique acoustic something to learn on and I enjoy modding inexpensive guitars I wasn’t planning on modding a acoustic but when I saw this I got so many ideas, just trying to figure out what it is before I do anything, also does anyone have experience changing the neck on a guitar like this? Also a big white stripes fan so I thought of adding a pick up like jack whites paper bag guitar.

[Steve DeRosa]

My thoughts:

• Although Gibson indeed made instruments for other firms (and TMK currently owns the rights to the Maestro name), this isn't one of them;
• While the three-piece neck and multi-ply top binding are nice touches, the interior back brace and visible grain (which looks like nato to me) suggest a laminated instrument - which isn't necessarily a deal-breaker in an inexpensive archtop, as any owner of a Godin 5th Avenue acoustic or vintage Gibson L-48, Guild A-50, or Gretsch New Yorker will tell you...
• Not too sure about the other elements but it appears to be an older import, possibly mid/late-1950's - three full decades before the Chinese first entered the US market - and my gut brings me down on the side of Japanese rather than European manufacture based on the hardware (particularly the intact treble-side tuners, which I've seen on other early MIJ instruments);
• Don't know what you paid but a replacement neck would be prohibitively expensive, and even a neck reset wouldn't be a recoverable investment should you decide to sell - if you're really emotionally attached to the guitar and intend to keep it over the long haul I'd recommend the latter, especially in view of the bottomed-out bridge and plain-G electric strings (both of which suggest high action resulting from improper neck geometry);
• That shallow fingerboard angle, along with the fact that it doesn't float above the top (unlike most better archtops) will make it very difficult to fit a floating pickup - you might need to go with a bridge with a built-in UST pickup (like the Fishman), an internal/external contact pickup or, if you're willing to rout the top (just watch out for the braces), a very low-profile built-in electric-guitar pickup in the traditional jazz (neck) position...

Hope this helps...

[Joshua88]

Thanks the neck is strange because it is a three piece and not laminated the headstock is poorly carved as well. I also wasn’t sure of what kind of wood it was but you may be correct about nato, I don’t have to much need for a pick up the only thing that bothers me if the fret inlays

[beatcomber]

My gut feeling is this was made in Japan.