Lyle 335 Copy

I cannot Identify the age of this Lyle, but it was made in Japan under Matsumoku. Two passive single coil pickups deck out this hollow-body guitar Tuners were replaced with grover tuners when i bought it. Came with nothing else, other than the guitar. Nice good playing neck. Has a vintage vibrato tailpiece.

I like this guitar, because it has a good sound. It sounds great with any effect except distortion. Has a good clean sound, no fret buzz. The only bad thing about it is that it cannot play distortion, but other than that, this guitar is a great investment. Gives out an awesome rockabilly sound, and sounds great for country, and classic rock.

The way this guitar is set up is superior to any other guitar I've played. The pickups were fine, but I have adjusted them. The action is around what my other electrics' actions are. Very rare to come across something that is set up this well.

I believe that this guitar can stand live playing. It was tough enough to be put in the back of my car and driven from the pawn shop down a dirt road to my home. This finish hasn't worn off yet, and I believe that it will last another 10+ years. Very solid strap buttons. I can depend on it, and would use it on any gig of mine without anything to back it up.

No customer support.

I've been playing for about 2 years now. I own a Peavey Raptor, a Peavey Zodiac DE Scorpio bass, four acoustic guitars, two banjoes, a homemade washtub bass, and three amps, along with one pedal. If it were stolen, or lost, I would probably find the person that stole it and beat the living crap out of them, and possibly end their life.
I love everything about it. There is nothing to hate. This was the only hollow-body the pawn shop had, and I liked it because it had a resemblence to another guitar I liked. I wish it would have come with a hard-shell case. Oh, by the way, I call it "Excalibur", because it is probably the best guitar I've ever had.

Bought at a flea market for $25!! YOWZA!!!!

Made in Japan in the late 60's in the Matsumoku factory. Lyle guitars are essentially Univox guitars, as they were made in the same Japanese factory at the same time as Univox and Epiphone guitars. They share common features with Univox and Epiphone.

Two pickups, floating bridge, trapeze tailpiece. Hollow-body Gibson 335-copy with nice thick clear finish over a 2-tone brown and yellow sunburst. Two f-holes. Nicely mounted binding is used around the body and neck.

Pickups are a mysterious no-name design with white plastic surrounds, the surrounds mounted in red tort base plated. The headstock is covered with a matching red tort material, and has a cast plastic Lyle name plate on it. I've studied photos of Epiphones (made in the same factory in Japan) and the same pickups were used in some of them. I have no idea whether they're any good.

Tone and volume controls are present for each pickup, and a neck/both/bridge pickup selector switch in the upper horn.

The bodywork and neck on this guitar are very nice. The electronics seem to be pretty weak, although I'm still cleaning up the pots. So far the only sounds are thin and weak. BUT - I bought it at a price that allows me to throw out the electronics if needed, replace the pickups and install new pots, and still have less than $150 invested. That's a SUPER value for a 40-year-old guitar in incredible condition.

I do NOT understand what the other reviews complain about - their problem seems to be electronics, which are easy to replace or upgrade because of the design of this guitar. You would pay hundreds of dollars for woodwork of this quality on a newer instrument. Pay a few bucks and upgrade the electronics, as I planned to do all along.

I strongly suspect the stock pickups are junk now (after 30 years), even if they weren't originally. Currtnly the sound output is weak and extremely thin - basically worthless - but it could be pots that are oxidized to death.

If you buy a guitar with a great body and neck like this at the right price, you can afford to mess with pickups!! I'll try replacing the pots before I look for replacement pickups. Looks to me like Strat pickups would be easy to mount in this, and there are plenty of vintage-style replacement pickups available on Ebay.

Currently, the sound as I acquired it would rate a 1. However, since I know that I will replace the pickups if needed and get a nice sound by doing that, I'll give it a 7 for potential.

Action looks very good on the neck. Haven't done a full setup yet, but the neck is in beautiful shape and the truss rod appears to be operational. Factory setup was gone 30 years ago. I'll give it a 6 because I haven't really been able to test it well yet, but I suspect that once it's set up it will be an 8.

Overall quality of woodwork, finish and binding is excellent. Hardware is mid-quality Japanese stuff from the 60's, so you can consider it better or worse than today's hardware depending on your opinions of such things. To me it looks pretty solid, and the chrome plating on hardware has stoof up very well.

It has lasted 30 years without cracks, chips or visible damage. body and neck are solid, so with care it will last another 30 years.

Live playing is out of the question until I get good electronics in it, at which time there's no reason it can't go onstage anytime desired.

Long gone. No opinion.

Overall, this should be an exciting, quality instrument when the electronics are sorted out. The finish and woodwork are great, the neck is beautiful and straight, so what's not to like?????

I'll rate it 6 because it's a potential player - probably will be an 8 once it's fully reconditioned and ready to go.

If you step away from this 12-string, you might think, "Wow, that's a beauty!". The burgundy finish is pretty nice, it looks "vintage". The two volume and two tone knobs, along with the wierd vintage-style pick-ups look waaay groovy in that "vintage way. They aren't. Nice looking five-layer binding, binding around the neck. Tuners, though strap-style, work great. This is a Lyle 1212, an ES335 12-string copy, made in the early 70's as far as I can tell from different sources. It has a floating bridge, trapeze style tail-piece, and a bridge and neck pickup (1 each, obviously). The neck, a bolt-on, is twice as heavy as the body (guitar strap is out, you spend most of your time trying to muscle the baby into playing position from head-dip position...that is how heavy the neck assembly is). So, to review, this looks good from a few steps away, but up close and personal, it's beauty is only skin deep. One puzzling aspect is how nice the fret board is. The strings don't fit it well, but what an nice piece of wood and metal.

I have tried this through several amps, with effects and without, and it just does not vary much not matter what you do or put it through. It has a deep bass sound, sure, but scratchy, flat, and jeez, you could make something that sounds this good out of cardboard! The questionarre here asks what kind of sounds the guitar can make...hmmm...you know that ear-splitting-bad-pots-sound you can get from cheap and/or really dirty pots???

I purchased this from a "friend" (the bastard) for 80 bucks. Yeeees, I saw it from across the yard, thank-you-very-much. Nothing is right about this guitar, other than that 5-beer, last call "she's so pretty" thing it has going on. I recently repaired the craked brace where the neck bolts on, and added some bracing from the bolt-on area to the bout, sort of a "MacGyver" neck-through attempt. So far it is sort of staying in tune, BUT, if I were to string it as a 12-string, the poor piece o' shite would certainly fold in half.

read last...

I have never dealt with any customer support, but I'm sure it does not exist since I have been chasing ghosts trying to find even the slightest bit of info on this brand. Supposedly this was made by the same people making parts for some of the bigger companies in the early seventies. Let's put it this way: I just built a guitar stand from scrap pallet wood, and THAT is certainly worth more/better constructed than the guitar.

Blah blah blah...I am not a good player, mostly teach myself stuff and make stuff up, but even so, I can tell you that if you want to buy a guitar to play, beginner or experienced, in your clostet or on stage, DON'T buy one of these. If you are looking to decorate you game room or garage-band garage, this is the beyatch for you. Great wall-hanger potential.

plywood top, back and sides with cheesy binding, crap tuners and two weak pick-ups. i know these were built at the same factory as epiphones, and other reputable makers, but they must have let the cleaning crew take a crack at building these.

thin, weak, and completely without sustain!
p/u shorts out and wiring falling apart.

mostly just shotty, from materials to finish, example the name on the headstock is totally mis-aligned(top-bottom and side-side).

would never take this guitar to play a show, unles to smash!

n/a

crap! no really this is a piece of shite.
i've owned cheap guitars before but this might put me off them for good.
save your money, buy something nice.