Product: Lyle L-5 Copy
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted
02/14/2001
at
06:23am
by
Greg
Email: OASYSCO at aol<dot>com
Features
:
10
This big body jazz archtop was made in the 70's in Japan by the same manufacturer, Matsumoku Company who also made Epiphone and Aria guitars during the same time period. Lyle brand guitars were imported from Japan from 1969 to 1980 by the L.D. Heater company of Portland,
Oregon. L.D. Heater was a subsidiary of Norlin during this time and also the distributor for Alembic guitars in the early 70's.
The gorgeous rosewood fretboard contains 20 frets with small block inlays - with all components in magnificent shape. The tuners are enclosed original stock tuners and work great. She snaps to tune when tuning up!
The body consists of a spruce top, mahogany back, sides, and neck. It is 3.25" thick with a 17" lower bout (like I said, itza big box) and a 25.5" scale. It is a set-neck.
The dual humbucker pickups are in excellent shape as are the rest of the electronics. The pups have adjustable pole pieces as well as non-adjustable pole pieces for a total of 12 per pickup. They sound great, especially the neck pup for jazz! After a thorough cleaning of the electronics, everything is quiet - no scratchiness or weird noises.
The metal, decorative tailpiece is heavy and solid. The floating rosewood brdige and saddle are in perfect shape as well.
She is ALL original down the pickguard. No cracks, breaks or repairs. A few nicks is all that distinguishes here form being Near Mint condition as the finish is perfect - no weather checking or major mars. The finish is a very glossy sunburst. All chrome hardware gleams like new.
I'm giving this guitar an 8 for features as it does not have coil splitting, out of phase, etc settings. It's a jazz guitar- whattya expect?
For my write-up and pix, please see
http://www.geocities.com/oasysco1/lyle.htm
Sound
:
10
I (try to) play jazz and this guitar is poifect! Thre neck pup is so jazzy and warm that you don't need a blanket on a cold Winter's night.
I am using the guitar with my Fender Acoustasonic Pro amp and it sounds wonderful. My amp has chrous, reverb, delay, flange, etc, etc. I use a little chorus with some reverb. The sustain of this guitar is excellent.
The bridge pup is brighter, of course and would be good for classic R&R, but you'd look awfully silly playing blues and rock on this big jazz box :) Then again, Ted Nugent did it, so hey!
The acoustic tone of this guitar is OK, but not real loud. It was obviously made to be played thoruhg an amp.
Amplifed, she's full, rich, and thick like your fave milkshake. No noise makes her a joy to listen to.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
This guitar is about 26 years old and yet she was almost perfect outta the box form the previous owner. I restrung with 11's flatwounds and lowered the action to a cool 1/16" at the 15th fret without fret buzzing! Now, what does that tell you aobut the neck? The action could actually go lower even still!
The neck joint is perfect and tight - no separation.
The top has bookmatched spruce that is gorgeous - nice grain.
She has a few nicks, but other than that the finish shines like new with no weather checking! All hardware gleams like new!
Reliability/Durability
:
10
She's over 26 years old and still in primo shape!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
10
I have been playing for about 8 years and own 4 other guitars (3 of them archtops and a flattop) + 3 amps.
In addition to the tone , the thing I like most about this Lyle is her looks - gorgeous sunburst, single rounded cutaway, big bodied jazz guitar. It looks it, plays it, and sounds like it.
I'd never be able to find another one, so if she was stolen, I'd be out of luck.
Why folks go out and spend $1,500, $3,000+ on a new jazz box is beyond me when all of these 70's MIJ models are available for alot less.
I also own an Electra Howard Roberts Artist ( http://www.geocities.com/oasysco1/hr.htm ) copy made in Japan in the 70's and is probably the best made/sounding guitar I've ever owned (and I've owned Gibson's, 70's MusicMan, and Taylor and lots of other good gear). To top it off, I own a MIJ 70's Aria Les Paul copy that is fabulous. And now the Lyle!
Do yourself a favor folks and hunt out these older jazz boxes. The Japanese had a thing to prove to the West during the 70's with their guitar production. As far as I am concerned, they did a wonderful job proving they could build as well or better than US makers!
