Memphis M-152D

I think it was made in Japan in the early to mid 70's. I took one of the tuners off and it said made in Japan. It has a Fender shaped headstock so it must be pre-lawsuit, whaenever that was. Has maple neck with rosewood 22-fret board, brass fret markers (!), and a brass nut. The only crappy thing about this guitar is the tuners which are like cheap knock-offs of vintage Fenders but, they do hold tune pretty well and that's what really counts. Has 2 white humbuckers with blade-style polepieces which I was told were Bill Lawrence, with white pickup rings. 3-way selector switch on upper horn, one coil tap switch by the knobs, 2 volume and 2 tone knobs which are the old clear and white plastic "speed knobs". String-thru-body hardtail style bridge with brass saddles. Boddy is a five-piece laminate-style with three piecces of maple in the middle and solid walnut wings with a clear-gloss finish on the whole thing. I give it an 8 in this category because of the crappy tuners or I probably would have given it a 10.

This guitar sounds friggin' awsome! Especially great for the blues and strait-up rock. Also gets great J.Garcia and Steely Dan type tones. Has singing sustain for years and the coil tap switch with the 3-way really gets a lot of tonal options. The coil tap works great unlike some other guitars I've tried where you can barely hear a difference. The neck gets kinda wide the closer you get to the body but I've found this has vastly improved my soloing because my fingers are kind of fat. This guitar has a very bright, full,70's tone which I like a lot. Also gets a really weird nasty sound when played with high-gain and scooped mids which is very unique and quite pleasing. I have to give it a 10 considering what I paid for it and the fact that it sounds better that a lot of 1000$+ guitars I've played.

Like I said, the tuners are kinda lame but the rest is pretty good. It has some of the kind of imperfections typical of early Japanese electric guitars but it's probably the best player I've ever seen in the "early Japanese" category. You can tell this was one of the first efforts to make a really good player to compete with the US manufacturers. Memphis later became a pretty crappy brand. The maple and walnut laminate looks pretty sweet and the grain of the walnut is beautiful. I bet any of the guitar shops where I live would ask over 300.oo for this guitar.

Solid.

Who?

When I was growing up in the LA area Memphis was the brand that most stores carried as their cheapies and beginners. My first 2 electrics were Memphis but they were nowhere near as good as this one so, I kind of have a soft spot for this guitar. But, it is a great guitar especially for what I paid. The tone can't be beat and it looks pretty good to. Get one if you have a chance.