Penco ES Copy

hello i have a penco, gibson sg copy. no identification number on it, or where it was made. it was my dads. its nice, little heavy, thick neck, wine red, mahog neck with ivory dots, wa ea bar, crome tuners two humbuckers white ivory bridge. but i do not know anything other then that. i live near where the penco factory use to be, its been torn down. no longer there and i had a friend who use to work there. great musician, guitar player. he gave me a hardshell case that was not sold because it was slightly cracked at the top case for my hummingbird. does anyone know what my sg copy could be. the case has a sticker in it says 2354s model. it is an original penco, but i cannot find any parts. anyone know what i have here. dont know where to look. thanks guys

Penco EG 20 S ( ES 330 Copy )Wine color,plywood top and back,maple neck with a rosewood finger board, square MOP inlays gold hardware. Japan 1977. I purchased this guitar new almost 30 years ago. For the first few years it was kept in it's original codition. In 1980 I changed the pickups to Di MArzio PAF's and the tuning machines to a set of Schallers along with 4 gold Gibson speed knobs. In 2005 I replaced the pickguard,pick up rings, roller bearing bridge,tailpiece and the input jack. I used a Fender Tele style jack just to spice it up a bit. Also a new Epiphone 335 case. After all these years and gigs a new case was justified.

This guitar has been with me for a long time and I have played a lot of material on it. I have a basic setup, Peavey Bandit 65 from 1985 some pedals.

I had the frets replaced sometime in the early 80's. I have adusted the neck and intonation only once when I replaced a lot of the parts involving the srtings. The neck on this guitar is out of this world. Thin and fast along with the low action she's a performer. The finish has kept it's original luster over the years and there are no signs of checking, loose bindings.

30 years and she is still around. You tell me?

Never used it.

I'll never sell it! I don't do the name game. I have a guitar that I have reworked to my tastes and specs.

Paid $395 for this guitar 7 years ago. It has a hollow body with a block down the middle so right away the purists are going to turn their noses up. If that didn't get them I'll add that the construction is (gasp!) plywood. It did not come with original p-ups, and the ones that it did have sucked, so I dropped in a pair of epiphone hummers. Wow, It actually sounds like a guitar now. Maple neck in a very stable 3 piece lamination. beautiful quilted maple back and sides (veneer) and stunning bookmatched spruce top (veneer), finished in a blond color that you had a crush on in high school. the bridge is a gibson type tune-o matic. And to finish off the strings there is a trapaze tail piece that provides for awesome sonic overtones when the whole guitar is shaking with feed back. the neck is the kind of neck that you think of when you ask yourself ' should I shave?'. That means thin for those of you who don't use the razor. It's not quite as thin as those Ibanez potato chip necks, but compared to a les or strat from the from the same era it's thin. The width is "normal" so it gives an easy playing experience. Beautiful and easy to play? What's her number?

I've played it through a number of fender amps (deville, deluxe, super reverb, twin) and If I played a lot of jazz i would stop buying guitars. Since I play rock and roll and cowpunk i have to play a les paul or something with with a good solid body and sustain. This guitar, with its thin neck has some issues with sustain. I think that the neck absorbs or disallows the energy of the string at that end of the guitar to sound out, so you get this shorter note than you would get with a paul. You can play with volume and the resonance of the body but I'm not Daniel Lanois when i play, so I just need to get my guitar to do what i ask when I ask it. (now bitch!!) A friend of mine has an old Kay tenor guitar. The neck p-up of the Penco reminds me of this sound. Round, sharp in the middle, warm attack, quick to go, but damn what a tone. The bridge P-up is exactly what it should be with more sustain than the neck. Both on at the same time is that old country tone that makes you wanna get drunk and cry about all the pet dogs that have died since you were a child.

The original tuners were horrible. Someone who owned it kept them on there because they thought "it would be worth some money someday". They're gone.... with some grovers with big vintage looking keys. the overall fit and finish of the guitar was great; no custom shop jewelry box, but just right for a player. After 30 odd years all the japanese plating seems to wear off or tarnish. Ibanez does this too, and the only way to get over it is to buy a guitar that spent its life in the case somewhere in New Mexico or a similar atmosphere. The frets are a medium wire and the bound neck dictates that they are finished right. The neck joint is fine with a little to be desired for fit. as far as set-up goes, every guitar that I buy goes through "the treatment". Some have called it worse than how the gimp was treated, but I don't care. They get a cavity check, cat scan and complete set-up to my specs. If the guitar can't take then it goes on the burn pile.

This guitar would last a player a long time. hell, It's already been 30 years for this guitar and just short of giving it to some angry teenager it'll last 30 more. It is a hollow body so don't drop it too many times. The neck is thin but strong; not strong enough for whacking a drunk (Use your tele for that. That's what they were made for.) but if you use it like a guitar then you won't have a problem. The varnish is heavy and thick and it takes a while for a ciggy to burn through. the trick with strap buttons is this: keep the screws tight and they won't fail. Don't reef them with a screw gun every time that you play but check them and give them a cinch when needed. this goes for every guitar.

There used to be this guy named Eric Shulte in Pennsylvania. He was a luthier that worked out of his basment. He was past the retirement age so I don't know if he's still with us. We both lived not far from Limerick, Pa. Which was the home of the Philadelphia Music Co.(aka PENCO) He used to work there in the seventies and there's a good chance that he did the set-up on these guitars when they came off the train car from the Philly water front. That's all I know about the company. I haven't had a chance to search the county records, but that is a matter getting the time to go back to Pa. for a week. Limerick is the site of many used to be companies and the building might still be there.

I have been a player since 1988. Has it ocurred to anybody that if you suck you suck, and no amount of money you spend on a guitar will change this(I'm writing a thesis on this subject and I'm thinking Nobel) i see a lot of guitars that are way over priced because of fucking collectors. this pisses me off. Gibson, Fender, Grestch, to name a few. i know I can't touch them, as far as price goes, so they are really worthless to me. early 70's to early 80's Ibanez guitars are creeping up in price now and I can only guess where they are heading. this happens for two reasons: 1. the low budget collectors want to play games too. 2: the guitars are really good quality and play great. Penco guitars were made on the same production line by the same people using the same tools on different days. the only difference is the head stock and the logo inlays. Bottom line: if you want a guitar that is high quality, playable, pretty, and you don't feel the peer pressure to own a six-string college education $$$, buy a Penco. but don't pay alot of money for it and drive the price up. That will really piss me off. does any body remember when you could buy an old SG for 300$? Doesn't it suck?