1975 Matsumoku (MIJ) Westminster Telecaster-style electric guitar bought on Yahoo! Auction Japan | M

I recently bought a rare Made in Japan (MIJ) electric guitar off of Yahoo Auction here in Japan. 

The brand name of the guitar is Westminster. 

Westminster guitars were manufactured by Matsumoku, which was a very famous Made in Japan guitar manufacturer for decades. 

Westminster guitars were distributed by Kanda Shokai, which is a well-known musical instrument company in Japan still primarily known for their Greco brand guitars and basses.

This particular electric guitar is a copy of a Fender Telecaster, but I wouldn't say it's a replica. 

Under the pickguard - some people call it a scratchplate - somebody (possibly the original owner) wrote the date as 1975.5.29 (May 29th, 1975). Thus, I must believe Matsumoku made this guitar in 1975 or even 1974 possibly.

I did plug the guitar into my amp and both of the singlecoil pickups as well all of the electronics (potentiometers, pickup switch, and output jack) all work fine. 

This guitar being 44 years old will require a fair amount of cleaning, but it will be a labor of love for me.

My primary concern is the finish on the guitar's body which has a lot of chips, dents and scratches. I'll have to make a decision sooner or later regarding the amount of work I ought to do on the finish.

However, nothing is broken on this old guitar. In fact, I'm already in love with playability meaning the neck and string action feels great.

I am also impressed with the nice tones I heard from the singlecoil pickups. 

If it wasn't for the person who wrote the date on the back of the pickguard it would be difficult to determine the year this guitar was manufactured because none of the cavities nor the neck heal have any markings or dates stamped or written.

At first I believed this particular guitar was made in 1976 because of the serial number on the neckplate, which is serial number 765550.

I am also inclined to believe that this guitar neck and body are both originals.

Like many vintage types of electric guitars the truss rod adjustment nut is located at the heal of the neck. I did test the truss rod and even though it was rather tight it did in fact turn. 

All in all I must say I am very impressed with the quality of this particular guitar. The craftsmanship at Matsumoku employees was excellent. I Iill do my best to restore it so that it will be playable for another 44 years. 

If you did not already know I love guitars especially electric bass guitar because I'm a bassist. It's my hobby to play and repair guitars. 

And I'm sort of on a mission to save as many old basses and guitars as I possibly can. After all guitars are beautiful works of art. They are works of art used to create even more art in the form of music. And the world could always use more music. Let's make more music; learn to play the guitar. 

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