Broken Bones and Broken Necks: Stories From a Vintage Japan-Made Electric Guitar

Have you ever broken a bone? Strange question, I know, but my son, on the second day of football practice, broke his big toe. They were doing “bear crawls” on all fours when his left sneaker flew off and his big toe drove into the gym floor. It’s such a bummer since he loves sports, and he’s going to be recovering for most of the summer. But as we were sitting in the ER, it occurred to me that I’ve never broken a bone. I’ve had torn ACLs and other knee issues from playing sports, but never busted a bone. My mom used to say that if you could separate me in half, I would be two normal-sized people! Maybe my bones were built to hold two people or maybe I’ve been lucky, especially given how many contact sports I played into my 20s.

It all made me think of vintage-style guitar-neck profiles. If you’ve ever held or played a guitar from the ’40s, ’50s, or early ’60s, you know that there was great variation in neck depth and shape in those days. Back then you’d find wide fretboards and deep-V shapes—all sorts of interesting feels, in comparison to the standard-sized necks we experience today. Even if you want a guitar with a so-called ’50s profile, it’s still not often a true representation. When you examine the early import guitars, especially from Japan, you’ll see a wide variation that can give rise to nice little surprises if you’re looking for something different.

Quite often, the wood factories that were churning out guitars back in the day were simply converted furniture plants. They knew how to build stuff right. I know, because my literal superpower is breaking stuff, and I’ve never broken a single Japanese import neck on any guitar I serviced, except for the guitar presented here.