Matsumoku

Several of Matsumoku's early archtop guitars survive, most owing their basic designs to Hofner, Framus, and Gibson.

By the early 1960s,[citation needed] Matsumoku had acquired new mills, lathes and specialized presses and began to increase musical-instrument production.

This new equipment, operated by its staff of skilled craftsmen, enabled Matsumoku to realize the mass production of high-quality guitars.

By the early 1970s, Matsumoku had begun using CNC (computer numerical controlled) mills, routers, and lathes, one of the first guitar makers to do so.

This created a significant economy of scale, allowing the company to rely upon factory automation rather than skilled labor for rough shaping of components and basic assembly tasks.

This machine-cut yet hand-worked process offered improved profit margins at lower unit prices and yielded high quality instruments with unique character.

Matsumoku built many early Greco guitars as well as Memphis, Vantage, Westbury, Westminster, C.G.Winner, Cutler, Lyle and Fell.

Although its name began appearing on neck-bolt plates, headstocks, and sound-hole labels in the 1970s, Matsumoku's role in the making of guitars under contract was largely unknown outside of Japan's guitar-making circles.

In 1979, however, when its contract with Matsumoku came to an end, Unicord chose not to renew it but rather to cut costs by moving production to Korea.

This time, though, rather than seeking a new distributor, Matsumoku began to self-market its guitars under its own brand name: Vantage.

However, when exported to the western United States, the drier American climates caused early Guyatone-produced guitars various problems: bindings became unglued, backs split, and necks broke just below the headstock.

The solution was to use wood that had been dried for at least two years, stronger glues with longer clamp times, and one feature that remained throughout Matsumoku's production: the 3-piece maple neck.

Aria focused on sales in both domestic and export markets and provided design development, while Matsumoku devoted its energies to engineering and building guitars and other stringed instruments.

Collectors of Matsumoku guitars from this period have often solved this problem by fabricating and installing permanent custom neck shims.

Matsumoku built guitars, including Epiphone archtops, utilized a 3 piece maple neck with the center section's grain-oriented 90 degrees from the side wood.

Gibson restructured after being sold by Norlin and began to move its Epiphone production to other Japanese manufacturers and to Korea.