The Griffinator
Well-Known Member
Hello SSO! It's been a while. I found this gem a few months ago, and felt like sharing the story behind it.
This is my 2nd Marlin Les Paul copy. It's a late 70's Japanese made copy, commonly available through the sears catalog. The first one I owned belonged to my Dad, I learned to play on it. It was an awesome guitar. Key work in that sentence is "was". I kept it in a gig bag, one of those cheap ones you get for $35 at any music store. One day, while waiting in line for lunch at school, it gave out on me. I had it slung over my one shoulder, backpack over the other, and one of the plastic clips for the shoulder straps broke. I remember it so clearly. I was holding onto the strap, clip broke at the neck, and it fell headstock first, to the hard concrete floor. I picked it up and grabbed my burger, thinking nothing of it. As I got to my next class, which happened to be wood shop, I set my guitar down and noticed something odd.. my guitar felt shorter. I unzipped my gig bag to find the headstock snapped cleanly off, shards of mahogany lodged in the fabric of the gig bag. I was heartbroken. At the time, I didn't know how fixable it was, and decided the best option was to salvage the fretboard and truss rod and use my grade 11 woodshop skills to craft a new neck. it never happened. I told my Dad, and he was upset, but understood it was an accident. the body and broken headstock sat in the attic, collecting dust, forgotten and replaced with various other instruments over the years. I always told myself I'd fix it, but I've never developed my guitar building skills that far.
Fast forward 14 years (god I feel old) I'm window shopping with my girlfriend in Kingston, Ontario. She tells me about this awesome pawnshop, and offers to take me, an offer no guitar player worth his salt will turn down. I notice a bright white Les Paul, before I was even in the door, and got butterflies in my stomach. I pulled it off the wall, after picking my jaw up off the floor. I had found my Dad's guitar. Well, not his, but it's replacement. I did the Wayne Campbell "it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine." they had it priced at $237. A few trades later, it's home, restrung, and ready to rip. and boy does it rip.
The previous owner obviously cared for it. It has Grover machine heads, replacing the stock plastic cased ones. The plastic nut has been switched out for either TUSQ or genuine bone, I'm not sure which. Far better than the plastic one that was stock. The stock pickups have also been replaced. They've been switched out for Lace pickups. They say Powered by Lace on the bobbin and backplate. I'm not too familiar with these, A quick google search says there a budget option provided by Lace. they are more that serviceable. The body has various dings and scratches you'd expect to find on a 40 year old guitar.
Without further ado, here are some pics, cause an NGD is worthless without pics. New strings, a bit of Dunlop No. 65 on the fretboard, and it's ready to rip.
You can't really make it out in this picture, but the neck plate has "Made in Japan" left over from the sticker that was there previously.
If you've read this far, and know anything about these instruments, chime in! They're on par with any 70's or 80's Japanese copies, and I'd love to see more of them on here.
This is my 2nd Marlin Les Paul copy. It's a late 70's Japanese made copy, commonly available through the sears catalog. The first one I owned belonged to my Dad, I learned to play on it. It was an awesome guitar. Key work in that sentence is "was". I kept it in a gig bag, one of those cheap ones you get for $35 at any music store. One day, while waiting in line for lunch at school, it gave out on me. I had it slung over my one shoulder, backpack over the other, and one of the plastic clips for the shoulder straps broke. I remember it so clearly. I was holding onto the strap, clip broke at the neck, and it fell headstock first, to the hard concrete floor. I picked it up and grabbed my burger, thinking nothing of it. As I got to my next class, which happened to be wood shop, I set my guitar down and noticed something odd.. my guitar felt shorter. I unzipped my gig bag to find the headstock snapped cleanly off, shards of mahogany lodged in the fabric of the gig bag. I was heartbroken. At the time, I didn't know how fixable it was, and decided the best option was to salvage the fretboard and truss rod and use my grade 11 woodshop skills to craft a new neck. it never happened. I told my Dad, and he was upset, but understood it was an accident. the body and broken headstock sat in the attic, collecting dust, forgotten and replaced with various other instruments over the years. I always told myself I'd fix it, but I've never developed my guitar building skills that far.
Fast forward 14 years (god I feel old) I'm window shopping with my girlfriend in Kingston, Ontario. She tells me about this awesome pawnshop, and offers to take me, an offer no guitar player worth his salt will turn down. I notice a bright white Les Paul, before I was even in the door, and got butterflies in my stomach. I pulled it off the wall, after picking my jaw up off the floor. I had found my Dad's guitar. Well, not his, but it's replacement. I did the Wayne Campbell "it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine." they had it priced at $237. A few trades later, it's home, restrung, and ready to rip. and boy does it rip.
The previous owner obviously cared for it. It has Grover machine heads, replacing the stock plastic cased ones. The plastic nut has been switched out for either TUSQ or genuine bone, I'm not sure which. Far better than the plastic one that was stock. The stock pickups have also been replaced. They've been switched out for Lace pickups. They say Powered by Lace on the bobbin and backplate. I'm not too familiar with these, A quick google search says there a budget option provided by Lace. they are more that serviceable. The body has various dings and scratches you'd expect to find on a 40 year old guitar.
Without further ado, here are some pics, cause an NGD is worthless without pics. New strings, a bit of Dunlop No. 65 on the fretboard, and it's ready to rip.
You can't really make it out in this picture, but the neck plate has "Made in Japan" left over from the sticker that was there previously.
If you've read this far, and know anything about these instruments, chime in! They're on par with any 70's or 80's Japanese copies, and I'd love to see more of them on here.
