A Guitar From JC Penny?
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2024
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00:00 - Intro
01:05 - History
03:04 - Specs
04:30 - Sound Example
06:27 - Conclusion
Did J.C.Penny stores sell electric guitars? Yes, they did. Penny's sold the Skylark branded guitars for one year, 1981. They were made by the Matsumoku company of Japan. The company began in the 1950's and lasted until 1987. JC Penny bought an order for these guitars that was placed by another company, which is why they only sold them for one year. Maybe a closeout type deal? They are exceeding hard to find nowadays.
Specs:
Year: 1981
Manufacturer: Matsumoku
Brand: Skylark
Body Style: Double Cut
Body Material: Maple? w/ Mahogany Accents
Neck: Through the body
Scale Legnth: 25-1/2"
Fretboard Radius: 12"
Fretboard Material: Rosewood
Nut Width: 1.68"
String Spacing: 2"
Brass Nut
Brass Bridge and Saddles
Hardtail Bridge
Through the Body Strings
Brass tuning machines
Truss rod adjustment in headstock
Bridge Pickup: Humbucker
Middle Pickup: None
Neck Pickup: Humbucker
1 - Volume, 2 tone, Coil tap Switches and Phase Switch
Brass strap buttons
This video may contain:
#guitar #guitarreviews #guitarreview #electricguitarreview #electricguitar #stratocasterguitar #guitarunboxing #skylarkguitars #SkylarkMitsumoku #mitsumoku
i knew that was Matsumoku the second I laid eye on it. I love everything that ever came out of that factory!
It is so like my old Westone Thunder, which is also Matsumoku.
@@mattyboy8270 Definitely similar to my Aria Pro II Thorsound, and probably even more similar to the Aria Pro II Cardinal Series (CS). My buddy had a Vantage guitar that was pretty similar too.
I used to be in a HS band with a guy that had a Westone Electra Phoenix, and we used to say our guitars were cousins. We had no idea about guitar manufacturers, so didn't know that they actually were cousins from the Matsumoku factory
I have one of the blue ones. Got it in 1980 from JC Penney’s. Plays great. It’s a very well made guitar.
I got a cherry sunburst Encore Les Paul Custom copy for Christmas 1980, but I remember these in the JC Penny Christmas Catalog that year... $189 I think.
Very similar to the double cut Westbury. Cool piece.
I have the red (lowest model) that my parents bought me in the early 80's. $69.00 on clearance. Still have it and it is a great guitar.
They're built to last, that's for sure.
Very cool.I snagged a mint red one like yours for 85 bucks about 20 years back.
love the excitement , appreciation and passion...kinda contagious, thanks dude 👍🎸
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Looks almost identical to my Matsumoku Vantage vp795. The headstock is different though. Those are selling for over 1K on reverb.
Looks really similar to the Aria Pro Thor Sound guitars also made by Matsumoku.
I got my first guitar in 1966. Both the Sears and J.C. Penney catalogs offered guitars and amps. I got my first from J.C. Penney. It was a semi-hollow single cutaway, single pickup sunburst with no name on the headstock. I sold it to a friend when I bought a Gibson Kalamazoo KG2A a couple years later. I never knew what that first guitar was for decades and finally discovered it had been a Kay Speed Demon. Matsumoku made guitars are highly regarded now.
They are. But Kalamazoo guitars are favored too! 😜 I only say that because I’m from Michigan!
@@JayceAllanGuitarI have a kalamazoo kb-1 bass and the pickup in it is insanely hot, 27.8k ohm, it measures the exact same as my '70 gibson melody maker
@@JayceAllanGuitar I still have the Kalamazoo.
My first electric guitar was a dark candy blue with gold hardware Cort Effector I ordered from the Sears Catalog in the mid 80's, I still to this day wish I had that guitar, it was excellent!
I have a Cort classic rock Les Paul style. One of my favorite guitars
What a cool old guitar! I remember seeing guitars similar to this in Sears. Also Montgomery Ward. Don't so much remember JC Penney carrying guitars. But back in the day, when we were Kids, those stores were so great. They carried a little of everything. Fun vid. Great guitar for the collection! Rock on.
Thank you for watching!
Memphis guitars were the same but different headstock. Same factory.
@@stridersmythe8860I had a memphis shortscale bass for a while, it was really small and light but kinda primitive, probably early 80s korean
I see a lot of those too.
I bought my first electric guitar, a Kent, from Sears catalogue in 1966 for $25. Couldn’t afford an amp so I played it through a broken reel to reel tape recorder.
I proudly own all 3 Skylark models. They are great!
I found the base model one in mint condition back in the 90's.I still have it
@Pomiferous I looked for the base model for 2 years! It's the rarest of the 3 by far and my favorite. The Gibson scale length is great, and it is easier to play.
I had a Global Les Paul copy from Service Merchandise, the body was particle board😆I really enjoyed doing my best Pete Townsend impression with it🤣
I’ve seen plywood bodies but never particle board!
I bought my first guitar (Peavey) from a JC Penney catalog probably about 26 years ago. Really wish I would have kept it.
I used to have a Peavey Patriot in the 90s. I wish I still had it. I traded it for a Dean Playmate, because the Patriot was an unfinished neck and body, and the Dean was shiny lol. I don't think the Patriot weighed 4 lbs, couldn't tell I had a guitar around my neck when I played it
So the story I read (on the Matsumoku forums) was that a music store chain had these made in, like 79/80 but went out of business before receiving them. JC Penney swooped in and bought the lot and sold them out of the catalog until they were gone. I’ve played all 3 versions and personally own a Blue one but any of them are very well made, good sounding instruments. I’m glad I found this channel and am now binging all the videos!
Wow that guitar looks pristine. Matsumoku made some of the best stuff, Two of my guitars and my only bass are from Matsumoku and are all pretty cheap. They are some of the best instruments I've ever played.
I believe those were also sold branded as 'Vantage' guitars in the early mid-80's.
I begged and begged my parents for one in 1981. I wanted a Blue one but I settled for a 3/4 nylon string acoustic. I bought a blue one off EBay in the early 00’s and it was SO worth the $900 I paid for it. These Skylarks are EXCEPTIONALLY well built, the MMK45 pickups are basically Dimarzio Super Distortion copies and with the multiple switches you can get a dozen different sounds out of them. They are fantastic guitars and if you ever come across one, BUY IT IMMEDIATELY.
I am in Northern Va and there was a guy named Kajun Kelly that was a fantastic player. He played that guitar. He found a second one in case something happened to the first one.
My very first guitar was a Harmony strat that I bought from either Sears or JC Penney, can't remember which, but it was a mail order from one of those. It was $99 and came with a little amp so a little starter pack. This would have been around 1985. I wish I still had it for nostalgia reasons. It was not the easiest to play barre chords on which was probably due to the action, but back then, I had no idea what action even was.
My first acoustic was a harmony and the action on it was terrible. Surprised I didn’t give up guitar altogether trying to play that thing.
Congratulations on finding your baby! I'm still looking for a Godin I sold in 2004 that I miss dearly. Good to see someone find theirs :) Subscribed. Best Regards and Best Wishes!
Thank you. I appreciate that.
Great looking guitar. I had the JC Penny's $119 Harmony flying V.
Very nice...Reminds me of the fabulous Aria Pro-II Cardinal series which is not surprising since they all come from the same place...
I should find one...
My buddy owns a small music shop and just got a couple Aria Pro II strats and teles. Pretty decent guitars. I've seen the ones you are referring to.
Back in the day a friend of mine had a cardinal and it was a killer guitar!
This one looks more like a Westone, from their thunder series. Also Matsumoko, of course. Beautiful guitars, built like a tank!😊
@@ErickvdK Yes you're right 🙂I have a Westone that looks like that...
@@jeromewagschal9485 Cool, wish I had bought one back in the day. I do have a Ario Pro II thorsound though, electronics much like BC Rich...
There were several Matsumoku guitars in the Montogmery Ward catalog that I coveted, sold under the "Harmony" name. They go for $600-$750 now. P.S.-I can remember when Ace Hardware came out with a Christmas catalog and you could buy guitars there!
Guitars from ACE Hardware! That’s awesome.
I never heard of them, I like the way it is designed. Good deal.
Also…the body sides were made of Ash…and the neck was maple, with Walnut stripes.
Correct!
all you have to know is Matsumoku..looks like an Aria
Cool guitar! I love the body shape.
Looks almost identical to the Cort double cuts of the era, likely the same factory.
That could be.
Corts were made in Korea, and this guitar is 100% made in Japan. Matsumoku did set a Korean factory up before going out of business and I have a “Hondo ll Professional” that is 98% identical to these Skylarks
I've seen a lot of hondo
great vid , cool guitar
Thanks!
That’s actually a pretty nice guitar, considering they were sold at a big box store. Thanks for sharing!
No problem.
Looks like an early eighties Aria. Some of them were killer guitars.
I got the blue “Deluxe” model (2588), in early’82…from the last JC Penney catalog they were in. They were originally made for Music Emporium (now Musicians Friend)…but the deal fell through…so Penney’s buyer bought the entire lot…sight unseen, at auction.
That’s what it was. I knew there was some order that fell through with some other company but didn’t remember the specifics.
That's a through neck and it instantly reminded me of my 1982 Carvin DC-130. The mini toggles and the pickups as well. Now I wonder which came first, this guitar or the Carvin?
Wow. That is in great shape.
It was, slight ding on the headstock and some tarnish on the brass parts but other than than, perfect.
Beautiful instrument. Pretty sure we got our Atari from JC Pennys when I was a kid
I remember the late days of the catalog still having 2 types of guitars and bass and a few small amps, I remember radio shack having guitar and amps as well.
Subscribed!
Subbed back! Thanks for tuning in!
Aria Pro, Made in Japan, rebadged.
That’s a badass guitar.
,,...yes,,,...I have the S.G.style,,,plywood,,...from J.C.Penny😮,..proudly hanging on my wall !!,,has the bigsby tremolo,,...pat,,land o' lakes,wi.,,bought with my own money ,i was 12,,in 1972.
It’s like a Carvin DC150 witch I own, is that a Hofner neck?
First time I ever heard it called a "tremOlo".
Yeah. Apparently you’re not the only one. I’m just going to start calling it the whammy bar. 😜
Awesome guitar. Sounds great. Gotta be a workhorse huh? 😎👍
Seems like it would be. I don't really play out much.
This one is sick lol
Nice. Reminds me of jerry Garcia's wolf alembic or another alembic of his. Correction alembic and aria pro/ Jerry ish guitar
Yes. These are very similar to Alembic.
What the hell. Ive missed something. That does look really good. But but 80's 200 dollar Matsumoku guitars going for 600 - 1,000 i had no clue.
Not sure if all the brands do. Matsumoku made a lot of different guitars but only a handful branded Skylark. So they’re pretty rare. Someone told me they only made them one year and it was part of some order that got cancelled and JC Penny picked them up. I don’t know all the specifics. I did a quick search on Reverb but didn’t see any there listed. One will show up every 6 months or so. This one in the video I ended up selling about a year ago and it went for 650.
I have one
They were only made in 1981.
Vantage
Sears and Radio Shack both sold cool guitars and amps. Nice axe.
I didn’t know radio shack had guitars!
@@JayceAllanGuitar I had the Radio Shack red 335 copy with a pressboard 15 watt amp - one volume and one tone knob. Wish I still had them.
Looks like an old Cort guitar....
It's a through neck not a set neck
I stand corrected.
That’s not a set neck, it’s neck thru.
It’s a set neck. The blue one was fully neck through and the other red one was a bolt on. 3 price points, 3 different constructions
If it was a neck-thru, then the five pieces would continue up the neck.
I wish I could post pictures on here…
I know, UA-cam needs to improve that. I think you can post links to photos if they exist online.
$300 was quite a price in the day
Kind of what I was thinking. So not exactly a "cheap" guitar by any means back then.
Trem-O-lo?!?!
What’s a trem-O-lo???
🙄
Hey, you say it your way I'll say it mine.
hard to come by because they've all been thrown away by now......sorry but IMO you spen way too much for this guitar . that guitar and others like it generally go for 150 dollars now . MIJ is all hyped up these days but, once upon a time MIJ was a bad thing when they were still learning the ropes of budget guitar building . this guitar and others like tiescos , aria pro II and countless catalog guitars from this era legendarily crappy and undesirable . they were simply entry level guitars parents bought cheaply so Jr. could get his feet wet and see if guitar was for him ....then quickly move on to a fender or a gibson . early to mid 1960s Danelectros are also technically crap guitars too but they are MIA and the style and tone are unique and sought after and the visual asthetics were unique and not just a bad knockoff of other brands of the time ....this guitar here is a knockoff of other better japanese guitars of the time (im thinking late 1970s early 80s) such as Ibanez and others .....just my opinion
I challenge you to find a Skylark guitar for $150!! Also, Skylarks sold for around $300 I think, back in 1981, certainly not inexpensive at the time. I’ve played Tiescos and this guitar was much higher quality than those. I guess my first question would be “have you actually held and played a Skylark?” If the answer is no, than you are unfairly judging the brand. These weren’t your run of the mill MIJ guitars.
@@JayceAllanGuitar you can find em in pawn shops for 150 bucks ....ive seen em or exact same ones branded differently ....the funny thing about Japanese guitars is they all were 300 and up back then my first electric guitar was an Ibanez roadstar which was also 300 dollars then .....you can still get em for 300 on reverb. sorry but in my honest opinion that guitar is only worth 600 dollars to a gen X guy who wants to regain something nastalgic lost from his childhood ...i get that but for a serious player there are waaaaay better options for 600 bucks just saying
If you find one at a pawn shop for $150, buy it, you can get $600 or more for it. I can't argue with the rest of what you said. I only bought it for nostalgia sake, and just to see if it was as good as I remembered, it was just...okay. I mean the build quality was great, very heavy though. Neck was awesome. Pickups were "meh". I ended up selling it. I don't hang on to gear very long. I buy stuff, play around with it, maybe make a video, then send it down the road for someone else to enjoy. Plus I like cheap guitars. If I spend $100 on a guitar, and only play it a few times a month, I don't have any regrets, if I spend $1000 on a guitar and walk past it hanging on the wall every day, I start to ask myself why I need something so expensive, especially when my ears can't tell between a Gibson and a Glarry.