Signature STR-1. Does anyone know what these actually are?

johnl

Recently I've come across a few of these for sale on the usual sites and the descriptions and prices seem to vary wildly. From what I've found online these were relatively high-quality Japanese Les Paul copies and only a smallish number (most adverts seem to say 1000 or so) were made. Some adverts say these were made between 2006 -2008 whereas one or two adverts suggest they were made in the 80s.

Certainly all of the older adverts I've found seem to have these guitars selling for between £300-£400ish whereas more recent adverts range between £600-800. Does anyone have any actual experience with these guitars? If so, how do they compare to the likes of Tokai / Greco / Edwards etc and what would you say was a realistic price for an example in good condition these days?

Cheers,

John

WezV

Tanglewood model, but the brand changed for some reason.  You do see Tangle wood versions with the same inlay.  A good Les Paul replica.

i remember the bursts getting about £400 which was a lot of guitar for the money.  Non-burst versions seem to be cheaper.  

They are not 80’s

ICBM

Is "80s" the new "I don't know how old this is but I want to make it sound cool" now?

It doesn't seem long since this changed from "60s" to "70s".

agibbo

I've got one and it's ace! Build quality and materials used are top notch, and it's a really good guitar. I think I paid £375 for mine about 5 years ago with a half decent hard case, and it was in mint condition. 

As a comparison it's easily as good as a Japanese Tokai, and was set up much better than the Gibson Les Paul I used to have several years ago. For the right price you can't go wrong!

Loobs

I had an unfinished red one. Was pretty good for the money. The aesthetics were a bit mediocre, I thought.  

johnl

Loobs said:

I had an unfinished red one. Was pretty good for the money. The aesthetics were a bit mediocre, I thought.  

In terms of the slightly different shape or something else?