Japanese Columbus Les Paul

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  • p90foolp90fool Frets: 31368
    I wouldn't upgrade the pickups if they work unless it's your only guitar tbh, they have a lot of character and the best you ever get by improving these old trashy guitars is the dizzy heights of 'bland'. 

    Here's a similar pressed ply Univox version, owned by Earl Hooker but borrowed here by Magic Sam. You won't get a modern cheap Les Paul copy to sound like this...


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  • impmannimpmann Frets: 12649
    I'm sorry but "why?".

    I endured one of these pieces of shit as my second electric guitar. It had no pleasing qualities whatsoever - thats why we all got rid of them as quickly as we could back then. Yes, you could fit new pickups to it but thats akin to rolling it in glitter - as you can't polish a turd.

    I'm stunned that *anyone* would pay more than £50 for such a guitar - as for the prices quoted above you could buy something that sounds and plays far superior for less.

    Its not kitch cool, its not cool at all... its just a cheap, nasty Les Paul.
    Never Ever Bloody Anything Ever.

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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27345
    impmann said:
    I'm sorry but "why?".

    Because its Vintage and MiJ.

    Everybody knows that anything "vintage" and "MiJ" is   worth decent money.

    If you can get "lawsuit" into the description as well, then it's worth real decent money.
    ;)


    I'm with you.  The choice between buying one of these - even one that's been sorted so that it's playable - for £250 or a s/h PRS SE really shouldn't be any sort of choice for anyone ...
    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
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  • MoominpapaMoominpapa Frets: 1649
    "SEE the polyester finish  ...  HEAR the brilliant pick-up response  ....  FEEL the ease of action"   
    Sounds like 70s disco dating all over again  :)
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  • p90foolp90fool Frets: 31368
    TTony said:
    impmann said:
    I'm sorry but "why?".

    Because its Vintage and MiJ.

    Everybody knows that anything "vintage" and "MiJ" is   worth decent money.

    If you can get "lawsuit" into the description as well, then it's worth real decent money.
    ;)


    I'm with you.  The choice between buying one of these - even one that's been sorted so that it's playable - for £250 or a s/h PRS SE really shouldn't be any sort of choice for anyone ...
    ...anyone who has no other guitars. 

    But let's face it, we all have ordinary, normal-sounding guitars falling out of every cupboard, but these things are cheap, quirky and fun. 

    Live a little. 
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  • guitars4youguitars4you Frets: 14035
    tFB Trader
    looking at the label on the rear of the headstock - Minns Music - trying to recall their location - Think Bournemouth Area ?
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  • NeilNeil Frets: 3594
    Those of us who had them the first time round are probably less excited by them.

    It's the enormously heavy plywood body that comes to mind.

    To be honest, compared to what you can buy cheaply nowadays they fall very short.
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  • John_AJohn_A Frets: 3775
    TTony said:
    My first guitar, way back when ...
    Mine too - I set fire to it at a gig and regretted it later :)
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  • FatPeteFatPete Frets: 683
    looking at the label on the rear of the headstock - Minns Music - trying to recall their location - Think Bournemouth Area ?
    They were branches in Brent Cross and Milton Keynes.
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  • thermionicthermionic Frets: 9499
    i remember when as a kid in the 70s, wanting to buy an electric guitar, back then, no ebay,or internet, it was a case of waiting for the weekly local paper or buying a copy of exchange and mart, invariably when guitars were advertised they seemed to be colombus's, avons or kay's.  it took me a few more years before i actually bought something

    This was me and my friend in the early 80s! They were always black LP Custom types and out of reach of our pocket money budgets. I eventually got a 3/4 size Satellite "Strat" and my friend got a similar Kay. Loved those guitars. My 16th birthday coincided with my rather excellent O-level results which meant a lot of money from relatives, which I spent on a Vantage LP-style from Andy's in Denmark Street, which despite being a bolt-on neck with a pressed laminate top, was a pretty decent guitar which served me well.
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  • AlexCAlexC Frets: 2396
    As an aside... mid 80s I had a Columbus. Bright red. Tele shaped. Pointy headstock. Two humbuckers. Dodgy trem unit. Played it in my first band. Did the job. Got rid of it after 18 months though for a Tokai!
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    TTony said:

    The choice between buying one of these - even one that's been sorted so that it's playable - for £250 or a s/h PRS SE really shouldn't be any sort of choice for anyone ...
    Unless you want something with a bit of character and aren’t bothered about quality as such - a PRS SE is well made but as bland as a very bland thing. (The SE One possibly excepted.)

    Or you just want something that reminds you of your youth, for less than they cost in real terms back then...

    For a reliable gigging guitar with a generic sound that won't go out of tune, buzz or do anything else "interesting" I'd pick the PRS or some other modern guitar, yes. For something cool to have at home and actually enjoy owning, I'd pick the Columbus.

    Neil said:

    It's the enormously heavy plywood body that comes to mind.
    These comments about them being heavy surprise me - I don't remember any I've come across being that heavy, actually if anything often too light compared to a proper Les Paul.

    John_A said:

    Mine too - I set fire to it at a gig and regretted it later :)
    I will admit to burning about half a dozen of them too - to be fair, they all had unrepairable (at least economically) damage like broken headstocks or the bodies coming apart, and I did strip all the salvageable parts of them first.

    The sign of either real dedication or complete madness is that I took all the pickups apart and made half the number of proper humbuckers out of them :).

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • p90foolp90fool Frets: 31368
    @ICBM stripping the salvageable parts off before you set fire to them doesn't sound like the most scintillating stage act tbh. 

    :) 
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  • crunchmancrunchman Frets: 11413
    looking at the label on the rear of the headstock - Minns Music - trying to recall their location - Think Bournemouth Area ?


    Think there was a Minns in Taunton.  I've got a Japanese made Joodee acoustic that my parents bought me for Christmas in 1982.  That was from a shop in Taunton.  Minns seems to ring a bell for the name of it.

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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    p90fool said:
    @ICBM stripping the salvageable parts off before you set fire to them doesn't sound like the most scintillating stage act tbh. 

    :) 
    No, but it was amusing to tell a guitarist friend who had come over for tea "if you're cold, put another Les Paul on the fire" and see the look of shock on his face ;).

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • impmannimpmann Frets: 12649
    ICBM said:
    TTony said:

    The choice between buying one of these - even one that's been sorted so that it's playable - for £250 or a s/h PRS SE really shouldn't be any sort of choice for anyone ...
    Unless you want something with a bit of character and aren’t bothered about quality as such - a PRS SE is well made but as bland as a very bland thing. (The SE One possibly excepted.)


    Sorry, chap, but "character"... no, the sound of these guitars *defined* characterless. If I can persuade my tape deck to work, I'll upload a recording made with my dreadful (and it was dreadful) Columbus Les Paul when I was in my teens. Even then I knew it sounded shit, played badly and had the resonance of marshmallow. Seriously, the combination of no discernable character in the wood (Ply & Hardboard), shonky mazac bridge/tailpiece, nylon nut and badly wound, single coil masquerading as humbucker pickups (through appaling pots) created the most dismal, weedy and characterless sound I've ever heard from a guitar.

    And a PRS SE is 'bland'? Hmmm... I think you may be on your own with that opinion.

    Nope, I guess those of us that endured these pieces of shit as guitars when we learning would rather not have anything to do with them now. Another example of how "just because something is old doesn't mean its 'good' or got somehow 'better'".

    Never Ever Bloody Anything Ever.

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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71960
    impmann said:

    Sorry, chap, but "character"... no, the sound of these guitars *defined* characterless. If I can persuade my tape deck to work, I'll upload a recording made with my dreadful (and it was dreadful) Columbus Les Paul when I was in my teens. Even then I knew it sounded shit, played badly and had the resonance of marshmallow. Seriously, the combination of no discernable character in the wood (Ply & Hardboard), shonky mazac bridge/tailpiece, nylon nut and badly wound, single coil masquerading as humbucker pickups (through appaling pots) created the most dismal, weedy and characterless sound I've ever heard from a guitar.
    I like their thin, quirky, scratchy, punky sound :). I doubt it's anything to do with the wood though ;). But the hollow top very likely is a factor.

    impmann said:

    And a PRS SE is 'bland'? Hmmm... I think you may be on your own with that opinion. 
    Yes, absolutely and completely characterless. It could be *any* generic modern two-humbucker guitar. Nicely made, play well, and reliable - but utterly dull.

    impmann said:

    Nope, I guess those of us that endured these pieces of shit as guitars when we learning would rather not have anything to do with them now. Another example of how "just because something is old doesn't mean its 'good' or got somehow 'better'".
    They haven't got inherently better, but it's possible to improve them a lot if you want to, without destroying what's good about them.

    I quite liked my Hondo... I did replace the pickups with some second hand DiMarzios, but I only sold it because I got a real Les Paul Deluxe.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • FatPeteFatPete Frets: 683
    I used to have the headstock of a friend's Satellite hanging on my wall (strings still attached). No Townshend-esque stage antics were involved, I just broke it off.

    They're just cheap and nasty IMO, what's quirky about a cheap copy? Proper 60s/70s Japanese weirdness a la Teisco Spectrums etc. can be fun.
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27345
    ICBM said:

    Unless you want something with a bit of character and aren’t bothered about quality as such 
    OK.

    Our neighbour was working on his old Morris 1000 last weekend.  It was his mother's, sold to her by his uncle, got loads of paperwork with it, etc, etc.

    It has character a-plenty (in lieu of things like effective brakes, safety belts, lights that actually show where you're going, a radio, etc) but it's not a car that I'd choose to use to actually go anywhere.  

    Yet  it obviously has huge sentimental value to him, so he's happy to spend the time and money to keep it in running order to maintain that value.

    On that basis, I can understand someone wanting a Columbus LP - memories of their early playing days, etc.  

    Indeed, I too had one as my first guitar.  But some things, I  just don't need reminding of ...
    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
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  • jonnyburgojonnyburgo Frets: 12258
    They had one in Stockport cash converter recently for £40 which is a lot of money for a 12th fret egg slicer.
    "OUR TOSSPOT"
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