I'm Not A Tele Expert But...

Rox

...this listing is... odd.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TELECASTER-CMI-PRE-LAWSUIT-1970-SETH-LOVER-WIDE-RANGE-FENDER-HUMBUCKERS-/171411017154?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item27e8e48dc2

koneguitarist

What's Odd. It's a CMI, if I remember rightly clear tone musical instruments, might have been made by Ibanez. Not bad, but it's a MIJ copy from late 70's.

Rox

Him saying "it's not a copy" and claiming it had the Seth Lover pickups for a start!  The standard CMI pickups look exactly the same...

benecol

CMI was an Ibanez precursor brand. I used to have a Cimar (same deal) 72 Custom copy, which was OK. But only OK. Not every MIJ guitar equals a LAWSUIT CLASSIC, by any means.

The last comparable Cimar went for £30, for reference.

Rox

I have a CMI strat which is superb... it's not the guitar but the listing that is very misleading - especially about the pickups.

richardhomer

I had a similar looking CSL Telecaster Custom copy (bought new in 1975) which was allegedly made by Ibanez.

It was a decent enough guitar - though the body was made of ply....

This is a generic 70s copy.

No doubt okay but not in the Tokai/early Squier league of Japanese guitar building.

thermionic

"ONE OF THE BEST TELECASTERS EVER BUILT."

Neil

Some people seem to be asking comically high prices for any old  '70's Japanese copies that were only OK at the time. 

JayGee

richardhomer said:

I had a similar looking CSL Telecaster Custom copy (bought new in 1975) which was allegedly made by Ibanez.

It was a decent enough guitar - though the body was made of ply....

This is a generic 70s copy.

No doubt okay but not in the Tokai/early Squier league of Japanese guitar building.

At the risk of derailing the thread..

The "made by Ibanez" thing gets trotted out all the time and you're right to be sceptical about it. Ibanez weren't making anything at the time, it's more correct to say "made by a third party contract manufacturer who also made guitars for Ibanez and would put anythimg you want on the headstock if you ordered a decent sized batch" The whole Ibanez/CSL/Whatever thing is horribly confusing with the same instruments appearing in half-dozen catalogs carrying half-a-dozen different brands.

My CSL LP Custom-and-a-bit[1] is lovely by the way - no plywood there, just an awesome lump of Mahogany...

[1] Yes , you can get blingier than a Les Paul Custom. Try tree-of-life fingerboard inlays and a "vase of flowers" headstock inlay for a start :-)

57Deluxe

these were about £40 - £45 new retail in their day...

ICBM

Looks like Matsumoku factory from the chrome bell truss rod cover - I recently had a Maya P-bass copy that was identical and definitely Matsumoku. I'm pretty sure other CMIs I've seen have been too.

If he'd bothered to find out a little more about it and wasn't trying to bullshit as much, he'd have put that in the listing and maybe attracted some of the people who are actually interested in Matsumoku instruments.