Overview
Brand name:
Product:
- electric guitars
Series name:
Dates of manufacture:
The Matsumoku company manufactured the EPIPHONE SC-550 in Japan from 1976 to 1979. Despite their high standard of construction their secondhand prices are reasonable, possibly because some people find their appearance odd. I think they look great, the scroll and German carve gives them a 19th century feel.
The SC-550 has a distinctive three piece maple body with a scroll on the upper horn and a German carve around the body. The set neck is also three-piece maple with an ebony fingerboard, block inlays and brass nut. Scale length is 25.5 inches, and the fingerboard width is 1-11/14 inches at the nut. The 24 fret neck joins the body at the 21st fret. Both the neck and headstock are bound.
Hardware is gold plated including a fully adjustable tune-o-matic bridge and stop tail-piece.
Pickups are two exposed coil humbuckers, controlled by a three position toggle switch and single volume/tone controls. There is also a coil tap switch.
Finish options were ebony (SC-550B) or natural (SC-550N).
There was also the option to have Gibson humbuckers on the SC-550. These models with the Gibson pickups were the SC-550B-G (ebony finish) or SC-550N-G (natural finish). These Gibson buckers had inductance of 8.6 Henries, a resonant peak of 6.0 KHz and DC resistance of 16 K Ohms. They had dual exposed black bobbins (with a T on the top), 12 adjustable gold plated pole pieces and copper-wrap shielding/grounding.
Photos from Ebay Germany auction February 2010
Specifications
Prices (10)
Date | Price | Condition | Name | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|
1979 | $485 | good | ||
1976 | $400 | good | mark | been playing live with it for 40 years,like the toogle swicth that gives it crunch,only changed one key and never had to file frets |
2011 | $575 | excellent | Jim L. | Best-playing guitar in my collection (which includes Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, Yamaha, De Armond, Samick, Harmony, Jackson, and First Act (Sheena—not the low-end crap). |
1979 | 680 FIM | good | ||
2017 | $650 | good | ||
2017 | $100 | good | ||
2018 | $100 | worn | havent bought it yet | |
2017 | kr2600 | good | ||
1977 | €7 | excellent | luis | |
2008 | €645 | excellent | Luis | Please, delete the previous input |