As you guys know I'm a huge fan of both Guyatone and anything Mosrite influenced or inspired. I've written about these, and many other Guyatones before so I won't bore you with the details again. I stock a lot of Guyatone products and have sold lots of their great stuff over the years.
This particular guitar is interesting in that the German carve version of the LG-127T is much rarer than the standard slab body version that we all know and love.
Guyatone weren't oblivious to German carves on Mosrite inspired guitars and in fact their first offering in the area, the LG-30 had a German carve. This was a simple one pickup Mosrite flavoured thin solid body introduced around '65. The LG-50T came out quickly after it with two pickups and a vibrato to get closer to the real thing.
At first glance this looks like it could be an LG-30 body except they had a tenon, or tongue running off the end of the neck that went under the scratchplate to use to bolt the neck on, much like a real Mosrite. The LG-50 body/neck was modified when it got two pickups and went to a more conventional bolt on. The body shape and size on these two models was the same with the appointments being the only difference.
These LG-127Ts are a bigger body, the same size and shape as the slab body version but with the added aesthetics of the German carve.
These were listed as the same guitar and model number as the slab body version and seem to have come out around the time of Guyatone starting back up production in the very early seventies despite having not only a different body, but different hardware as well.
These German carve versions have the plastic covered Guyatone pickups like the 125T and 150DX models, which were a more expensive guitar in the Guaytone range. I love both these plastic covered P-90 style pickups and the metal covered single cols usually found of 127s. They both have a big, clear, loud output with great response.
These 127s also had the bridge used on the upper models which is an intricate six roller saddle metal bridge with adjustment for intonation and height. Interestingly they all have a small rosewood spacer under the bridge fitted at the factory to give the bridge more height and better string angle behind the saddles as this bridge was lower than the standard non intonatable bridge used on the slab body.
This version also came with two different types of vibratos. This one here similar to one used on the slab body, although it was more offset in baseplate shape and the non symmetrical "bulgy" version used on the 150DX.
Guyatone used three different trussrod covers (all thin metal with a black print) at this stage, probably due to different factories making guitars and/or hardware after the closure in '69. There are two "pointy three screw ones like this one. One with Tokyo Sound Co Ltd in small lettering and one with Guya Co Ltd in small lettering. The other was a rounded, fatter cover with nothing printed on it like most of the 150s had.
This version also has the rectangular neck plate with little point at the bottom as used on other Japanese made guitars throughout the sixties and seventies, not the Guyatone branded neck plate like most Guyatones from this era.
The knobs on this one are the same as the LG-350 "Sharp 5" which was the top of the line at the time.
The neck and tuners are the same as the slab body version with nice rosewood fretboard with small dot markers and zero fret. They're all 24.75" scale and play really well when set up properly.
I love the look of these German carve versions as they remind me of a Mosrite Ventures MkII/V with a slanted neck pickup. The shape and less intricate carve along with the scratchplate shape make it look very Ventures "little brother" type of look.
I'm not sure if I'm selling this one yet, but, like all my Mosrite/vintage Japanese obsessions, they will probably, almost definitely eventually get to the shop.