This Fujigen-built import required emergency surgery after an unfortunate break. Have you ever broken a bone? Strange question, I know, but my son, on the second day of football practice, broke his big toe. They were doing “bear crawls” on all fours when his left sneaker flew off and his big toe drove into the gym floor. It’s such a bummer since he loves sports, and he’s going to be recovering for most of the summer. But as we were sitting in the ER, it occurred to me that I’ve never broken a bone. I’ve had torn ACLs and other knee issues from playing sports, but never busted a bone. My mom used to say that if you could separate me in half, I would be two normal-sized people! Maybe my bones were built to hold two people or maybe I’ve been lucky, especially given how many contact sports I played into my 20s.It all made me think of vintage-style guitar-neck profiles. If you’ve ever held or played a guitar from the ’40s, ’50s, or early ’60s, you know that there was great variation in neck depth and shape in those days. Back then you’d find wide fretboards and deep-V shapes—all sorts of interesting feels, in comparison to the standard-sized necks we experience today. Even if you want a guitar with a so-called ’50s profile, it’s still not often a true representation. When you examine the early import guitars, especially from Japan, you’ll see a wide variation that can give rise to nice little surprises if you’re looking for something different. Quite often, the wood factories that were churning out guitars back in the day were simply converted furniture plants. They knew how to build stuff right. I know, because my literal superpower is breaking stuff, and I’ve never broken a single Japanese import neck on any guitar I serviced, except for the guitar presented here.“The VN-4 hails from around 1964 and was among the first electric guitars made by the two Japanese factories.”Many of these early imports had weak and ineffective truss rods, or even no truss rods at all. Rather, the neck thickness and wood quality provided sufficient strength. Adjustability? Well, once you understand neck angle, a few shims in the neck pocket can get you rockin’. All this stuff I learned from my favorite guitar tech, Dave D’Amelio. He showed me most of what I know about neck issues, but I always lacked his finesse. And while trying to adjust the neck on this Lindell VN-4, the headstock just snapped off, a truly awful feeling. (Imagine that happening to a vintage Les Paul!) Maybe it was because these old Fujigen-made guitars employed a 27' scale on any model that used four pickups. Why? Because the designers thought that a longer neck with four pickups simply looked more pleasing. (That’s information told to me from the actual designers.)This Lindell-badged guitar had its wood made at the Matsumoku factory in Matsumoto City. Then the guitar was finished at the Fujigen factory, which was also in Matsumoto. Switches galore and pickups that carry a punch, the VN-4 hails from around 1964 and was among the first electric guitars made by the two Japanese factories. These “clam-shell” tremolo units are kinda awful, but I really like the raised metal pickguards, which help cut down on noise. The plates that house the electronics (complete with on/off for each pickup and two roller volumes) act as a great ground for everything and I sometimes wonder why the idea fell out of favor. I mean, raised pickguards like these minimize wood removal. You can use a standard guitar body and simply attach any pickup and electronics configurations. Then again, I have weird tastes, so…Right now I have a few of these sitting around in my basement studio. I would always save parts and guitar bits and simply reuse everything to create something new, which I believe every player should try. I think of Eddie Van Halen and Brian May and their handiwork. My son has a six-week recovery ahead, and I was thinking about projects for us. Maybe I’ll enlist him as an apprentice in my guitar laboratory. At least it’s safer than football!
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