Japanese Script in 70's era Epiphone Neck Pocket. Any Ideas?

[Matt Haugen]

I always like to see something new when opening up parts of guitars. Has anyone seen something like this before? This is a bolt on FT-160 model. 

[John Yungbluth]

I have a FT-145 cadaver in my corner.  Never crossed my mind that they were sneaking coded messages into the US under those bolt on necks.  Tricksters they were!  Never looked at it as Japanese writing.

Time to find a translator. 

[Matt Haugen]

I am not sure what to think, I know nothing about the culture or dialect. Could these be initials, or a full name? I am not sure how the characters work. I have been doing some google searches and find myself pretty confused.

[Russell Vance]

Pretty sure it says "Tough luck Gaijin Luthier"  or maybe "Gino".

R

[Matt Haugen]

I think you might be onto something there Rusty. I have to remove a cupped bridge plate on this one and there are 3 blocks on top of the plate that are glued to the braces. Don't know what to make of all of that.

[Paul Verticchio]

Hi Matt. :)

These MIJ FT series Epi acoustics are some of the most poorly designed instruments ever produced.  Their neck blocks, especially, are well known problem children that suffer from distortions and cracking. Sorry for the bad news but you can find several threads in the archives that confirm & detail this fact. 

With that being said, I showed the Asian script to a Professor of Asian Studies at the local College. He told me it's the Japanese word for "Sucker", as in someone who has been saddled with a product of questionable quality. Just kidding.... but it WAS plausible.

I owned one in the early 80's and was the only instrument I've owned that was purposely smashed to smithereens out of frustration.   I stopped accepting these for work about 10 years ago as the frustrations involved in getting them playable was like pouring effort into a black hole. Once playable, they sound, at best, like a $20 instrument.

Good luck with however you approach the instrument :)

[Glen H]

The characters, I am positive, mean "Apply ample mystery glue here".

 

[John Yungbluth]

My daughter showed both markings to a friend who is Japanese and she said "they don't mean anything to her  They're not Japanese word or numbers".  Nothing she can translate.  Maybe just a " marker", or bad hand writing.

I'll try one of my friends when I see him next week. 

[Ned Knepp]

My daughter has studied the language a bit and said basically the same thing. She said that it's almost impossible to have a number without something to indicate what the number is counting when writing Japanese. She figured the "symbols" could very well be unique to the plant where they were used and won't mean anything to someone from outside that facility.