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Memphis Guitars were guitars produced during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. They made an inexpensive copy of the Gibson Les Paul; the copy was the first electric guitar owned by Slash as a teenager. The company ceased trading in the United States in 1989.
Background
"Memphis"-branded guitars and signal processors were affordable music gear imported from Asia and distributed in the United States by C. Bruno and Sons from the mid '70's until the mid '90's. The product line included Fender- and Gibson-styled instruments. Some of their instruments were equipped with copies of Bill Lawrence rail humbucker pickups.
Internet users indicate that in the early years, Memphis was a house brand manufactured by Matsumoku Industrial of Nagoya, Japan. There is some consensus in the online guitar community, based upon the strong similarities between certain Memphis models and other guitars that are known to have been made by Matsumoku Industrial, that early Memphis guitars were manufactured by Matsumoku Industrial. Production of Memphis guitars was later shifted to Korea, followed by Indonesia.
The Memphis name also appears on various guitar-effects pedals, including delays, reverbs, overdrives, and the Memphis Fuzz. One pedal is the Memphis phase shifter, named "Roto Phase". It is a stompbox featuring single monophonic input and output jacks, and a single knob that controls the speed of the rotating-speaker effect.
References
- Slash; Bozza, Anthony (2007). Slash: The Autobiography. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780007810567.
- Molenda, Michael (August 2015). "Classic ad". Guitar Player. Retrieved 2024-11-09 – via Gale General OneFile.