# Mystery MIJ restomod



## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

I dusted off one of my many stalled projects. I'm going to do a rewire on it and possibly throw in some new pups. Maybe HB sized P90's. This was my beater guitar for many years. Fast and nasty one trick pony.

I found this article about another, though it is a bolt on neck. Mine is a neck through and also has coil splitters. I've seen one more just like mine, so it's a factory set up.

Onyx Azumi Yamaki Chushin Japan 1979-1982 Maxon Pickups Two Tone Wood Finish

And another ad. This is exactly like mine save for the bolt on neck
$300 · Onyx:Ibanez Electric guitar: Made in Japan

@sambonee, pics as you requested.

This guitar was beat to hell. I've filled the missing chunks with epoxy and sanded off all the PO's horrible artwork of hand painted band names. Looked like a HS kids binder.

I had to make a new brass saddle. I put a strat jack in it because the original was chunky and ugly. Eventually it will get a repaint


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

The Reverb seller thought these were possibly Maxon pups??

Any idea? I know nothing about them

Edit: I just tracked them down to Azumi guitars. Not holding out hope for these being spectacular. After all, I pulled them and threw them in a box 20 years ago


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

Looks like it was made by _Chushin Gakki _who made OEM guitars for Charvel, Jackson and Robin in the early 1980


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

So my take is it is an Azumi guitar, re branded as an Onyx for the Canadian market. 
looks cool in green. Too bad the body on mine is so beat. Solid colour is my only choice


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## Guest (Feb 19, 2018)

Leave 'er as is. Mojo, don'cha know. 


Scotty said:


> Maybe HB sized P90's.


SD P-Rails?
It has the holes for 3-way micro switches for s/h/p.


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

laristotle said:


> Leave 'er as is. Mojo, don'cha know.
> 
> SD P-Rails?
> It has the holes for 3-way micro switches for s/h/p.


I really like the idea of these. Thanks for the suggestion


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

Strung up for a go this aft. Couldn't check output of neck pup. It looks like junk and is a little microphonic. Junk I figure, though doesn't sound awful. Clear for neck.








16.4 ohm in bridge. Monster pup...my ears are still ringing. It's an SD JBJ. This pickup makes me play like a madman.
Likely going to pair it with a jazz then move them over to the EL Degas LP and put the P rails in it for fun.

The guts of this are garbage. Wrong orientation and do virtually nothing
Looking forward to shipping off to Greco for his wiring magic. 

One thing that surprises me about this guitar is how fast it is. Scale length is 25.5" yet it plays much easier than my strat, which I always keep a half step down.


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## SaucyJack (Mar 8, 2017)

I love those old MIJ guitars from the 80's. That's a beauty!


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

Thanks

Trying to think of a colour that goes well with a maple neck through. . I'm only planning on painting the stained section of the body so I don't have to strip the entire thing, neck and all.

I was thinking of charcoal or gunmetal but I already have that colour covered. Thinking about something kind of cool, metallic with a clear.

Dark green with gold hardware would look sharp but I don't want to change the saddle/tailpiece to gold, even though the saddles are brass. 
Maybe that Dusty mint metallic green like Reverend and Gretsch has on their guitars. Late 1960's dodge colour

I don't think I can pull off a Sunburst very well on the size of the body. That would cover 90% of the botched fills. What do you guys think?


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## SaucyJack (Mar 8, 2017)

I like the current version


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

So I picked up a pair of PAF style pick ups from the tone emporium and Dave @greco was gracious enough to offer his time to not only install them for me but replace all the electronics, save for the toggle switch which was still good. Turns out that the components were actually good it was the rats nest of wiring that the previous owner had done that was the cause of all the troubles. But since I ordered all the parts we went ahead with it anyway.

I decided to go with the audio taper or low torque pots and I really quite like them.

And a photo of Dave's fine efforts. Very detailed!

Again, thank you very much for your help Dave !









I'm not really quite sure how I feel about the pick ups to be honest though. I don't think they're bad, I just think they're not what I was after. That or maybe it's the fact there's not enough substance (mass) to the body of this guitar. I'm going to give it a bit a time to see if they warm up on me. If I decide to change them again I'll probably throw Humbucker size P 90s into them.

I'll say one thing about tone emporium pick ups. They look fantastic even before the box was open. Everything was wrapped up perfectly taped up, packaged in foam. The cables were all neatly wrapped. Nicely labeled. Very nice attention to detail for sure.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

@Scotty I enjoyed working on your guitars very much.

Thanks for your kind words. 

I still dislike the way I did the caps and would change that next time. 
That is going to haunt me...LOL


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