My very first guitar was a Japanese SG copy from Kawai that was rebranded "Gracia"
A very awfull guitar I must ad, but I really like how it looked.
Last week I was browsing through some local for sale adds and stumbled on this rather nice 1971 -72 Welson SG.
It reminded me a lot of the aformentioned Kawai/Gracia SG, So it peeked my intrest.
After some research, I contacted the seller and bought it .
Here are the sellers pics from the add
Turns out this guitar is quiet a gem.
Welson was an Italian music manufacturor at the same time as "Eko" and "Crucianelli" but much less known.
They started making guitars in the mid 50's and then moved to more extravagant solid bodies in the 60's.
They also made guitars for Wurlitzer and had a brand on the US market named "Orpheum" that is well known for their "Starfire" violin shaped guitars and basses. (These have the same pickups and trem unit as the SG)
The Welson SG I got is from their last larger run of guitars in the early seventies before the switched to making synths and keyboards.
They also made a simelar Les Paul model. They made another SG mid 70's that had a neck through construction (I think formite Pat used to own one of these) and they ran a kind of custom shop until the late 70's for custom orders.
The Welson company stopped making musical instruments alltogher at the early 80's.
At the late 60's musical instrument tastes changed drasticly, nobody really longer cared for the extravaganza of guitars produced by the Italian guitar manufacturors. Everybody wanted Strats, Les Pauls and SG's so it seamed...
Welson at the time known as "the Gibson of Europe" set out to produce some high quality copies and adding some flavor of their own.
Basicly the Welson SG is a straight copy of a 1965 Gibson SG. (Construction method included)
First copy to have a set neck just like Gibson and full mahogany neck and body.
There were no corners cut... Bound neck, dot inlays,nice rosewood fretboard, one piece neck, no scarf joint, no veloute....
Simple style headstock with Gibson-esque black overlay with their Welson inlayd logo.
Welson did add something of their history, adding a trem system (same as on their 60's models, looks pretty Fender inspired
) and making their own version of a Humbucker pick up. Apperently they were the first to do so in 1966-1967
The bridge is quiet a nice desing too. Looks like it's been inspired by the Gibson harmonica bridge, but it's more an upside down Jm/Jag kind of brigde with some kind of tom style saddles with 3 grooves each.
