Stairway to Tokyo…

Six Strings & Twelve-Strings.

This double-neck Japanese version of the EDS-1275 (conventional six-string neck in the lower position combined with a twelve-string neck was manufactured in November 1993 at the FujiGen factory in Japan and weighs just 10.10 lbs. The six-string guitar neck has a nice, fat nut width of just under 1 3/4 inches, a wonderful thick profile and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. The twelve string guitar neck also has a scale length of 24 3/4 inches, a nut width of just under 1 3/4 inches and a similarly wonderful thick profile. Solid mahogany body with bevelled edge (16 1/4 inches wide and 1 3/8 inches deep), two one-piece Mahogany necks with bound rosewood fretboards. The six-string guitar and the twelve-string guitar necks both have 20 jumbo frets and inlaid pearl split-parallelogram position markers. Each headstock with inlaid pearl "Orville" and a two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover with two screws. Serial number "311205" inked-on in black on the back of the headstock of the six-string guitar. The six-string neck with individual dual-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with double-ring, tulip shaped keystone buttons (each stamped D-169400/Patent No. on the underside) & the twelve-string neck with individual Kluson Deluxe style tuners with single-ring tulip shaped Keystone plastic buttons (each one stamped on the underside "Japan"). Two Japanese 'replica PAF' humbucking pickups with outputs of 7.64k and 7.80k on the six-string guitar and two Japanese 'replica PAF' humbucking pickups with outputs of 7.69k and 7.75k on the twelve-string guitar. Two four-layer (black / white / black / white) plastic pickguards with bevelled edges, the one on the six-string guitar side with six screws, the one in the middle with eight screws. Four controls (one volume and one tone for the two pickups of the conventional guitar and one volume and one tone for the the two pickups on the twelve-string  guitar) plus a three-way pickup selector switch for both of the necks in the center of the guitar and a three-way neck selector switch on the treble horn of the pickguard of the conventional guitar. Black plastic bell-shaped knobs. Each guitar with a Gibson Tune-O-Matic style retainer bridge, both with metal saddles, and original screwed-on non-adjustable bar tailpieces (each with three screws). The original strap buttons are positioned on the heel of the twelve-string guitar and on the lower edge. This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition with just a few very small and insignificant surface marks on the edges. Original Gibson USA three-latch brown rectangular hardshell case with purple plush lining (9.00).

"During the 1970s and the 1980s, certain Japanese Guitar companies using brand names such as Ibanez, Tokai, Burny, and Greco were making high quality copies of Fender and Gibson guitars. Some brands were sold only on the Japanese market, but other brands, such as Ibanez were exported from Japan. 

Fender and Gibson opened Japanese branch divisions to make guitars in Japan using the Fender/Squier or Gibson / Epiphone brand names for the Japanese market. Fender established Fender Japan in 1982 and contracted Yamano Gakki and Kanda Shokai to oversee the production and distribution of Fender Japan guitars in cooperation with Fender. Yamano Gakki (Gakki stands for musical instrument company) are one of Japan's largest musical instrument distributors / retailers and Kanda Shokai are one of Japan's largest musical instrument distributors.

Gibson established Epiphone Japan in the early 1970s with the production and distribution being managed by Aria in cooperation with Gibson. The Aria and Gibson Epiphone Japan partnership ended in 1983 with the export Epiphone production moving to Korea and in 1987, Yamano Gakki obtained the Gibson and Epiphone dealership in Japan. Yamano Gakki distributed Gibson and Korean Epiphone guitars and also produced a limited range of Epiphone Japan semi acoustic guitars in cooperation with Gibson. 

In 1988 Yamano Gakki decided to expand the Epiphone Japan model range to include solid body models as well as semi acoustic models. Gibson and Yamano Gakki decided not to use the Epiphone brand name for the expanded model range and so the Orville name was chosen instead. Orville is the first name of the Gibson corporation's founder Orville Gibson. When the Orville by Gibson series was launched in 1988, Gibson was also selling American-made Gibson guitars, Japanese-made Epiphone guitars, and Korean-made Epiphone guitars in Japan. The Orville by Gibson and Orville series were distributed by Yamano Gakki and were priced midway between the American-made Gibson guitars and the Korean-made Epiphone guitars.

The Orville series were discontinued in 1998 due to Gibson and Yamano Gakki deciding to export an expanded Epiphone model range that included solid body and semi acoustic models. Gibson and Yamano Gakki ended their relationship in late 2006."