1975 Westminster SE-420

This recently arrived Westminster SE-420 completes the trio of Mustang, Tele and Strat, and for the UK audience, these were the domestic market and Australian export versions of the Kimbara - an entry level Matsumoku produced guitar aimed at folk who wanted to start their journey or improve their basic skills on a full scale grown up electric guitar. Not to be confused with the SE-330 which was contracted out by Matsumoku to the Chushin Gakki plant which was the equivalent of the Columbus models - a good few mm thinner bodies. The SE-420 received more powerful versions of the original Maxon coils from the early 1970s models. This guitar has more power than you'd expect and you may find yourself backing off the volume a little for super clean requirements.

A classic 3-way switch gives you the 3 basic tones you'd expect from a Strat of this age, and judicious positioning of the selector will locate the in between tones, but as this is a classic 3 position Strat, the middle is not RWRP and therefore the carefully selected neck and middle is in reverse phase, and through a wound up OD-3, this sound will get you a gig in a punk band.

Unlike today's entry level guitar, the controls on this SE-420 are the same units as you'd see in a range topper from Greco - large body pots with great positive movement, not the tiny mini-pots that fail very shortly after anyone takes a soldering iron the base. As with its Tele brother, the tuners are the most basic ones available without resorting to strip tuners, and they are showing a little signs of their age, but they do keep tune and the teeth are all present and correct. Costs were saved at the tremolo bridge too, as the block is a strip of bent plate, not the solid resonant steel you would see on a Greco or Aria, but it still does the job well - the powerful pick-ups making up for the differences in sustain. The body is, we think, Alder and not Sen ash so there is a slight tonal difference between this and higher spec models. It is less noticeable on high gain settings, and that completes the spec differences between this and an Aria ST-400. Real MIJ-geeks will know that the Aria Pro II ST-480 from 1976 was a continuation of this SE-420 model and the ST-400 offered an improved spec for a little lower price in 1977.

So confusingly, this Westminster was the premium entry-level model. Matsumoku catered for a lot of levels. We have both SE-420 and ST-400 models here side by side at the moment - playing them one after the other will justify why the 400 is a bit more expensive than the 420 - they are different evolutions of how Matsumoku was getting closer to Fender standards. The 420 offers that early MIJ feel in that you know it is different to a real Strat, but none the worse for it. This guitar has bags of character and loves being played hard through a practice amp. We prefer playing this through the Fender 15 watt Mustang amp than we do the bigger stuff in the studio. It is just great fun, and not a guitar that you will grow tired of playing - callouses will form quicker with this and you'll spend more time with it than you'd perhaps planned.

As well as a brilliant practice guitar, this SE-420 wold make a cheap addition to a bigger collection of more prestigious instruments just to remind yourself of more innocent and care-free days. It will put a smile on your face.

It tips the scales at a featherweight 3.18kg (7lbs exactly) and please try and forgive the signs of life around the edge, the mismatched neck tone pot, the sticker rash and the fact that I got carried away snapping the top E moments before the photoshoot. As I said, care-free days...