I’m new to this forum. Can anyone help me identify the model / year of manufacture, etc. of this guitar, please….?
The only identifying mark is “Made In Japan” on the neck plate.
I’m guessing you’re in the UK so the model is MS35W. I suspect that was a UK designation, not sure what it might have been labelled elsewhere in the world.
The picture below is from the 1980 Bell catalogue. Bell was a musical instrument store but they had started off in business making and selling accordions. When the founder died in 1961, the company was taken over by Hohner. I think they went out of business in the mid 1980s.
Anyway, your guitar is from the early 1980s. Late 1970s Hohner Strat copies weren’t quite as exact but this has the big headstock and the bullet truss rod like the Fenders of that period. The very, very black Hohner logo (still crisp after nearly 50 years) is also a distinctive feature of an early 1980s Japanese Hohner. They made them till around 1983, and then they were replaced by a Korean equivalent (which became the Arbor Series).
It has an ash body, maple neck and alnico pickups. It was probably made at the Moridaira factory. Moridaira managed Japanese production for Hohner. They often subcontracted acoustic guitar production to specialist factories but I think they made a lot of the electrics themselves.
Thank you very much for your response. I am indeed in the UK. In fact, I live in Ewell, Surrey, just 7km from the site of the old Bell Music shop in Surbiton. I bought the guitar second-hand in the mid-1990s. The picture you included looks very much like my guitar. The headstock and body, in particular, look pretty much identical. The only difference I can see is the tailpiece. The MS 35 tailpiece in your picture seems to have some sort of cover. My tailpiece is exposed and secured to the body with six screws, unlike the later models that seem to have a similar tailpiece but are secured with just two screws. It’s definitely built in Japan, though; see the additional picture below. I think it must be an early 1980s model as you suggest. Thank you again for your help with this question. Regards, Simon
All Strats used to have a snap on cover over the bridge to protect your hand. Everybody took them off, used them as an ashtray (which is their usual name), and then lost them. Yours would have had one originally. Contemporary Fenders would have had one in the case but not installed, and then they just stopped including them at all apart from some reissue models.