A rare, vintage guitar from Japan, this Daion Les Paul Custom style guitar is a playable classic!
Listed in a Daion catalog from 1978, the DLP-35 is a “Made in Japan” Founder single cut electric guitar that has been rebranded Daion. The catalog that lists the DLP-35 has MCI (the US distributor for Daion) stamped on the back page. The price list from 1978 describes it as a “Les Paul Custom” model.
The guitar has a Maple top, Lauan back and body, Nato detachable (bolt-on) neck, Rosewood fingerboard, and dual humbucker pickups (these have quite a bright tone and are slightly microphonic; think P90-esque with a bit of bite, not a conventional LP tone but very useable all the same!). There are plastic pearloid colored block inlay fret markers and the hardware was gold plated (although this has mostly rubbed off or corroded slightly, as they often do at this age!). The tunomatic-style bridge has nylon saddles which are all intact. In fact the whole guitar seems to be all original to the best of our knowledge, and fully functional.
This vintage instrument obviously has wear and tear comensurate to it's advancing years, with a fair few small dings and scratches, and some buckle rash on the back too (see pics). None of which effects the playability at all, and we think only adds to it's considerable mojo!
It also comes complete with a shaped hardcase that seems to be from a similar era.
