Hi ……………………..please ignore this entry , it was my first attempt to update the forum and it was blocked for some reason…………………….
…only to pop up again later………it is really a duplicate of my longer entry……………………………………….
.. I just stumbled across the threads for CMI guitars………I have two in my collection , both LP copies left handed . One has the curly logo with
star , its a red sunburst which I bought new around 1980 from a shop I think was called Abercorn music near Woking..?????….never managed to
find them again. Saw an ad. in Exchange & Mart for left handed guitars .
I had a choice of two , the sunburst or a black one . Paid around £150 I think but I did a part exchange with a l/h Grimshaw .
The second one is a dark brown sunburst which a friend found at a car boot sale five years ago . This one has the squarer logo and I always
thought that this was simply an earlier production model . Both have the same headstock profile and tuners . Both have the ‘made in Japan’ on the neck plate . Both also have heavily filed frets , which needed quite a lot of shaping with fret files etc. to restore a rounded top shape .
There are differences however , the older? brown one has r/h pots wired the same as for a r/h guitar , hence the pots turn clockwise to increase
volume or treble , drives me nuts as it is back to front . I eventually changed the pots and screened with copper tape etc. star earthing too..its a quiet guitar now ..no hum..
The newer? red one has r/h pots wired as for a l/h guitar , so the volume and treble increase in the correct sense ,but always seemed too coarse , I only recently realised that the pots were wrong when I did some resistance measurements , I am in the process of rewiring this guitar now.
…….I was then stunned to find that my Epiphone LP also has the wrong pots fitted , again I was puzzled by the apparent coarse controls , which acted more like an on/off switch , and have now proved by measurement that it has the logarithmic pots for a r/h guitar , instead of the ANTI-LOG pots which should be fitted in a l/h guitar ….?????????????…..too bad its out of warranty or I could take it back I guess….?????….
I could quite believe that the two CMI came from the same factory as construction seems identical , the main part of the body is solid with a ply wood arched section glued to the front , the red one has more edge trim and gold plated parts , which adds to my theory that it was a later model..???

http://www.robinjclark.com/USERIMAGES/DSCN1202.JPG
http://www.robinjclark.com/USERIMAGES/DSCN1203.JPG

here are the pics as requested , ignore the compensated nuts , I fitted those…..

The second one is a brown sunburst which a friend found at an auction five years ago , it has the squarer logo , which I have always taken to be an earlier model…
..there are many similarities which led me to this conclusion…….
..the headstock shape and the truss rod covers are identical…as are the tuners..
..the main body construction is the same , mainly solid with an arched plywood section glued to the front…
..the frets were heavily filed on both , need some shaping to restore a rounded top shape…
…both have ‘made in japan’ stamped in identical manner on the neck plate…