1. Lotus Electric Bass
2. Lotus Bass Guitar
3. Lotus Electric Guitar
4. Vintage Lotus Guitar

Lotus was a house brand of certain guitars made in various Asian factories from the late 1970s until the late 1990s. Lotus guitars were usually copies of better-known, up-market brand-name guitars, such as the Gibson Les Paul and the Fender Stratocaster. The quality of the instruments was very good for the price (usually around US$ 400–$900). Enjoy the lowest prices and best selection of Lotus Acoustic Guitars at Guitar Center. Most orders are eligible for free shipping!

These Lotus models featured neck-through-body construction and a host of eye-catching appointments.

Hi Zach,

What can you tell me about my late 1970s/early 1980s Lotus guitar? It has a set neck, pearl binding, a brass nut, and brass fret inlays. It seems similar to the Wing series guitars that Washburn was selling at that time. It is very well built and plays like a dream. I think it’s pretty cool and I get lots of comments about it.

Lotus Electric Bass

Thanks,

Chris in Roswell, GA

Hey Chris,

Cool guitar! You really don’t see many of these anymore. You are correct that it’s similar to the Washburn Wing series, specifically the Washburn Eagle from the late ’70s and early ’80s. In fact, aside from different fretboard inlays and brand names on the headstocks, when you compare the two they’re nearly identical. If this connection seems odd, the occurrence of very similar guitars with different brand names is more common that many of us would think.

This circa late 1970s/early 1980s Lotus bears a striking similarity to the Washburn Eagle
from the same era, and for good reason.

Midco International, a former musical distributor, sold the Lotus brand as an exclusive trademark of guitars during the 1970s and 1980s. Like many other distributors, Midco commissioned a manufacturer in Asia to build guitars under a unique brand name. However, many of these factories in Asia received requests to build guitars for multiple manufacturers/distributors, meaning the same guitar could essentially end up under multiple trademarks. This isn’t much different from what Harmony, Kay, and other house-brand jobbers from the Chicago area were doing in the 1940s through the 1960s.

The standard practice for many distributors was to offer a line of guitars based on popular American designs like Les Pauls and Strats, for example, along with a few original designs. And all were offered at a bargain price or were at least inexpensive enough to compete with the American manufacturers. While the majority of imported Asian-built copies from the era aren’t considered to be of very good quality, the Lotus brand was an exception, mainly because of the factories they were built in.

That said, information regarding Asian-guitar production from the 1970s and early 1980s is cloudy at best. Most lower-end Lotus-branded guitars were produced by either Samick or other factories in Korea or Indonesia. However, some of the higher-end Lotus instruments were built by the Cort factory in Korea or by one of three factories in Japan: Yamaki, Matsumoku, and Moridaira.

From my research, your guitar was built at the Moridaira factory and is based on the Morris VX-45R. (Morris was a house brand of Moridaira.) And the VX-45R is also the same as, alas, the Washburn Eagle. Further proof is the silver serial-number sticker on the back of the headstock that appears to be unique to Morris models of that era.

Specs for your guitar include an ash body and carved maple top (rosewood was an option) bound with an abalone border, and a 5-piece maple/rosewood through-body neck. Other features include the bound 22-fret ebony fretboard with brass circle inlays, a matched-finish headstock with abalone border, 3-per-side tuners, two exposed humbuckers, and controls for each pickup. Its ivory finish is probably the most desirable color for this model, but the guitar was also available in a natural finish that highlighted the maple or rosewood carved top.

Your Lotus “Eagle copy” appears to be in excellent condition and I estimate the current value to be between $400 and $600. Since the Washburn Eagle was produced circa 1979 to 1984, it’s more than likely your Lotus was made during this time period as well.

A guitar’s factory of origin plays a huge part in its quality and assessed value, so don’t just write off an unfamiliar brand of vintage guitar when you come across one. The silver serial-number sticker (right) on the back of the headstock tells us the Moridaira factory in Japan probably built this Lotus.

Lotus guitars still continued to appear through the 1990s, and Midco International eventually became part of Musicorp in the early 2000s. Around that time, they discontinued all Lotus guitars and began using the trademark on a line of bluegrass instruments.

There’s still a lot of confusion over Japanese- and Korean-built guitars from this era in regards to trademarks, who built them, when they were offered, and the connection between them all. However, many of these guitars are high quality and you should always pay close attention when encountering an unknown trademark. If a guitar was produced at one of the aforementioned factories, it could very well be a treasure, just like your Lotus.

Lotus was a house brand of certain guitars made in various Asian factories from the late 1970s until the late 1990s. Lotus guitars were usually copies of better-known, up-market brand-name guitars, such as the Gibson Les Paul and the Fender Stratocaster. The quality of the instruments was very good for the price (usually around US$400–$900).

History[edit]

Lotus Bass Guitar

Lotus is a brand name put on the headstocks of a line of good-quality electric guitars made by at least one Japanese gakki [factory]. [Confirming information is difficult or impossible to find. However, based upon the strong similarities between certain Lotus models and other guitars bearing the Washburn brand, the consensus in the guitar community is that both brands were built at least for a time by Yamaki gakki.]Construction of Lotus- branded guitars started with the elite league of Japanese craftsmen and initially made excellent Morris-branded guitars, but trying to keep up with heavyweight makers such as Matsumoku [maker of Aria Pro II] and Fuji-Gen Gakki [maker of Yamaha], or Hoshino [maker of Ibanez] was difficult. Mismanagement and, especially, the inability to market their initial superb-quality guitars soon had Lotus' owners scrambling for cheaper labor, ending in India with poor quality and eventually no takers for their product, as Chinese and Indonesian guitar producers stepped up with instruments of comparable quality at similar prices.For a general description of the popular music market that gave rise to the host of brand names borne by good-quality Japanese music gear, see the Wikipedia article on Memphis Guitars.

Versions[edit]

The most common and lesser-quality Lotus guitars were usually manufactured by Samick and others in Korea and India. The top-of-the-line early 1980s models were made by both in Korea by Cort Guitars (early neck-though models) and in Japan by Morris / Moridaira (neck-through models, set-neck Washburn Eagle copies, and decent Gibson Les Paul copies).

Like the Matsumoku guitars of that era, both the early Korean Cort and Japanese Morris-made Lotus guitars are of high quality.

Lotus guitars are no longer in production. While the low-end guitars have rightfully only experienced a minimal gain in value, the high-end models usually range from $100–$300 and are becoming quite collectible.

Chauntelle DuPree of the band Eisley used a Lotus Stratocaster copy for many years on tour and to record. While the quality of this guitar would not typically be considered to be on a professional level, it did provide an inexpensive platform for experimentation and upgrade (with non-Lotus parts), which resulted in a unique sounding instrument.

The Moridaira-made Lotus guitars are the rarest and hardest to find as Lotus/Morris made them at most for only 2–3 years. These guitars all are solid-bodied and were made in the same factory as Tokai. There are only 3 models that are known to have come from Lotus/Morris:

1. The Lotus L670B (a direct copy of the 1980-1982/3 Fender 'Bullet'—MIA and MIJ, but not MIK) other than having switches instead of buttons, a different headstock shape, a solid body and the same pickups. There were no letters on the headstock.
2. The Lotus Vantage copy (Washburn Eagle, Aria Pro II Cardinal series, or Ibanez Artist) double cutaway (batwing) guitar with a solid body, 3 per side tuners on headstock, rosewood fingerboard with brass inlays, brass nut and neck-through construction (though there may have been a bolt-on model). This was usually finished in emerald green, polished mahogany or stained blue/white breadboard style and occasionally gloss white with 2 exposed humbucker pickups.
3. A more conventional Gibson Les Paul copy, usually only seen in gloss black or tobacco burst. These were neck through, and bolt on neck, with hardware similar to their double-cutaway Vantage copy.

These three models are easily on a par with the Matsumoku-made Westbury and the high-end neck-through Vantage guitars.

Lotus Electric Guitar

External links[edit]

Vintage Lotus Guitar