It’s been a relatively slow year here, but this is a guitar that’s been on my list for a while now and I couldn’t resist when one popped up on Reverb. Early Robins like this were made in Japan by Tokai (same company that made the Fender Contemporary series strats, which have really great necks). I love the look of the reversed banana headstock and glossy lacquered necks.
This guitar is very lightweight, especially compared to my many Kramer Pacer Imperials of the same year - and both were after the same kind of market. A strat-style body, but with Les Paul sonic appeal, with a dual pair of humbuckers. Kramer went with hotter Schaller pickups, while the Robin uses Gotoh-made (Tokai branded) PAF-spec humbuckers. The bridge is a traditional six-screw fulcrum trem, and each saddle says “Robin” on it just like an old Fender would have.
More similar to a Les Paul is the figured maple top, which is what makes this part of the “RV” series. The “RH” series guitars are otherwise similar, but without the figured tops. I think this color is just “Old Sunburst” from the catalog, but I suppose it could also be “Cherry Sunburst” and it is just, well, old and faded a bit now. The controls are top hat style knobs in a deep amber finish, with a 3-way full size toggle switch and an output jack right on the top of the guitar body like an ES-335.
Here’s the 1982 Robin Guitars catalog below, you can spot this model on the right hand side of the front cover, although that one is surely “Brown Sunburst.” On Page 3, you’ll see that there are 4 (!) different Sunburst color variations for this model and they are all quite similar.
The neck is a bolt-on, with nice low action but small vintage style frets and a curved fretboard radius. Tuners are also very vintage, kluson-style but of course stamped “Robin.”
It’s funny to think that this guitar, so clearly a combination of late-1950s designs, was only about 25 years removed from the time period its design was inspired by. Much more time than that has passed since this guitar was made - almost twice as long, 44 years ago. It’s interesting to put yourself in the headspace of someone playing this guitar for the first time back then, trying to emulate the features of what was at the time just some old guitars. We see a lot of 50s/60s “retro” design (I’m pretty fond of whatever Reverend is doing right now) but I think that’s a bit different than this in the sense that this Robin was before the “$25k ‘57 Strat” craze existed. Either way, I’m really glad to have finally have one of these. Now to find an RH for a reasonable price.