Info on Realistic Guitar Co.?

[mvsr990]

Going through some of my grandparents' photographs, I ran across a Polaroid of my grandfather (d. 1990) sometime in the late-70s playing a sunburst Gibson ES-335 copy that I would swear says Realistic on the headstock, running parallel to the neck rather than across the top.

I can't find any info on a 'Realistic Guitar Co.' or if it's a brand who the parent co. might be. Curious if anyone's heard of them or knows anything?

 

[tim gueguen]

An obvious guess is that its an Asian copy that was sold through Radio Shack at some point in the '70s given that Realistic was their house brand for pretty much everything.

 

[mvsr990]

Thank you, that looks correct - Tandy/Radio Shack Realistic. I had no idea the breadth of what RS stocked back in the day, I guess.

Not much info even going back into the archived newsgroups, will have to keep looking.

 

[mc5nrg]

Does it have gold parts and a lifetime guarantee?*























*inside tube humor

 

[Grenville]

I always wondered why Tandy chose that name as a brand. Why would you want a "realistic" when you could have a "real"?

 

[mc5nrg]

They used the "Realistic" brand for their HiFi products and I think it probably well predates any Tandy ownership. Radio Shack was originally formed by the merger of two electronics stores IIRC that had their roots in radio, electronics hobby sales and a post WWII boom involving war surplus sales.