Lotus (guitar)

Lotus was a brand name of guitars used from the late 1970s until the late 1990s. Lotus guitars were usually copies of other 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).

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 Cort Guitars (neck-though models, early Korea) and Morris / Moridaira (neck-through models, set-neck Washburn Eagle copies, and decent Les Paul copies, Japan).

Both the early Korean Cort and Japanese Morris-made Lotus guitars are of exceptional quality, like the Matsumoku guitars of that era.

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 Morris-made Lotus guitars are almost always lost in the mix of their other guitars but are truly amazing players and usually are the hardest and rarest to find as Lotus/Morris only made them for a few years (2-3 at most). These guitars all are solid-bodied and have exceptional necks that were made in the same factory as Tokai. There are only 3 models that known for sure that came 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 it has 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 (guitar company) Cardinal 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 (though there may have been a bolt-on model). This was usually in a emerald green, polished mahoghany or stained blue/white breadboard style and occasionally gloss white with 2 exposed humbucker pickups.
3. A more conventional Les Paul copy, usually only seen in gloss black or tobacco burst. These were neck through with hardware similar to their double-cutaway Vantage copy.

These three models are easily on par with Westbury and the upper class neck-through Vantage guitars (both made by Matsomuko).

Lotus started with the elite league of Japanese craftsmen and made wonderful guitars initially (Morris) but trying to keep up with the heavyweights such as Aria and Fuji-Gen Gakki Ibanez was difficult. Mis-management and especially the inability to market their initial superb quality guitars immediately had Lotus owners scrambling for cheaper labor, ending in India with poor quality and eventually no takers for their product as China and Indonesia guitar producers stepped up in quality for similar prices.