Up for sale, a 1975 H.S. Anderson HS-2 Strider electric guitar in excellent, 100% original condition and in perfect working order. These ultra-rare instruments represent a pinnacle of Japanese luthiery; produced with a particularly high level of scrutiny and grade-A craftsmanship. The H.S. stands for Hidesato Shiino, the so-called “Japanese Leo Fender”, a critical figure in the “lawsuit era” Japanese guitar world who would go on to start the ESP brand and had involvement in brands like Greco and Fernandes. H.S. Anderson guitars were exported by the Japanese company Morris and sold under the Hohner name for the U.S. market. Unlike the Morris acoustic guitars produced at their factory in Nagano, the H.S. Anderson instruments were purportedly handmade by only three craftsmen, one of which is M. Shinoda, whose signature is present in both the middle pickup cavity and on the neck heel.

Tonewoods include a maple body and one-piece maple neck, offering a notably bright, cutting acoustic character with good punch and sustain, qualities captured faithfully by the stock pickup complement. The pickups are sparkling and spanky with a tight low end, notably robust midrange, and shimmering highs. Weighing 9lbs 11oz, this Strider has been professionally setup here at Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar with fresh 10-46 strings, low action, and spot-on intonation.

The one-piece maple neck has a slender C-shaped profile carve with nicely rounded shoulders and lightly rolled fretboard edges, measuring .800” deep at the 1st fret and .935” at the 12th. The maple fretboard has a 7 1/4" radius with medium fretwire that has plenty of meat, with wear primarily beneath the plain strings on frets 1-9. This guitar plays cleanly in all registers with a straight neck and responsive, optimally-adjusted truss rod. The scale length is 25 1/2”, and the original nut measures 1 9/16” in width. The headstock retains a clean “H.S. Anderson” logo, and the “G”-stamped hexagonal Gotoh tuners turn smoothly and hold accurate pitch.

All the electronics work as intended, with the trio of original pickups, each with their own brass Tele-style baseplate, governed by a three-way pickup selector full-size Noble-branded pots. The vibrato has bright chrome plating and block saddles, and the tremolo block has “Made in Japan” text embossed on it. Plastics consist of the three-ply parchment pickguard, and the original trios of knobs and pickup covers. The gloss three-tone Sunburst finish exhibits a small area of buckle rash central to the waist on the back, and a number of minor scratches and dings on the body as a whole, particularly concentrated on the back and lower bout body edge. The gloss finish on the neck profile is clean and smooth.

A Gator-brand Stand-A-Case hybrid hardshell case is included.