<SMALL>Thanks for the info. Were there any mechanical changes throughout the years?</SMALL>
Yes. One of the significant ones, besides the Finnish plywood and mica to solid maple and lacquer change, is the aluminum pickup pocket that was later added to spice up the tone a little. I have one of these on an S-10 maple lacquer '76 Classic, and it does change the tone. However, I would be very curious to try one of the older ones, because I've heard recordings on here that I thought sounded pretty good, albeit more "traditional," and I'm therefore not sure the pocket is necessarily better; it may just be a matter of personal preference. I guess a factor to consider, though, is that the non-pocket guitars seem to always be the plywood-mica models. But again, I've heard some nice recordings of those on here. I also once got a close-up view of a later model Classic that had a nice lacquer finish, but appeared to be a plywood of maybe three plys or so. One had to look carefully to see that.
Sometime in the late 70's or maybe the early 80's, MSA went to a triple-raise, triple-lower changer, from the old double. That's significant.
Also, there is the difference between the old single-coil pickups on the non-pocket models, that gave way to the humbucking Supersustains on the pocket models, that in turn gave way to the single-coil Supersustain II on the last of the Classics.
I'm sure there are other significant things that changed, like the fretboards and graphics, but those mentioned are a few of the more striking.
The most sought after Classics, by far, are the SS "Super Small" models, which are a totally different, more modern design.
I still have my Classic, but I usually play my Emmons Le Grande D-10 now. Plugging the Classic, which now has a Wallace True Tone single-coil on it, into my Pro Fex gets a decent tone, but the Emmons just has more of the sound I personally need, a couple more changes on E9, and the C6 neck to boot.
Mechanically, like has been said, the MSA is really impressive. I think it actually stays in tune better than the Emmons, for some reason. It has nice Grover machine heads
Jeff <font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Jeff A. Smith on 19 March 2005 at 06:16 AM.]</p></FONT>