Finding a Rare Fenix DG-40.N Guitar

The Find

For some time I have been an admirer of Fenix guitars. They were produces for a short time from the late 80s to the early 90s. They were made by the Young Chang Company in Korea.  Many people know Young Chang as a very respectable acoustic piano company.  They also produced the Fender Squire line for many years. The rumor is that Fender found out they were producing their own line of guitars they put pressure on them to focus on Fender. Ultimately they did.

During their brief history under the Fenix label they produced some extremely good quality guitar for very little money. I’d tell you to go out and buy one but there is one small problem. Folks that have them almost never sell them. Many collectors claim they are their best guitars even considering the brands like Gibson, Martin, Fender and Taylor. I am fortunate to own a couple of Fenix Jumbo acoustic already, but was surprised to see a Fenix for sale recently on Craigslist in Maui, Hawaii. No pictures. Very little in the way of a description …… and as usual …. a good price. That started a string of emails and texts with a very fine seller and eventually the guitar made it’s way to my doorstep. The logistics of getting it here were painful since the seller did not have a hardshell case.  Steps involved purchasing a hard case, shipping it to Maui, providing shipping label to the seller who them inserted the guitar in the case and repackaged it in the box the case arrived in.  Pretty soon the Fenix was on the way to Texas.

It Gets Crazyier

Fenix made several models of acoustic and electric guitars. I thought I was familiar with all of their offerings.  I have catalogues from 4 of the years they produced guitars.  This one is nothing like any I have ever seen. It is shaped like a Gibson J-45 or J-50 with a small upper bout. It has a pickguard similar to a Guild, but not exactly.  It has a bridge similar to a Gibson Hummingbird without the inlay work. Finally it has a headstock unlike ANY Fenix I have ever seen, not even one!  Could this be a prototype?  Could this be an employee made guitar. It has the Fenix logo imbeded in the headstock and has a Fenix label on the inside of the guitar. When you look at the label, however, the label is upside-down. It is signed by Young (which may be pre-printed), but has no year of manufacture and no serial number.  My other Fenix guitars have both.  There is also a trace of a previous lebel in the guitar. Is this a “blem” or blemished guitar that was returned to the shop/store and relabeled and resold?

The gentleman I purchased the guitar from was living in South Korea at the time of the purchase and he bought it from in 6 story music store in Seoul in 1993.  He thought it was a 1992 or 1993 model.  It was the display model and they did not want to sell it. He said they did everything possible to sell him another guitar. They showed him four others, but he liked the sound and the feel of this one.  Well how does it should? Fantastic!! In spite of the crazy things going on on this guitar, such as the neck block being off center or a chunk chipped away, the guitar is VERY BALANCED and sounds fantastic.  The book-matched solid spruce top also is not of the highest grade and is not a perfect match near the bottom.  The seller ended up being a drummer, not a guitar player, so it is basically a new 1992 or 1993 guitar.

The odd things about this guitar include:

• I have never seen a Fenix with this headstock shape.
• I have never seen a Fenix with this Gibson J-45 / J-50 body style.
• I have never seen a Fenix with a Guild style pickguard.
• I have never seen a Fenix with this Gibson style bridge design.
• I have seen only a couple of Fenix acoustics with rectangular fretboard inlays.
• I have never seen a Fenix with an un-numbered un-dated inverted label.

If you have any information on this guitar, please comment below.