While the majority of imported Asian-built copies from the era aren’t considered to be of very good quality, the Lotus brand was an exception, mainly because of the factories they were built in. And all were offered at a bargain price or were at least inexpensive enough to compete with the American manufacturers. The standard practice for many distributors was to offer a line of guitars based on popular American designs like Les Pauls and Strats, for example, along with a few original designs.
This isn’t much different from what Harmony, Kay, and other house-brand jobbers from the Chicago area were doing in the 1940s through the 1960s. However, many of these factories in Asia received requests to build guitars for multiple manufacturers/distributors, meaning the same guitar could essentially end up under multiple trademarks. Like many other distributors, Midco commissioned a manufacturer in Asia to build guitars under a unique brand name. Midco International, a former musical distributor, sold the Lotus brand as an exclusive trademark of guitars during the 1970s and 1980s. This circa late 1970s/early 1980s Lotus bears a striking similarity to the Washburn Eagle from the same era, and for good reason. If this connection seems odd, the occurrence of very similar guitars with different brand names is more common that many of us would think.
In fact, aside from different fretboard inlays and brand names on the headstocks, when you compare the two they’re nearly identical. You are correct that it’s similar to the Washburn Wing series, specifically the Washburn Eagle from the late ’70s and early ’80s. I think it’s pretty cool and I get lots of comments about it.Ĭool guitar! You really don’t see many of these anymore. It is very well built and plays like a dream. It seems similar to the Wing series guitars that Washburn was selling at that time. What can you tell me about my late 1970s/early 1980s Lotus guitar? It has a set neck, pearl binding, a brass nut, and brass fret inlays.
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