Listed in a Daion catalog from 1978, the DES-50YS (Yellow Sunburst) is a made in Japan Founder archtop electric guitar that has been rebranded Daion for the United States market. The catalog that lists the DES-50YS has MCI (the US distributor for Daion) stamped on the back page. The price list from 1978 says it’s an “ES-175 model.”

The archtop has maple body, rosewood fretboard, nato set neck, gold hardware, plastic block fret markers, and dual humbucker pickups. Electric controls are a traditional three-way pickup selector switch with two volume and two tone controls. The bridge is rosewood floating on the maple top (i.e. not fixed). The yellow sunburst is a lacquer finish. This is one of the oldest Daion branded instruments we’ve ever come across.