Vintage Kawai Electric Guitar Sunburst Orange Made In Japan For Sale

VINTAGE, 1960s, Made in Japan. This 335 style semi-hollow body archtop guitar has been identified as Kawai manufactured, unknown model. To this day, almost 60 years after they were manufactured, many people still refer to any electric guitar manufactured in Japan during the 1960s as a “TEISCO” guitar! Although Teisco was one of the pioneers of the solid body electric guitar industry in Japan in the 1950s with their models TG-54,TN-54, J-1 and J-2 it was Kawai who were well positioned in the distribution of musical instruments from their piano manufacturing. When the guitar craze of the mid 1960s blossomed, Kawai became the GIANT of the 1960s Japanese electric guitar manufacturing industry, supplying many dozens of distributors in the USA and Euope with a steady supply of the guitars they demanded. Brands such as Decca, Domino, Ibanez, Kent, Kingston, National, Norma, Segova, Silvertone, St. George, Telestar, Audition, Kay, Noble, Truetone, Zimgar and many, many other Kawai manufactured guitars were branded with over 50 such names and more than 200 different models! Kawai gobbled up their competitors like Shino Gakki in 1966, and Teisco in 1967. Kawai continued to brand their own Kawai manufactured guitars as “TEISCO” into the late 1970s, launching what guitar collectors refer to as the “lawsuit” era, with Kawai producing copies of the well known guitar models of Fender and Gibson until the intellectual property/copyright infringement issue was settled.