1980's Kawai M-1000 Moonsault

I don't own this guitar, but I've written about the Moonsault a few times in other postings so I thought I'd include some information and pictures of one.

The MoonSault became one of the most popular models in Japan marketed by Kawai. As far as I know, no significant attempt was ever made to market MoonSaults in the U.S. It's one of the more unique guitar shapes ever created! This is the ULTIMATE ART GUITAR and from its introduction the MOONSAULT became a benchmark for guitar styling. Once you see one, you never forget it and they play great too.

Many MoonSault models were produced after 1975. The MS-700 was produced from December of 1982 through April 1983. The tell-tale blue/silver burst finish clearly dates it to that time. This was when Gibson and other companies were producing similar metallic sunburst guitars.

This is a great-playing, comfortable guitar, extremely well-made, with premium materials. Standing, it gives you a great image, and if you like to play sitting down, the moon shape cradles nicely in your lap. Like many other Japanese guitars of this time, the electronics are designed to give you a great deal of tonal flexibility. The guitar has a master volume with individual tone controls for each pickup. Each tone pot is push/pull, yielding coil tapping on one and phase reversal on the other. The wide fine-tune bridge was very popular in the early 1980's, and provides easy, stable intonation.

The rage for silverburst guitars was pretty short-lived, lasting only a few years at best, and this MS-700 was soon replaced by other MoonSault models. Sales of MoonSaults, however, were brisk enough to keep the model in production through the 1990s. At the end of the run there was even a clear plexiglass tribute model. By the late 1980's, the dollar/yen conversion rate was so unfavorable that Japanese companies could not afford to export to the U.S. and the age of Korean guitars began. High-end guitarmakers continued to produce guitars in Japan, but for the most part they are for domestic consumption only while budget guitars hailed from Korea, China, or elsewhere.

How many MoonSaults were made is unknown. Because they weren't marketed in the U.S. export numbers would be small. If the few that show up on the market are any guide, they're rare.

ABOUT THE INSTRUMENT PICTURED:

As best I can determine, this guitar was made in 1982/1983 (making it one of the originals.

MODEL: MS-1000, MLY (Moon Light Yellow).

BODY: Solid mahogany painted in “yellow burst” finish.

BODY SHAPE: CRESCENT MOON

BODY FINISH: Has poly finish with few scratches, wear spots, and some broken finish marks and cracks which give it pure character. There is slight damage at the top of the body that seems to have come from the guitar hitting something.

NECK: Set one piece mahogany neck. There is a slight crack near the HEADSTOCK which has been professionally repaired.

FRETBOARD: The fretboard is made of Indian rosewood and is well dressed with jumbo frets that are well honed. It has 22 Frets with a Scale of 24 ¾”. Beautiful moonphase Mother of Pearl inlays.

HEADSTOCK: The heatstock is bound and has wonderful celestial mother of pearl inlays (the cresent moon inlay matches the body).

TUNERS: Grover 102N

BRIDGE: “Leo Quan badass” (Made in Germany)

PICKUPS: Two (2) original "Aluminum shielded Kawai DSU humbuckers”

CONTROLS/SWITCHES: Three knobs, one 3 way, and 4 other switches.

PICKGUARD: Crystal

BODY INLAY: Beautiful inlaid binding on top of the body.

1960's Kay Vanguard K102 Guitar

This is probabaly a late 1960's Kay model based on the information I've found. It is a Vanguard model K102 with two DeArmond pickups (sometimes called the Vanguard 2) and they also came as the K100 with a single DeArmond pickup. Kay also produced these guitars for the Western Auto chain and badged them with the Truetone name and for Spiegel Catalog and badged them with the Old Kraftsman name.

Kay became the second-largest producer of inexpensive guitars and related instruments in Chicago behind Harmony. Both Harmony and Kay mass-produced many thousands of instruments under catalog brand names such as Silvertone (Sears), Airline (Montgomery Ward) and many others. The original Kay Musical Instrument Company in Chicago went out of business in 1968, but the name is still active, licensed to a line of cheap instruments from Asia.

You can find a lot of information on Kay guitars at the
King Of Kays

1960's Teisco Del Rey EP-8T Hollow Body

This is a late 1960's Teisco thinline Hollowbody guitar in the Gibson ES style. The model number listed on the back nameplate is the EP-8T with the T in the model number for the tremolo. The guitar is in very good shape although it's missing the original nameplate and the bridge has been changed out for a modern style. The Tremolo bar is also missing and the spring itself is missing. With the hole in the trussrod pocket it seems this guitar has spent part of it's life as a wall hanger. It has the usual fussy switches and pots that you'll find on a 40 year old guitar that hasn't been restored.

The Teisco brand name stands for 'Tokyo Electric Instrument and Sound Company'. Teisco was founded in 1946 by renowned Hawaiian and Spanish guitarist Atswo Kaneko, and electrical engineer Doryu Matsuda. Teisco guitars sold in the United States were badged "Teisco Del Rey" beginning in 1964. Teisco guitars were also imported in the U.S. under several brand names including Silvertone, Jedson, Kent, Kingston, Kimberly, Tulio, Heit Deluxe and World Teisco. While guitars manufactured by Teisco were ubiquitous in their day, they are now very collectable.

This guitar will be sold on ebay soon. Check my about me page for the ebay listing.

1960's Silvertone (Teisco) 1435 Two Pickup Guitar

The Silvertone 1435 guitar was part of the mid 1960's offerings of Teisco by way of Sears. Since they were never listed in any major seasonal Sears catalogs from that era they must have been offered only in select stores. Being as there are no catalog references, the only other resource is Teisco info from that period of time which is scarce as well. It appears this guitar is based on the MJ-2L model that was available from Teisco under their name. Most Teiscos sported striped metal pickguards from 1965 on so we can use this as a general guide for dating these guitars. This one is complete except for the missing namebadge and even has the hard to find Tremolo bar.








The Teisco brand name stands for 'Tokyo Electric Instrument and Sound Company'. Teisco was founded in 1946 by renowned Hawaiian and Spanish guitarist Atswo Kaneko, and electrical engineer Doryu Matsuda. Teisco guitars sold in the United States were badged "Teisco Del Rey" beginning in 1964. Teisco guitars were also imported in the U.S. under several brand names including Silvertone, Jedson, Kent, Kingston, Kimberly, Tulio, Heit Deluxe and World Teisco. While guitars manufactured by Teisco were ubiquitous in their day, they are now very collectable.

This guitar will be sold on ebay soon. Check my about me page for the ebay listing.

1990's Tradition Guitars Michael Angelo Batio "No Boundaries" Guitar

Very rare early Michael Angelo Batio signature guitar from Tradition Guitars "No Boundaries" series that is marked NB1M on the back sticker with an original price of $389.50. Although the "No Boundaries" CD was released in 1995 this guitar isn't that old since Tradition Guitars was founded in 1998. It is one the cleanest used guitars I've ever found. I think it was purchased and played just a few times and put away. My guess is that these are the original GHS strings that came on the guitar.

I found the following specifications for the guitar;
Solid Alder Body - A favorite choice of luthiers for many years. Alder is resonant, accepts laquer well and is less susceptible to cracking than many other hard woods.

North American Maple Necks - Used on all tradition guitars and basses, this choice wood has been favored by every great builder. No substitutes, no "mystery" wood, only the best possible neck wood available.

Indian Rosewood Fretboard - Why only Indian rosewood? The fingerboard represents up to 40% of the rigidity factor for a guitar neck. Indian rosewood can be dried efficiently and tends to be less susceptible to twisting. It also contains less moisture and oil resin that can compromise the ability to secure frets.

Die Cast Tuners - These tuners last longer and are smoother to the touch than open or covered gears. Ours cost more, but are worth the end result.

High Output Pickups - All pickups are potted for low noise. This potting process eliminates the "microphonic" tendencies you find in many other pickups. The single coil pickups have Alnico-5 magnets for higher output. The result is a pickup you can compare to any other on the market.

Dunlop Fret Wire - We use Dunlop fret wire to insure consistent quality and long life for our guitars and basses.

GHS Strings - All tradition guitars and basses come with first quality GHS strings.

This guitar will be sold on ebay soon. Check my about me page for the ebay listing.

United Airlines Breaks Guitars Part 2

A while back I posted the story of United Airlines breaking the guitar of Canadian artist Dave Carroll. He has written 3 songs about the mishap and has just posted the 2nd video. I liked the first one better than this, but it's still entertaining.

Here's a link to the first part of the story.

If you want the entire story, you can find it at Dave's Website.

1990's Squier Stratocaster by Fender

This is a black Squier Stratocaster by Fender with white pickguard that was built in 1997 in China. Great entry level guitar in the style of the classic Strat.

1960's Audition (Kawai or Teisco) 2 Pickup Electric

This is a 2nd unknown Audition model 2 pickup Electric Guitar from the 1960's with 2 goldfoil pickups. The first one I posted had a roller type of bridge and this one has a solid plastic type of bridge. The prize on this guitar is the goldfoil pickups and I've already used them for another project. Audition guitars were distributed in the US and UK by the Woolworth chain. Many of the ones I've seen have the goldfoil pickups just like this one has. It's most likely that this guitar was built by Kawai seeing as how the quality appears to be higher than that seen in a typical Teisco.

Kawai was founded in 1927 by Koichi Kawai in Hamamatsu, Japan. Mr. Kawai's vision was to create top-quality pianos, a quest in which he certainly succeeded! Kawai added guitars to its line around 1954 and eventually became a player in the 1960s Guitar Boom. Like many Japanese electric guitars, most early Kawai guitars were slightly frumpy, although the impression is that their electronics were a little better than most. Often accused of supplying more flash than substance, there are Kawai guitars that are of high quality, playability and design.

Probably the most prominent brand names in the U.S. manufactured by Kawai were TeleStar, whose sparkle models have a small but devoted following, Kimberly, and Domino. Kawai also built guitars for Saint Lous music in the 1960's and 1970's under their brand name Apollo.

In January of 1967 Kawai purchased the Teisco guitar company, but they appear to have operated the two companies pretty much separately. Both lines featured exclusive designs and different pickups. Teisco continued the vector of evolution it had taken, ending up with the Spectrums and finally the mini-Strats, before become the Kay brand in the U.S.

In 1968 both Kawai and Teisco freaked out. Kawai produced models such as the axe-shaped Concert, plus a variety of unusual VS violin-bodied guitars (including one with 16 strings and its own pickup mounted parallel to the strings, whether sympathetic or strummed, who knows?), the Splender, shaped like a banjo, and another model shaped like a sitar. For Teisco, 1968 was the year that gave us the famous artist-palette-shaped May Queen, wildly flared, asymmetrical Fire Bird, and long-horn Phantom. One other company, Firstman (unrelated to Kawai), produced a model similar to the Concert called the Liverpool.











One of my blog readers sent me these two pictures of what we believe to be the rare Splender model (Thanks James!)

This guitar will be sold on ebay soon. Check my about me page for the ebay listing.

1960's Harmony Bobkat Bobcat H15

It's a 1966 (from the pickguard date) Harmony Bobkat (Bobcat) electric with two DeArmond goldfoil pickups originally although the bridge pickup has been removed. The neck is straight with low action and a rosewood fretboard. As far as I can tell, this guitar is all original and complete except for the missing pickup and the modified pickguard. I previously owned a H15V model that also had the finish removed but hadn't received a urethane finish.







Harmony BobKat's were produced starting in 1966. There were many versions of the Bobkat including the H14 (single pickup sunburst) , H15 (double pickup sunburst), H15V (double pickup sunburst with vibrato), and H17(double pickup with red sunburst and vibrato) among other models.

Here's a site with a bit more information and pictures.

This guitar will be sold on ebay soon. Check my about me page for the ebay listing.