1960's Prestige (Mosrite - Univox copy)

I picked this up in August of 2008 and it has a $152.50 market value. It is a rare 4 pickup Prestige guitar likely made by Teisco or Kawai. The guitar is copy of the Mosrite Ventures or Univox Hi-Flyer body style with a bright red sunburst finish with tortose shell pickguard.

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.

The Kawai company was best known for its keyboards and pianos once made one of Japan’s most interesting and cool guitars of all-time: the Kawai Moon Sault. Shaped like a crescent moon, it was loaded with active EMG pickups and was adorned with green abalone inlays and sparkle finishes. They were made in the early 1980’s, and have been recently (and pathetically) reintroduced in bolt-on neck form. Kawai also made copies of Alembic guitars of exceptionally high quality and those are somewhat popular to collectors as well. No model can compare to the popularity of the MoonSault.