simply stopped exclusively using Kawai-built Teisco guitars to carry the Del Rey name. In the USA, large instrument importers and distributors were forced to carry cheaper products to compete in the dwindling market, and this guitar comes from that late 60s period. Many foreign companies even began to halt exports.

At the end of the 1960s, the electric guitar market was in serious decline, and Kawai, along with many other guitar manufacturers around the world, began to scale back production. So the skeptic in me would say, вЂњso what, thereвЂ™s always strange guitars that werenвЂ™t represented,вЂќ and thatвЂ™s partially true. And this guitar never appeared in any of the catalogs. Teisco printed catalogs in English almost every year in the 1960s. That was another feature that set Teisco apart from other Japanese guitar factories. See, almost the entire Teisco guitar lineup, from the original Teisco company to the Kawai-made Teisco guitars, were all chronicled in catalogs. But this Del Rey wasnвЂ™t made at the Kawai factory either! So whatвЂ™s up with this guitar?!?! I mean, it looks like a 60s Teisco guitar right? Well, kinda/sorta. Vintage guitar freaks like to argue these points, but I hear from a lot of people who simply want to know who made their guitar. So maybe we can agree that the Kawai-made Teisco guitars can also be called true вЂњTeiscoвЂќ guitars, because they were made with similar quality as before. Teisco branded guitars became some of the finest to be produced at the Kawai factory. Before 1968, Kawai made guitars with the Teisco brand name pretty much the same way that the original Teisco company made the guitars.

In fact, Kawai made standard Teisco guitars well into 1968, when new designs started to appear. Kawai continued to make the same guitars that Teisco made, like the ever popular Spectrum 5 guitars, and the shark-finned Teisco вЂњKвЂќ guitars. ThereвЂ™s no argument that any guitar from that time period is a Teisco. That was a good 17 year stretch for Teisco electric guitars. So originally you have true Teisco guitars being made at the Teisco factory from the 1950s to 1967. The transition happened slowly, but by mid-67, all Teisco guitars were being made at the Kawai factory. The Teisco company closed shop in late 1966, and sold all the assets to the giant Kawai company. Confused? OKВ so letвЂ™s define a Teisco guitar. The original headstock badge says вЂњDel ReyвЂќ but this old guitar isnвЂ™t a Teisco. But as always with these vintage guitars, itвЂ™s not always as simple as a name plate. There was also variation with the Teisco labels, like вЂњTeisco Del ReyвЂќ and simply вЂњDel Rey.вЂќ So you can see why that name became so common. So with Teisco, many guitarists saw that вЂol Teisco name up there and it just became synonymous with Japanese electric guitar. Fujigen and Matsumoku made thousands of electric guitars and I have never seen a single one with the Fujigen or Matsumoku name on the headstock. Guyatones were mostly sold as Kent guitars in the USA, and were labeled Guyatones in Japan. For instance, Guyatone, Fujigen, and Matsumoku were some of the other Japanese guitar factories back in the 60s, and rarely did these guitars ever have the name of the company on the headstock in the states. But Teisco was sorta unique because many Teisco guitars carried the Teisco name. Of course, in the states Teisco guitars also carried other labels like Silvertone, Kent, and Zim Gar (to name a few). In the late 50s, Teisco guitars were being exported to various ports around the world, and many of the guitars came with the Teisco label. Then in the early 1950s six string hollowbody guitars appeared, and then later in the 50s solidbody guitars arrived. At first the company made lap steels, amps, and pickups. Teisco began as a company right after world war II, in Tokyo. Anywhoo, the name Teisco comes from the company with the same name.

People do the same in other countries where old Japanese guitars are called Top Twenties or Hertiecasters. I suppose it was what you could call a вЂњblanketвЂќ statement. See, back when I started having fun with vintage guitars, people in the USA used the term вЂњTeiscoвЂќ to refer to any old Japanese guitar. This is a question I get all the time, so I figured it was high time I talked a little about Teisco and why a lot of peopleВ think every Japanese guitar is a Teisco.

Teisco guitar bridge