Vintage 1960s Kent electric mandolin

guitarz.blogspot.com:

One of the things that we have to look out for on eBay is that sellers - especially those buying from estate sales, house clearances, etc - very often don't have the first clue about what they are selling. Take for instance this auction where the seller accurately tells us that this is a Kent model #744 because that is what it says on a sticker on the back of the headstock, but doesn't actually appreciate what that means and describes it as a "Kent short electric guitar".

Unfortunately the photos of the item in question give very little indication of scale, but to us at least, the 8 strings and rather compact body design should give away that this is in fact an electric mandolin. The Kent 744 is a Japanese mando, built in a factory near Tokyo, and in fact uses a longer than usual scale for a mandolin so that it is somewhere inbetween a mandolin and a mandola.

For more information please check this page at the excellent eMando.com website, where if you scroll down you'll also see a photo of Neve Campbell with a left-handed example of this Kent mando, giving a very nice indication of scale.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Kent extra short scale bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

With a scale length of just 24", this vintage Kent-branded bass could be considered to be extra short scale. That's even shorter than many guitars. The seller calls it "Little Thumper" and comments on the amazing amount of low end that it is capable of.

It's a strange piece; I'd wager it was Japanese in origin, but if you know differently, do let us know! It has a "thrown together from spares parts" look to it. See how the pickguard looks too small for the body and should perhaps be on another bass.

I'd say this would be another candidate for baritone ukulele tuning, like this Mosrite Celebrity that we looked at here on Guitarz recently. I really must get myself one of these little basses one day.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1960s Japanese 4-pickup solidbody

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Here's another "unknown" guitar from 1960s Japan. With the plethora of brandnames applied to the same guitars coming out of the same factories, it's very hard to identify guitars like this. The seller comments that it:

"...looks like a Bison copy. The headstock design looks like Bruno. The pickups are the same as the Kent 720 series - their topline guitars. I suspect this came out of the Kawai factory because they produced Bruno, Kent and Teisco guitars."

Interesting features include the two plates on the headstock matching the plate the pickups are sitting on; separate plates for pickups and controls; the German carve around the top of the instrument's body; and, of course, the four pickups and attendant switches (my guess is that the switch near the volume and tone pots selects between the front and rear pair of pickups, whilst the two toggles near the lower horn are 3-way selectors for each pair).

Anyway, a very interesting instrument.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

A vintage Kent-brand solidbody electric

guitarz.blogspot.com:
An anonymous Guitarz reader writes:

Here are two snapshots of my old Kent guitar.

I acquired this circa 1995 at a ramshackle roadside shop in rural Georgia (USA), whose sign advertised "APPLIANCES - GUITARS". The place was full of beat-up used stoves and refrigerators, but there was only one guitar for sale, this Kent, which I purchased for fifty dollars, not a low price, but I couldn't bargain him down.

Note the stylized V and T on the volume and tone knobs. The movable plastic bridge is held in place by string tension, like that of an archtop guitar. The wear pattern on the aluminum pickguard indicates that someone played it a lot. It's basically a toy, but its amplified tone is clear and twangy.

Kent was a US-brandname for guitars imported in from Japan and Korea in the 1960s. Most were produced by Teisco and Guyatone, although later on the Kent name started appearing on Swedish-made Hagstrom guitars produced for the US market.

G L Wilson

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60s Kent violin bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

It's quite difficult to find information about this Kent violin bass - Kent was one of these fake brands in the 60s that were used by several companies to penetrate the american budget guitar market. So the Kent brand was first used for this purpose by Teisco and Guyatone for Japan and Korea made guitars, then by Hagström - that was supposed to be an upgrade of the brand. Anyway, this one is a Teisco who - if I understood well - built a similar model under their own name.

What is remarkable about this hollow-body bass is the bizarre combination of the violin shape with a cutaway - I can't tell myself if I love it or hate it. This particular one is even odder with its beautiful 'blueburst' - I imagine that it was a hit back then in 1967... I found contradictory feedback about the sound - some call it crappy and sans-sustain, some say it sounds like a double-bass on steroids. I'd like to try.

Bertram

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