Japanese companies such as FujiGen Gakki, Matsumoku, Nippon Gakki, and Tokai Gakki have been building guitars for many years mainly for local use.
On February 9th, 1964 millions of people watched The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. Almost overnight countless young kids, both boys and girls, wanted to play guitar. This resulted in a boom in the guitar business.
Savvy marketers knew due to the average household income of that era, families could give their child a US made guitar.
Distribution companies turned to Japan to import shipments of cheaply made guitars and basses which were ‘badged’ with a new brand name. Most of these cheaply made and low quality guitars and basses were sold in department stores and pawn shops.
But there were a few American companies that attempted to buck this trend by producing a quality instrument at a price lower than the well known manufacturers. Though most of these ventures were short lived, they all of them produced some wonderful instruments.
One of my favorites was Koob Veneman of Veneman’s Music Emporium, which was located in Silver Spring, Maryland. Mr. Veneman's store carried a full line of the latest and greatest gear. but this entrepreneur decided to create his own line of guitars and basses under the KAPA brand name.
He used his initial, Koob, and that of his children, Albert, Patricia, and wife Adeline for the brand name.
The guitar bodies were carved in a plant in nearby Edmonston, Maryland, where the parts were also added. The necks, pickups and electronics came from the Hofner Company. Schaller made the tuners.
I recall playing KAPA guitar and have to say it was fantastic. Eventually it became too expensive to manufacture these instruments. KAPA sold it’s assets to Microfrets an Mosrite.
Perhaps the most unusual guitars were hand built by Harvey Thomas, who built Thomas Custom guitars. Harvey Thomas was a machinist for Boeing and loved playing guitar and performing. He and his brother shared a house building business, and later they opened a building supply company. His friends included local Country Western guitar players. He became known for his ability to repair their instruments which led to him creating and selling his own electric guitars. Some of his creations were absolutely wild.
He claimed his decision to build his own guitars was because "he was tired of playing bad instruments."
Harvey Thomas wrote letters to famous guitarists offering to build custom instruments for them with whatever configuration, color, even as many necks as they wanted.
Elger Guitars were the idea of Medfly Music Store owner, Harry Rosenbloom. His store was in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Rosenbloom was on the waiting list for a Martin guitar franchise, but became tired of not being able to obtain approval by the Pennsylvania manufacturer, although Nazareth Pennsylvania was a mere 70 miles away.
Mr. Rosenbloom hired a violin builder, Karl Muller and the builder's brother, Georg to build guitars along with a small team of builders. He combined the names of his children, Ellen and Gerson to come up with the brand name.
This venture lasted not quite three to four years, before Rosenbloom became aware the expense was far too great and decided to import guitars. During this era, 1964 and 1965 the term 'Made In Japan' denoted cheaply made instruments.
Harry Rosenbloom later reached out to the Ibanez guitars, made by the Japanese firm Hoshino. After all, Ibanez sounded like the instruments were made in Spain. Elger Guitars were thereafter made in Japan. I won't go into detail, but this lead to the famous lawsuit,
Norlin vs Elger Music.
Did you ever hear of Marph Guitars? Not many remember them. During the era of the guitar boon a Californian named Pat Murphy was father of five very talented children. His children appeared in Los Angeles produced television commercials, and they all could sing. His sons could play guitar.
Pat had been a skilled craftsman most of his life. Murphy decided he could build guitars that were as good as anything out there. He rented a 1200 square foot building, complete with manufacturing area and office. He purchased machinery at auctions, and bought up a pickup coil winding machine.
He hired an engineer to assist him in daily operations. Lumbar was sourced locally, Some of the hardware was purchased through a German company, probably Hofner or Framus. His intent was to call his brand York Guitars, but the name was in use, so he called them Murph Guitars.
He got to display his instruments at the 1966 NAMM show. Among the offerings were The Murph Squire series. This was decades before Fender acquired the Squier string company name. There was also a Murph 12 string model with a headstock similar to a Rickenbacker 12. Sears placed a small order with Murph Guitars. Fender objected to the guitar's offset body shape. By 1967 Pat Murphy's company could not cope with the rigors and finances of running an independent guitar manufacturing business and filed bankruptcy.
Harmony Musical Instruments was started in 1892 by entrepreneur William Schultz. During the early part of the 20th century there was a ukulele music craze. By 1916 Sears and Roebuck had enough demand for ukes that it purchased The Harmony company.
This boosted the company to become the largest manufacturer of stringed musical instruments in the United States. Their sales peaked in the 1964-65 guitar boon years. Harmony had been offering electric guitars since 1939.
They turned out some wonderful electric and acoustic guitars that were reasonably priced. However by 1975 the Harmony Musical Instrument Company shuttered it's door.
Kay Musical Instruments was founded by Henry Kay Kuhrmeyer in 1931. Like Harmony, Kay's headquarters were in Chicago. Kay was a pioneer in the establishment of the electric guitar offering a Spanish style model as far back as 1937.
Much like Harmony, Kay's guitars and basses were sold mainly through department store catalogs. Due to this, companies rebranded Kay guitars with names such as Old Kraftsman, Penncrest, Orpheum, and Truetone. Among the Kay lineup were some iconic models such as The Barney Kay electric (later renamed The Gold K Pro,
The Thin Twin, The Swingmaster, The Vanguard, and The Kay 164 Jazz Bass. By the 1970's Kay was no longer offering USA made guitars. There are some other builders from this era and later years that would be worthy of mentioning, but all met the same fate.
The United States manufacturers paid it's workers a fair wage. In Asian countries many of the builders are (and were) paid per piece. In the mid 1960's Japanese made guitars were for the most part awful. Even those that collect '60's era Japanese guitars have to do a lot of work to rebuild these instruments to make them playable.
In every instance I have cited, the companies that were trying to put forth a better product and compete with Asian builders eventually went out of business due to the cost of manufacturing. However the guitars I have mentioned were treasures and have a provenance associated with a bygone era.
©UniqueGuitar Publication 2024 (text only)
Click on the links below the pictures for sources.
