Kent Guitars

No, I haven't gone into the guitar-building business. But I have developed an interest in Japanese-made Kent-branded guitars. Information on them is sketchy and contradictory, at best, but here is what I have so far.

There was no “Kent Guitar" Factory. The Kent brand was established in 1960 by Buegeleisen & Jacobson, a musical instrument distributor in New York City. Many models had a metal “K” badge (like the one at left) attached to the headstock of the guitar. That's a good sign that the guitar could appear under another brand name if the manufacturer so desired. There were also a couple that had the name in metal script letters attached (glued) to the headstock. The headstocks were somewhat shaped like those on Fender guitars. Most of those were low-end solid-body instruments.

"Badged" Guyatone Guitars.

I'll add to the "badge collection" above as I come across more examples.

There is a line of guitars custom made in the U.S. by Casey and Gary Kent. It's unlikely any of those will be confused with the old Japanese electrics being discussed here.

In the late 1960's models appeared that had “Kent” in script letters that appear to be mother of pearl inlaid on the headstock and the upper bout of the guitar body. The same script was used to print the name in black on each pickup and to engrave the name on the vibrato tailpiece. These seemed to be much better guitars, both solid bodies and hollow bodies. More on those later.

Here come the Kents

Some of the first Kents to have been imported into the U.S. were made in Sweden by Hagstrom. They may have been Czech-made and sold by Hagstrom. The Hagstrom HI, HII, and HIII (those are the letter H with roman numerals representing the number of pickups the guitar had) were branded Kent for sale in the U.S. and as Futurama for the U.K. They had the Kent name on the headstock and the upper bout. They were similar to Fender Stratocasters. They also made some Strat-shaped basses. According to an article in Vintage Guitar Magazine, importation of Hagstrom-made Kents began in 1962. Another story is that Hagstrom sold Kent-branded guitars through distributors other than Buegeleisen & Jacobson in the U.S. without permission from J&B and were forced to withdraw them after a short time. By then Hagstrom had become better-known and could sell them under their own name, anyway.

Note the similarity between the two guitars, both made around 1963.

Kent	Hagstrom

Lately some EBay sellers have been calling the Hagstrom solid-bodies of the time Hagstrom-Kent. They are not. If it says Hagstrom on the body, it's a Hagstrom. If it is one of the Hagstrom guitars that was sold as a Kent, it's a made-by-Hagstrom Kent. I wonder if the sellers think they can get more for a guitar by associating the Kent name with it. I don't see how.

But most Kents were made in Japan and later, Korea. The most-often mentioned factories are Kawai, Fujigen Gakki, Teisco, Matsumoku, and Guyatone.

Identifying the makers of these guitars is made more difficult by the use of 'shadow factories' all around Japan, which in reality were families working production-line style on guitar parts in their homes.

1964 was a pivitol year for Japanese guitar makers, and for that matter, the music business worldwide. That was when four young Brits made their initial impact and music has not been the same since.

Japanese musical instrument makers saw an opportunity and tried to cash in by making electric guitars and amplifiers for a growing Rock 'n Roll market.

At first, the idea was to keep 'em cheap and sell to the beginners and students. Later, as Japanese manufacturers proliferated and competition became hot and heavy, some of them began to copy the Fenders and Gibsons of the time. As quality began to improve, some manufacturers began issuing thier own designs.

Kawai

Kawai Musical Instruments Manfacturing Company was established in 1927 in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. They began by manufacturing pianos. In 1964 they began making guitars and in 1967 they acquired Teisco. Kawai is best known now for the manufacture of pianos.

Teisco

Teisco produced guitars that were sold in the U.S. As Teisco del Rey as well as Silvertone, Beltone, Duke, Heit Deluxe, Jedson, Kimberly, Kingston, Lyle, Norma, Tulio and World Teisco. At various times Teisco guitars were made for and sold under the now well-known Ibanez name.

Fujigen Gakki

Fujigen Gakki is a musical instrument maker located in Matsumoto, Japan. They began making violins and classical guitars in 1960 and electric guitars in 1962. Their real heyday of guitar production began in the 1970's when they began producing guitars for major American manufacturers like Fender and Gibson as well as some Japanese manufacturers. In fact, after CBS acquired Fender Electronic Instruments Company they decided to move to larger manufacturing facilities. Between the closing of the old factory and the opening of the new one, the only Fender guitars being made came from the Fujigen Gakki factory.

Matsumoku

Matsumoku was a wood furniture maker that got a contract to make sewing machine cabinets for Singer in Japan. They later became manufacturer of high-quality Japanese guitars and may have made some Kents. The guitar market declined just about the time the sewing machine business collapsed and the factory closed down in 1987.

Guyatone

According to one source, in 1962 (possibly as early as 1959) Guyatone guitars began arriving in the U.S., some under the Kent brand. By 1962 there were two lines of Kent guitars: a Standard series possibly made by Teisco, and a "Pro-series" supposedly made by Guyatone.

At any rate, Guyatone produced a lot of different guitars under many different names.

Notice the resemblance

1964 Kent Advertisement	1960's Guyatone LG-55W

The Kents of 1964 are almost identical to the Guyatone of the same period. The upper horn appears a little more curved on the Kents, but that might just be how they appear in the photos. They all have the same size little stuck-on logos on the headstock.

The 700 and 800-series Kents were not made by Guyatone. It looks like they may have been made by Kawai/Teisco, as shown below.

I am putting together a table showing as many 500 through 800-series Kents as I can. There were plenty of Kents made before, after, and during (but outside) these series', but these are what I am looking at.

Click here to see the table

Where my interests lie

My interests are in the Kents with the script logo on the headstock, body, and pickups. The headstock is Gibson-ish with tuners on both sides. The pickup nearest the neck is tilted, regardless of how many pickups are on the guitar. One model, the 742 has four pickups with switches, volume and tone knobs for each. Overkill, to say the least, and everything I have read states that they don't sound very good. Hopefully I'll be able to find out for myself someday. Regardless, the 742 is one funky-looking guitar.

The 700-series models were solid-body instruments while the 800-series models were hollow bodied. This is a small enough product range to make a nice little collection and the guitars are made well enough to be used. (Many of the early Japanese guitars were cheap and simply unplayable right out of the box.) However interest in them seems to be rising and thus, prices are following along.

Some Ebay sellers have read the above statement and taken it to mean they should ask higher prices. Some have gotten really outrageous and some have actually sold some Kents at those outrageous prices. Be patient and don't let yourself get carried away.

There is an advertisement for sale on Ebay said to be from 1967 that shows a couple of 800-series and one 700-series guitars. That should give some idea of when they were made.

Recently while cruising around EBay I was able to find pretty strong evidence that the 700 and 800-series Kents were made by Kawai. Of course, it could be argued that only the necks of the 700 and 800-series Kents were made by Kawai. Who knows? Like I said, the 1960's were a 'wild west' period of Japanese guitar making.

Both guitar headstocks have the same shape and the same little design in the center. They both have the zero fret and, although it doesn't show in these photos, they both have the same rectangular mother-of-pearl fret markers.

Some examples of Kent 700 and 800-series Guitars

Kent 700-series Guitars

Kent 740	Kent 741	Kent 742	Kent 745 12-string

The 700-series guitars had all controls and pickups mounted on a faux-tortise shell pickguard. That makes it very easy to do any required work on the electronics. By contrast, On the 800-series (except for the violin-shaped bodies) the tone and volume control pots and the jack socket are mounted to the body, a three-way pickup switch, and a lead/rhythm slide switch are mounted to the pickguard; and the pickups are mounted to individual little mounting plates made of the faux-tortise shell material.

Pickups are selected on the 700-series via individual on/off rocker switches that look like they came from an auto parts store. The 800-series guitars use a three-way selector switch. I'm not sure yet what is used on the three-pickup 823 to select pickups.

The violin bodied guitars had a control plate which held the pots and the jack socket and another plate for the switches.

Kent 800-series Guitars

Kent 820	Kent 821 12-string	Kent 822 Bass	Kent 833 bass	Kent 834

Most 700 and 800 models, except for bass and probably 12-strings, were equipped with a vibrato bar. After 45 years or so the bar has gone missing on many of them. Probably the most desireable instrument of the group is the model 820 equipped with a genuine Bigsby vibrato. Those are quite rare. I have never seen a Kent with a Bigsby, so I wonder if they really exist. It's possible that most of the Bigsbys, if there really were any, were removed from the "cheap" Kents and put on other guitars. The advertisement at left features the Bigsby-equipped Model 820. The advertisement on the right is identical except that it showed the stock Kent vibrato tailpiece. According to the catalogue of the time, the Bigsby was only available on the sunburst model.

The same catalogue just mentioned describes, but doesn't display, a Kent 823. It's the same as the 820 but with three pickups. There are very few photos of them floating around.

The violin-shaped guitar in the advertisement is the model 834 like I have.

As a side note, many guitarists refer to the vibrato as "tremolo" or, worse yet, "whammy bar". (I sometimes do, too, when my mouth is moving unaccompanied by my brain) Vibrato refers to varying the pitch while tremolo is varying the volume. Leo Fender himself is largely responsible for the misuse of the words. He called the bar on his guitars the "tremolo" and even had the tremolo effect on his amplifiers labeled as "Vibrato".

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