This guide looks at all of the different guitar manufacturers working in Japan in the 1960s so that you can begin to differentiate between their products and get a better idea of what you're buying. The Norma brand has guitars that were made by Teisco Gen Gakki, Sakkai, and Tombo, as well as several other manufacturers. Often, these guitar brands would source guitars from multiple manufacturers to fit different price points in their catalogs. This means that a company (for example, Strum and Drum of Wheeling, Illinois) could approach a Japanese manufacturer (in this case, Sakkai) and ask it to produce a guitar branded for that contracting company’s in–house brand name (Norma). Like Kleenex for tissues or Dumpster for large garbage containers, the brand Teisco has become a kind of shorthand for “strange looking Japanese guitar from the 1960s.” When someone posts a picture on a forum of a vintage Japanese guitar that he’s trying to identify, five people will immediately shout out “Teisco!” Occasionally, they’re even right.īut the reality of the matter is that while Teisco did produce over a million guitars during the course of its history, there are also a few million more Japanese–made guitars that are decidedly not Teiscos.īefore we jump in, it’s important to note that all of these companies we’re about to discuss were Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) producers for a variety of brands both in Japan and abroad.
