KAWAI

The Kawai company started building pianos in Japan in the late 1920s and they introduced their own guitar line in 1956. In 1967, the Kawai corporation purchased the Teisco company (of Teisco Del Rey guitar fame) and Kawai continued distributing the Teisco line in the U.S. through 1973, but then concentrated on domestic distribution of Kawai products thereafter. Kawai returned to the American marketplace in the mid-1980s with a line of quality bass guitar models, and reissued the Teisco Spectrum Five model in the early 1990s. While Kawai continues to be a dominant company in keyboards (notably their high quality pianos and synthesizers) they discontinued production of guitars and basses by the late 1990s.