The design of this Kent 834 borrows from the “violin” guitar craze, propelled by the influential visibility of Paul McCartney’s Höfner bass.
When I began to research guitars, I just simply reached out to people and asked all the questions I could think of. Man, I talked to musicians, studio people, factory workers, guitar designers, and company owners. Almost all of them were a bit surprised at my interest in them and my wanting to know about mostly forgotten guitar history.
I’ve interviewed people from all over the world, from the U.S. to Italy to England to Germany. At one point, I had so much information that it was depleting my hard-drive space and my brain, to the extent that I had to take a breath and organize all this stuff! In that process, I found that I cared for all these people and felt the need to tell their stories. Like any good journalism major, I realized the historical implications and the human element. So, for this month, I wanted to highlight a guitar design by Yasuo Momose. He worked at the famous Fujigen factory in the early 1960s, and later moved to a smaller factory called Hayashi Mokko, where he let his creative notions flow. He’s responsible for all the ultra-cool late-’60s Kent guitars with the racing-striped bodies!
Japanese guitar designer and builder Yasuo Momose.
Photo by Tadashi Ito
This particular model borrows from the “violin” guitar craze, mainly perpetuated by Paul McCartney and his Höfner bass. Dubbed the 834, this Kent was only produced for two short years, from 1967–1969. Priced at $125, the 834 was described as:
“The best of both—all in one! The free-sounding acoustics of a violin-shaped body, plus the charged up excitement of Kent electronics! This semi-acoustic body has an arched top and back, two pickups, two tone and two volume controls, toggle switch for pickup selection, rhythm-solo switch, compensating damper bridge and Kent tremolo tailpiece.”
Ah, to be an ad writer back in those days! In reality, this guitar was supercharged because of those Kent pickups, which are hot as hell, and could drive a small tube amp into the red zone! This is one of the guitars I wish I had never sold, because it’s light but also over-engineered and rather sturdy. Oh well. It has a wonderful headstock and body, “Kent” inlays, and of course, the cool side binding which had a dual purpose: to cover up the wood joining and to act as rally stripes. So cool!
As I was researching my book, I could never figure out which factory made the 834, along with all the other Kents from that era. So, on one of my visits to Japan, I was encouraged to visit Momose-san, who was then working at the Deviser factory in Matsumoto City. He was still making guitars, but they were all high-end electrics and acoustics, sold under the Momose name. I was led back to his workspace and there he was, toiling away at five guitars! He made all of them from scratch and was treated with a certain reverence among the other employees. In Japan, they respect their elders!
“Almost all of them were a bit surprised at my interest in them and my wanting to know about mostly forgotten guitar history.”
We got to chatting and sat down for an interview. At the end, I showed him some pictures from my book, and when I came to the Kent guitars, he started to tear up. He said, “These were my first designs,” and went on to tell me some more history and anecdotes. I tell this story again because Momose-san passed away recently, and I wanted to highlight him once more. He was the same age as my dad, both born in 1944. It turns out there is really only one reason to write about history. Get it straight before it disappears.
Now, there isn’t much evidence on the internet regarding our local public access channel, but you can find some totally rad old clips of bands, acts, and weirdos from all over the U.S. One of the legendary public access moments was when a California band named the Mummies played on a San Francisco show in 1991. My goodness, that band was rocking out. Please search out the video and watch how much abuse a Farfisa organ can withstand.
The Mummies were part of a cool late-’80s garage revival where energy, rawness, and lo-fi were all the rage, and bands were embracing the forgotten guitars of the past—like J Mascis and his Jazzmaster and Kurt Cobain and his Jaguar and Mustangs. Later, Jack White did the same with his Airline. Of course, the raw-er you wanted to go, the more obscure you had to go. Old Sears amps, ’60s import guitars, and insane import fuzz pedals were just sitting on music store shelves gathering dust back in the late ’80s. Bands like the Mummies, who were considered “budget rock,” could indulge in all sorts of musical experiments on the cheap. In that public access video, guitar player Larry Winther can be seen playing an old Framus guitar running through a Silvertone amp. Bet you never tried that combination!
If budget rock sounds appealing to you, then let’s travel back in time to the budget department store chain, Woolworth’s. The guitar brand for those stores was Audition, and the early models were just the gnarliest sounding axes ever. Exhibit A is this here guitar made by the Zenon Music Company in Lake Suwa, Japan. Zenon’s foray into electric guitars counted this early Audition as its flagship of sorts, and this model was one of the first Zenon electrics to be seen in the states. And just like Jack White’s Airline, man, you had to fight this guitar to play it!
Appearing right around 1965, this particular guitar was called the ZES-70T in company literature. It sported a robust neck (no adjustable truss rod), a non-adjustable plastic bridge, a tremolo, and two non-adjustable pickups (I used little rubber washers to raise the bridge unit on mine). The electronics layout had two tone knobs, one volume, and two pickup switches. But the true beauty of this guitar were those gold-foil pickups. There were a lot of variations on the gold-foil designs (which were copied from American DeArmond pickups), but the ones in this Audition were special. Played through a nice old Fender amp, they’re okay. But if you plug this guitar into an old Ampeg or Gibson amp, then you’re getting somewhere. An old Valco or Danelectro amp would put you right in the center of thrash city! The sound I always liked with this Audition was to use an amp-switching pedal and use two amps: one for loudness and semi-clean tones and a smaller amp that would be dimed for distortion. You don’t even need effects pedals.
“An old Valco or Danelectro amp would put you square in the town center of thrash city!”
I’ve spoken about Zenon guitars in the past, and what I’ve always liked about the design are the wavy pickguards that kind of match the flow of the guitar shape. Today, I was even searching around online and saw a bunch of this same model guitar selling rather cheap. Of course, each one of these guitars is like a snowflake and no two play the same—but they do sound the same. The one I had was worked on extensively and had a refret, and I miss it terribly sometimes. Especially when I see bands like the Mummies going insane on public access. I should totally start my own show. I think the Mummies are still playing concerts!