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.
An art-deco body style and pickup enclosure, plus multicolored fretboard dots, add pizzazz to this humble lap steel.
So, why am I bringing a hip-hop group into a guitar column? Well, because of a scene in one of the last episodes. The idea of the Wu-Tang Clan was primarily the vision of RZA, who produced most of the music and came up with so many of those raw beats. As RZA was thinking about a new direction for the group’s second album, he was shopping at a music store and stumbled upon a lap-steel guitar—a vintage Japanese Guyatone model. That scene highlights how RZA wanted to use more live instruments, and how he wanted to experiment with different sounds. I just love the idea that something like a vintage lap steel caught the imagination of RZA.
Lap steels had a relatively short run but were incredibly popular from the 1930s into the early 1950s, when larger, more sophisticated pedal-steel guitars became the rage. When you think about that era, the 1930s was the dawn of electrical amplification. With this came lap steels and (often) amplifier combos. This was also the same time Hawaiian music became incredibly popular. Soon, lap steels were found across a variety of genres, such as country, blues, gospel, and Western swing music.
“I just love the idea that something like a vintage lap steel caught the imagination of RZA.”
In the early days, there were so many models with interesting designs, flashy colors, and chrome galore. American manufacturers like Fender, Rickenbacker, and Gibson had fine lap-steel guitars. Japanese builders, mainly Teisco and Guyatone, were really cranking out varied and interesting lap steels and amps, and the two companies were primarily selling them to American service members stationed in Japan after World War II.
One of the very first Japanese lap steels, and one of the first products ever made by Teisco, is this one pictured here, built sometime around the late 1940s. I found this unnamed model in a super cool shop named the Tinicum Guitar Barn here in Pennsylvania. (The owner of the guitar barn is one of us—those who do the weird and interesting.)
And at the headstock, a logo fit for a baseball jersey.
During one of my trips to Japan, I met with some of the original Teisco employees and they remembered this model and, in particular, the logo. This original Teisco logo was also the same logo used on the uniforms of the Teisco baseball team. If you think about it, lap steels are kind of like a dressed-up 2"x4". But I’ve always marveled at how creative some of these instruments can get, often featuring art-deco touches and elaborate pickup covers. This Teisco represents some of the simple artistic touches that make lap steels just way cool. The pickup has some sort of “built-in” echo that makes for a wonderfully eerie sound. Paired with a boost or mild distortion, you can get sounds like you’d never get anywhere else.
Lap-steel guitars totally have a level of comfortability with us “regular” guitar players. These lap steels are flattened out like a flounder, but it’s a relatively easy instrument to play, and once you get the hang of the sliding steel bar in your left hand, you can create some strange and ethereal sounds straight out of Hawaii. Tune these darn things to just about any open chord and you’re halfway there.
I’m always talking about different guitars and how they can act as a new palette or a new brush to create music, and lap steels can act as that springboard to creative heights for all kinds of artists, like RZA and Wu-Tang. “Protect ya neck”!