Vintage Kent 744 Electric Mandolin

guitarz.blogspot.com:

It's a shame these pictures aren't the best quality as this looks like a great example of a vintage Kent electric mandolin.

This Vintage Kent 744 model is likely from the late 1960s or early 1970s and boasts a new custom pick up and a brass nut.

R.W. Haller



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"Why I Love My Acoustic Guitar"!

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I was recently asked to contribute a few words to a Musician's Friend blog post entitled "Why I Love My Acoustic Guitar". I mentioned my Hurricane BF-402 and self-customised Kent 8-string both of which I have written about here before.

Isn't it typical that both these guitars are now out of action? The Kent needs a bit more setting up as the action (no doubt increased by the additional tension) is making it a chore to play but also there's a fault in the wiring of the Hofner pickup I added. It shouldn't be too much of a job to sort out but it's not a guitar I play very much and so it's a job that's been consigned to the backburner.

Of more concern is my hitherto trusty Hurricane which has seen me well through many guitar club meetings, practice sessions, the odd open mic night and occasional performances. Not only has the bridge started lifting but it has developed an annoying buzz on the low E string. A closer inspection shows the neck is starting to do an impression of a banana. These are things that can be fixed, but I figured, this guitar cost me £20 (plus £10 shipping) a couple of years ago and I've had loads of playing time out of it; it's time to retire it and take the plunge and get a new guitar.

After a lot of research - because I am on a limited budget - I have now ordered a new acoustic guitar which I have high hopes for and should be receiving some time next week. I'll post about it again once I've had the chance to have a play and make some kind of evaluation.

G L Wilson

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1960s Kent hollowbody short-scale model 743 bass

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Short-scale basses are not for everyone and certainly don't suit certain styles of modern music, but I'm quite fond of these "little thumpers". I don't know what it sounds like or how playable it is or how well it is set-up, but for me this 1960s Kent hollowbody shortscale model 743 bass is an absolutely gorgeous piece of guitar design.

It's a Made in Japan masterpiece. Check out that slanted neck pickup; of course the Japanese guitar industry was heavily influenced by Mosrite, the chosen guitars of their instrumental axe-wielding heroes, The Ventures.

Witness also the triple binding around the sides of the instrument. Also, the tortoiseshell binding inside the f-holes and around the fingerboard. You get the impression that this was a real luxury edition.

Currently listed for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $849.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

1960s Kent violin-shaped electric mandolin

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Ever since Beatle Paul McCartney's endorsement of the Hofner 500/1 "violin bass", having first seen one for sale in Hamburg's Steinway Shop in 1961, the violin bass has been much copied by guitar makers in Europe and Japan. On this very blog we've looked at a plethora of different violin basses, violin guitars, and even a couple of violin 12-string guitars (just check through all these posts). However, this is the first time I've seen a violin mandolin!

This hollowbody electric mandolin carries the Kent brandname (apparently it's the Kent Model 836), so no doubt is Japanese in origin (very likely a re-badged Teisco), and looking very much like a scaled-down version of the Kent violin bass.

Currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $625. More Kent electric mandos here!

More Kent electric mandos here!

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - 10 years and counting!

A rather generic Kent-branded dreadnaught acoustic guitar customised into an 8-string

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I've spent the best part of today converting this unsuspecting acoustic guitar into an 8-string. It's a (possibly 1980s/1990s) Kent-branded acoustic that I bought very cheaply off eBay recently because I wanted a back-up guitar for my main acoustic guitar. However, for one of the songs we are doing at the guitar club I attend, I've been hankering after a 12-string sound. But as I don't currently have a 12-string acoustic (to to be honest I don't really get on with them too well as they can be hard work in a number of ways) and also because I have very limited finances, I decided to make use of bits and pieces that I already had and convert a 6-string into an 8-string. That's an 8-string with 6 courses - octaves accompanying the G and D strings. It's a compromise in some ways, but one which I think will work for what I want.

The Kent's tuners were really rather dreadful, so I swapped them out for a set coming off a donor acoustic I have lying around (on which the bridge has lifted, so I'm just using it for parts now and maybe a future project). From all the screw holes in the back of the Kent's headstock, it seems that someone has previously swapped out the tuners - I'm guessing in that instance they were taking nicer tuners off for another project and replacing with something really quite nasty and ineffective because the ones I had to remove were ghastly.

For the two additional tuners, I used a pair that originally came off a Washburn guitar I used to own. You may notice in the above photo what might at first seem like an odd placement of these tuners. My reasoning was to use the two different tuners for the two octave strings.

Anyway, I've strung it up, tuned it, and it's really quite effective with a sound that's not quite as rich as a fully-fledged 12-string guitar, but which comes close - and that's just from adding octave strings to the G and D.

Hopefully it should be less trouble than a 12-string. Easier to re-string, easier to tune, and what's more it doesn't have that annoying wide fingerboard that many 12ers have. I'm aware that it looks a bit "Heath Robinson" perhaps, but I don't care too much about the aesthetics in this instance. It's the sound that I was after.

This conversion cost me nothing. I used a guitar, parts, strings and tools that I already had.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Vintage 1960s Kent electric mandolin

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One of the things that we have to look out for on eBay is that sellers - especially those buying from estate sales, house clearances, etc - very often don't have the first clue about what they are selling. Take for instance this auction where the seller accurately tells us that this is a Kent model #744 because that is what it says on a sticker on the back of the headstock, but doesn't actually appreciate what that means and describes it as a "Kent short electric guitar".

Unfortunately the photos of the item in question give very little indication of scale, but to us at least, the 8 strings and rather compact body design should give away that this is in fact an electric mandolin. The Kent 744 is a Japanese mando, built in a factory near Tokyo, and in fact uses a longer than usual scale for a mandolin so that it is somewhere inbetween a mandolin and a mandola.

For more information please check this page at the excellent eMando.com website, where if you scroll down you'll also see a photo of Neve Campbell with a left-handed example of this Kent mando, giving a very nice indication of scale.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Kent extra short scale bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

With a scale length of just 24", this vintage Kent-branded bass could be considered to be extra short scale. That's even shorter than many guitars. The seller calls it "Little Thumper" and comments on the amazing amount of low end that it is capable of.

It's a strange piece; I'd wager it was Japanese in origin, but if you know differently, do let us know! It has a "thrown together from spares parts" look to it. See how the pickguard looks too small for the body and should perhaps be on another bass.

I'd say this would be another candidate for baritone ukulele tuning, like this Mosrite Celebrity that we looked at here on Guitarz recently. I really must get myself one of these little basses one day.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1960s Japanese 4-pickup solidbody

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Here's another "unknown" guitar from 1960s Japan. With the plethora of brandnames applied to the same guitars coming out of the same factories, it's very hard to identify guitars like this. The seller comments that it:

"...looks like a Bison copy. The headstock design looks like Bruno. The pickups are the same as the Kent 720 series - their topline guitars. I suspect this came out of the Kawai factory because they produced Bruno, Kent and Teisco guitars."

Interesting features include the two plates on the headstock matching the plate the pickups are sitting on; separate plates for pickups and controls; the German carve around the top of the instrument's body; and, of course, the four pickups and attendant switches (my guess is that the switch near the volume and tone pots selects between the front and rear pair of pickups, whilst the two toggles near the lower horn are 3-way selectors for each pair).

Anyway, a very interesting instrument.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

A vintage Kent-brand solidbody electric

guitarz.blogspot.com:
An anonymous Guitarz reader writes:

Here are two snapshots of my old Kent guitar.

I acquired this circa 1995 at a ramshackle roadside shop in rural Georgia (USA), whose sign advertised "APPLIANCES - GUITARS". The place was full of beat-up used stoves and refrigerators, but there was only one guitar for sale, this Kent, which I purchased for fifty dollars, not a low price, but I couldn't bargain him down.

Note the stylized V and T on the volume and tone knobs. The movable plastic bridge is held in place by string tension, like that of an archtop guitar. The wear pattern on the aluminum pickguard indicates that someone played it a lot. It's basically a toy, but its amplified tone is clear and twangy.

Kent was a US-brandname for guitars imported in from Japan and Korea in the 1960s. Most were produced by Teisco and Guyatone, although later on the Kent name started appearing on Swedish-made Hagstrom guitars produced for the US market.

G L Wilson

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60s Kent violin bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

It's quite difficult to find information about this Kent violin bass - Kent was one of these fake brands in the 60s that were used by several companies to penetrate the american budget guitar market. So the Kent brand was first used for this purpose by Teisco and Guyatone for Japan and Korea made guitars, then by Hagström - that was supposed to be an upgrade of the brand. Anyway, this one is a Teisco who - if I understood well - built a similar model under their own name.

What is remarkable about this hollow-body bass is the bizarre combination of the violin shape with a cutaway - I can't tell myself if I love it or hate it. This particular one is even odder with its beautiful 'blueburst' - I imagine that it was a hit back then in 1967... I found contradictory feedback about the sound - some call it crappy and sans-sustain, some say it sounds like a double-bass on steroids. I'd like to try.

Bertram

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