Kawai. Probably the best ...

TTony

... MiJ guitars from the 70s & 80s that almost nobody has ever heard of




The KS range - the  "proper" ones - proper woods, proper quality, proper heavy.  KS11XL - KS12XL  - KS12XL - KS11XL



The 11s added a hefty maple top but lost the phase mini-toggle switch compared to the 12s.    The plain mahogany 11 was my first Kawai, the 12 on the left was the guitar that off my original Kawai quest.  Took about 10 years before I found that one (by which time, I'd found a fair few others).


Perfect shape, no bling, great guitar!



The Fs.

F-I, F-1-12,  F-III




Where the KS range was beauty-through-simplicity, the F range (a few years later) was more of a "how complicated can we make these things" design.

The FI-12 is as common as the proverbial rocking horse shit.


The on-board electronics include a pre-amp on/off and level control, a boost/off/distortion switch, a varitone circuit, and the coil tap and phase reversal switches carried over from the KS12.



Couple of oddballs ...

The "rock & roll star"  model





What else would I do on  a locked-down, warm & sunny Good Friday!!

GuyR

Never come across these before, although the brand name vaguely familiar. Those 11s and 12s look very appealing. 
Every day is a school day. Even bank holiday.  

blobb

Love seeing these

Boromedic

Isn't Kawai Japanese for cute??!

Nice looking collection either way mate!

icu81b4

Do you own all the Kawai guitars in the UK?  (they make great synths) also... Is that your back garden? 

sweepy

Great guitars, this ones mine

https://i.imgur.com/3IUZVtn.jpg

Strangefan

The rock and roll star blue is the guitar I have always wanted to own. And never will

TTony

icu81b4 said:

Do you own all the Kawai guitars in the UK?  

No ....

sweepy said:

Great guitars, this ones mine

.... although  I did put @sweepy onto his (and he's just reminded me of something I need to do for him!!)

guitars4you

I recall the KS range - I never stocked them as a new guitar, back in the day but was aware of them - This shaped was familiar to the Washburn models like the Hawk, Falcon etc - Not sure if Kawai came out with this shape before Washburn or not - Hamer started around 74 with the Sunburst model - Terry Pack came later with his Pack Leader

The F range also reminds me of the Alembic models - But in the late 70's many MIJ models favoured this thru' neck approach - jam sandwich vibe

Not sure who distributed them in the UK - assume the same as the Kawai piano company - If so that might have been part of the issue in that the suit and tie accounts would have been offered product lines and not the 'rock shops'

TTony

guitars4you said:

Not sure who distributed them in the UK - assume the same as the Kawai piano company - If so that might have been part of the issue in that the suit and tie accounts would have been offered product lines and not the 'rock shops'

It was Rosetti @guitars4you.

When they pulled out in 1980 (I think) Tim Gentle then bought up the remaining UK stock and sold them off ... that's when I bought mine.

Tim still had a (much-modded) KS11XL last time I had any contact with him.

Original ad from back in the day;

guitars4you

TTony said:

guitars4you said:

Not sure who distributed them in the UK - assume the same as the Kawai piano company - If so that might have been part of the issue in that the suit and tie accounts would have been offered product lines and not the 'rock shops'

It was Rosetti @guitars4you.

When they pulled out in 1980 (I think) Tim Gentle then bought up the remaining UK stock and sold them off ... that's when I bought mine.

Tim still had a (much-modded) KS11XL last time I had any contact with him.

Original ad from back in the day;

You got me on that one then Tony - I can't recall Rosetti having them at all - Not sure when Rosetti acquired the Gibson account but there was a tie in with Gibson and Rosetti via 2 key staff in the UK - Maybe around 1983 when Norlin sold their interest in Gibson

I recall Tim Gentle having a shop in Southend and his adverts - He still uses that same logo now with a shop in the North East - Is it still Tim who runs it ?

Bucket

Oh I forgot all about the F-I - they're SO cool and I want one.

CloudNine

@HarrySeven   Keep an eye on Tony. Looks like he might be mowing your lawn mate. It's assumed that you are in a league of your own, but suddenly some young (not young actually) pretender is nipping at your heels and before you know it, nobody remembers Harryseven anymore.... Don't let that happen. Get on eBay, line up a 300 mile road trip, bring back 7 guitars, show him who's boss..

TTony

guitars4you said

You got me on that one then Tony - I can't recall Rosetti having them at all - Not sure when Rosetti acquired the Gibson account but there was a tie in with Gibson and Rosetti via 2 key staff in the UK - Maybe around 1983 when Norlin sold their interest in Gibson

I recall Tim Gentle having a shop in Southend and his adverts - He still uses that same logo now with a shop in the North East - Is it still Tim who runs it ?

To be fair Mark @guitars4you, I couldn't *remember* whether Tim had said Rosetti or RoseMorris  but when I checked back through some of the reviews of the day, those mention Rosetti as having provided the review instruments.  

Seems that "Stentor Music" picked up distribution later on through - mid 80s when the Aquarius range were about.

Tim was certainly still running the business about 5 years ago.  

HarrySeven

CloudNine said:

@HarrySeven   Keep an eye on Tony. Looks like he might be mowing your lawn mate. It's assumed that you are in a league of your own, but suddenly some young (not young actually) pretender is nipping at your heels and before you know it, nobody remembers Harryseven anymore.... Don't let that happen. Get on eBay, line up a 300 mile road trip, bring back 7 guitars, show him who's boss..

Clocked and noted.

artiebear

Lovely collection @TTony , Kawai are indeed a great example of what was coming out of Japan as manufacturers up their game at that time. The older I get the more I have a soft spot for the great stuff being produced then that wasn't from the USA and has since gone under the radar..

Schnozz

Yeah, I love all of those.

Strangefan

Clearly hints dont  work, Tony please please sell me the blue rock and roll star 

TTony

Strangefan said:

Clearly hints dont  work, Tony please please sell me the blue rock and roll star 

You're absolutely right @strangefan - my hint of ignoring your previous, and subtle, request didn't work!



NO


Mind, it took me a while to persuade the previous owner to part with it!!

Strangefan

TTony said:

Strangefan said:

Clearly hints dont  work, Tony please please sell me the blue rock and roll star 

You're absolutely right @strangefan - my hint of ignoring your previous, and subtle, request didn't work!



NO


Mind, it took me a while to persuade the previous owner to part with it!!

So that's definately not a no then what if you could have first refusal of it back and that it would go to a loving home, where it  would be appreciated as it would only have 2 other stable mates...  Not lost in a sea of other guitars........ Is that working at all? 

TTony

Strangefan said:

TTony said:

Strangefan said:

Clearly hints dont  work, Tony please please sell me the blue rock and roll star 

You're absolutely right @strangefan - my hint of ignoring your previous, and subtle, request didn't work!



NO


Mind, it took me a while to persuade the previous owner to part with it!!

So that's definately not a no then what if you could have first refusal of it back and that it would go to a loving home, where it  would be appreciated as it would only have 2 other stable mates...  Not lost in a sea of other guitars........ Is that working at all? 

Still no


Seriously, those R'R Stars are fairly rare.  Even by the standards of Kawais, the R'n'R stars are tough to find.  But you never know.  I saw the one that Sweepy bought - he found it via a PSA thread that I started here.  I'll do the same again if I ever find another R'n'R star for sale.

Ash @OilCityPickups ; had/had one (I swapped it for a set of p'ups in years gone by), and I know of a few more out there in the wild, but I think I could count them all on the fingers of one hand.

I should probably give the website some TLC and get it up Google's search rankings again.  I found a few of my collection that way  - or, more accurately, they found me.  Since I stopped buying them, I've not really bothered with the site, just leave it there as a bit of free information to other Kawai owners out there.