Lots of Strange Brands pop up from time to time.
If anyone can add any info then please do.
Matsumoku made Aria, Westone, Epiphone Japan (first series before Yamano), Westminster (distributed by Kanda Shokai), some Greco Fender and Gibson copies from the 1970's, Vantage, Univox, Westbury, Skylark, Lyle, Fell, Electra, Washburn.
Chushin made Jackson, Azumi.
Morris made Morris, Bill Lawrence, H.S.Anderson.
ESP made Navigator, Zep-II, Edwards.
Kasuga made Ganson, Heerby, Kasuga.
Dyna made Joodee and were distributed by Daion.
Dyna made Founder and were distributed by Daion.
Guya made Guyatone and were distributed by Tokyo sound corp.
Tokai made Sigma and were distributed by Martin.
Chushin probably made Fresher and were distributed by Kyowa-Shokai (not Kanda Shokai) who also distributed some Jackson models in Japan.
Cimar made by FujiGen and also in Korea. Probably distributed by Hoshino or a Hoshino sub agent.
CSL and Antoria were imported by various music shops in the UK and are basically the same as Ibanez and some Korean models were probably made.
Profile were distributed in the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia and were probably made by Matsumoku and also in Korea.
There are also Profile effect pedals from the same distributor.
Terada were made by Terada and distributed by Daion.
Harptone were imported from the US and distributed by Daion.
Yamaki, Chaki, Hamox, Mitsura Shinano, Tamura, G.J. Gould & Sons, Joodee, Founder were distributed by Daion and were made by Dyna and Yamaki and probably others as well.
Joodee, G.J. Gould & Sons, and others were built to specifications of small USA distributors and often had the same model numbers as their Yamaki counterparts.
Gaban distributed by Hukuhara musical instrument company.
Gallan were distributed by Kyowa-Shokai (not Kanda Shokai).
Maya and "El Maya" were brand names used by a Japanese Trading Company from Kobe called Rokkoman.
Pearl were distributed by the Pearl Drum Company. The Pearl logo font on the guitars is the same as the Pearl logo font that's on the drums.
The Pearl Les Pauls have some design features in common with the Kasuga Les Pauls so the Pearls were probably made by Kasuga.
After a while all these strange branded guitars follow a pattern.
Music shops, companies producing machinery or whatever or business people would choose a brand name often with a Spanish sounding name like Gonzales or Fernandes and contract someone to make them and then they would try to distribute them.
They could just distribute them in Japan and get along quite well because the Japanese market is pretty big and they could also try to distribute them to other countries which would have been harder and not many survived doing it but of course Hoshino/Ibanez did.
Only a few of these brands have survived and some brands have been brought back by other companies after buying the rights to the brand name.
Also some USA and UK distributors would have guitars made in Japan with their own brand name like CSL etc.
