Kasuga SG

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japanstrat

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Rare Kasuga SG

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Kasuga-Japanese-SG_W0QQitemZ170103896383QQihZ007QQcategoryZ2384QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

from one of my other posts

Kasuga and Tokai made the Conrad guitars in the 1960's/1970's for export to the US.
Kasuga apparently made some Washburn models around 1988 or so with a serial number starting with a K and they might have also made some Jackson and BC Rico guitars.
They also did BC Rich type copies for the Japanese market with a K on the headstock instead of a B.
Kasuga started their own brand of guitars in the 1960's and in the 1970's made the Heerby and Ganson brands.
"rock = GAN" "village = SON".
In the 1970's they went into partnership with Roland for a while for a guitar synth.
In the 1980's/1990's they made a lot of guitars (OEM) for well known brand names like Yamaha and Burny/Fernandes and the early Navigators.
Kasuga also made lots of bluegrass instruments (banjos, manolins etc)
Kasuga was established in 1935 in Nagoya by Miki Bukichi who went on to be the Japanese Democratic Socialist Party Chairman.
Kasuga made guitars, banjos, mandolins, violins and ukeleles.
Kasuga went out of business in the mid 1990's.
By the start of the 1990's they must have had trouble staying in business as a lot of contracts went to the Korean guitar factories that sprung up in the 1980's and also Taiwan as well.
Kasuga lost the Yamaha Acoustic contract to Taiwan in the late 1980's.
 
There were a few Kasuga Gibbo copies floating around the Australian market in the late '70's early '80's.
I remember the SG and a decent Goldtop(bolt on neck) in particular.
They were memorable due to the Carved Floral Motifs and the floral inlays on the fingerboards.
 
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