Before the past few days I had assumed that, like electric guitars, the lower priced Cat's Eyes were made off shore in Korea and China and the more expensive ones were made in Japan. I was wrong....
It looks like at some point production of all Cat's Eyes, save for a small number of special order guitars, were made elsewhere.
If you look at it over time, the Cat's Eyes line began in 1975, growing out of the Humming Bird line. Guitars were made in two locations in Hamamatsu from 1975 until at least 1981.
By the 1985 Tokai had shut down its banjo production which in many ways had mirrored Cat's Eyes production. It also shuttered piano production around the same time, apparently due to it losing money as pianos were being replaced by synthesizers.
If you look at the catalogs before 1985 they feature many different models of acoustics and an association with CF Martin which began in 1972. But that all changed after 1984.
1984 is the last year CF Martin is mentioned in a Tokai catalog. After that, Cat's Eyes disappear and all we see is cutaway electric models, the TEA line. And it is not clear where the TEA guitars were made.
In looking through catalogs I don't see any Tokai acoustics, other than TEA models, between 1985 and 1995 when off shore production had moved to Korea...
I am beginning to wonder if full scale Cat's Eyes production in Japan ended by 1985?
It looks like they retained some folks in Hamamatsu to make special order (and high end pieces like the TCV450 in 1995) and also likely to train folks in Korea and in China on acoustic guitar production methods that they learned by being trained in similar fashion by the folks at Martin in the 1970s.
By 2006 190,000 yen Cat's Eyes were being made in China!
This is not what I had expected. Kind of a secret hiding in plain sight.
People continue to mistakenly believe that because "Hamamatsu, Japan" is on a paper label in a guitar that it means the guitar was made there. It does not mean that. The company is headquartered there. It probably has not meant that since 1984....
It looks like at some point production of all Cat's Eyes, save for a small number of special order guitars, were made elsewhere.
If you look at it over time, the Cat's Eyes line began in 1975, growing out of the Humming Bird line. Guitars were made in two locations in Hamamatsu from 1975 until at least 1981.
By the 1985 Tokai had shut down its banjo production which in many ways had mirrored Cat's Eyes production. It also shuttered piano production around the same time, apparently due to it losing money as pianos were being replaced by synthesizers.
If you look at the catalogs before 1985 they feature many different models of acoustics and an association with CF Martin which began in 1972. But that all changed after 1984.
1984 is the last year CF Martin is mentioned in a Tokai catalog. After that, Cat's Eyes disappear and all we see is cutaway electric models, the TEA line. And it is not clear where the TEA guitars were made.
In looking through catalogs I don't see any Tokai acoustics, other than TEA models, between 1985 and 1995 when off shore production had moved to Korea...
I am beginning to wonder if full scale Cat's Eyes production in Japan ended by 1985?
It looks like they retained some folks in Hamamatsu to make special order (and high end pieces like the TCV450 in 1995) and also likely to train folks in Korea and in China on acoustic guitar production methods that they learned by being trained in similar fashion by the folks at Martin in the 1970s.
By 2006 190,000 yen Cat's Eyes were being made in China!
This is not what I had expected. Kind of a secret hiding in plain sight.
People continue to mistakenly believe that because "Hamamatsu, Japan" is on a paper label in a guitar that it means the guitar was made there. It does not mean that. The company is headquartered there. It probably has not meant that since 1984....
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