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View Full Version : The Goya and Kentucky?



vetus scotia
Mar-28-2013, 11:14am
I am looking at this mandolin in my local classifieds and I am waiting to hear back from the seller. This is the only photo, and the only info the seller gives is 'Goya in mint condition.'
100353
I can't find any photos of Goya mandolins that look like this. What I can find with similar bodies and headstocks are the Kentucky 160 and the Johnson MA-120. If this is the same mando as the Johnson, then it is overpriced (seller was asking 175). If it is the same as a Kentucky, then I might be able to get it for a well priced beater (assuming I could get it for less than 175). Does anyone know about this model (what I am assuming is a 1990s) Goya?
Here is an older Kentucky that got me wondering.
100354
There is also an older Kentucky in this post that makes me wonder about a common Korean factory: http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?56035-Help-Identifying-a-Kentucky-KM-200S-Mandolin

houseworker
Mar-28-2013, 11:29am
It's not a Kentucky.

vetus scotia
Mar-28-2013, 11:29am
OK, not a Kentucky. I could not find any connection between Saga Music Hyper-global-mega-corp and Goya, but I was just wondering if there might be one.

It actually looks more like the KM-140 and 150, not the 160, but if there is no connection it does not really matter which one it looks like.

Mike Bunting
Mar-28-2013, 12:48pm
Wasn't the Goya line an inexpensive import by Martin a long time ago. Long before Kentucky was around, I believe.

houseworker
Mar-28-2013, 12:54pm
Wasn't the Goya line an inexpensive import by Martin a long time ago. Long before Kentucky was around, I believe.

Yes, made in Korea. Before that the Goya brand was used to market Swedish-made Levin instruments, which were of rather higher quality.

vetus scotia
Mar-28-2013, 12:58pm
"The C.F. Martin company later acquired the Levin company, and bought the rights to the Goya trademark from a company named Dude, Inc. in 1976. Martin imported a number guitar, mandolin, and banjo string instruments from the 1970's through to 1996. While this trademark is currently discontinued, the rights to the name are still held by the Martin Guitar company." (Quoted from http://goyaguitars.tripod.com/goya_info.htm)
So from what I can gather Goyas were being produced in Korea up until the mid 1990s, which would have been around the time Kentuckys were being produced there. Kentuckys have been produced in Japan, Korea and, beginning around the early 2000s, China.

allenhopkins
Mar-28-2013, 1:07pm
"Goya" was a brand used by NY distributor Hershman Musical Instruments, for Levin products imported from Sweden in the 1950's and '60's. The label was sold several times to different distributors. In 1974-76 Martin bought Levin, and, separately, the Goya label, and used "Goya" for a variety of products imported from Asia -- mostly guitars. They shut down the line in 1996, I believe.

Levin was acquired by another Swedish company, Svensk Music, who now build classical guitars in Sweden. Martin may have sold the rights to "Goya" to Goya Foods (!).

There are Swedish-made Goya mandolins, (http://www.vintage-guitars.se/Goya_models_photo_mandolins.htm) but this isn't one. Depending on its vintage, it could be Japanese, Korean, possibly Chinese. It resembles a number of other Asian-made mandolins, but given the heterogenous nature of Martin/Goya imports, might be hard to get specific about who made it when.

vetus scotia
Mar-28-2013, 1:21pm
There are Swedish-made Goya mandolins, but this isn't one. Yes, I checked the catalogues, and in any case the headstock is nothing like the Levins'. I have no reason to think this mandolin is any more than 15 or 20 years old.

Depending on its vintage, it could be Japanese, Korean, possibly Chinese.
I thought the terminus ad quem for Goya predated Chinese manufacture, but I will have to wait and see.

It resembles a number of other Asian-made mandolins, but given the heterogenous nature of Martin/Goya imports, might be hard to get specific about who made it when.
Indeed, it is also a dead ringer for the Epiphone MM-30.
Perhaps I can phrase the question the other way around: does anyone know if, during their time as a Japanese, as a Korean, and as a Chinese export, the mandolins branded by Saga as 'Kentucky' been stamped with other names on the headstock?

MikeEdgerton
Mar-28-2013, 2:19pm
...Martin may have sold the rights to "Goya" to Goya Foods (!)....

Probably not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goya_Foods

almeriastrings
Mar-28-2013, 5:41pm
I had one in for a fret-dress several years ago that looked near-identical. It was an all-plywood, heavy-built instrument and I recall it was of Korean manufacture. Not exactly the greatest mandolin that ever lived...I think they also did an 'electric' version with a huge great magnetic pickup and tone and vol controls in the top. $175 is way, way over the top for the quality. $50 is more like it. Even the cheapest current Kentucky mandos are streets ahead in materials and build quality.

houseworker
Mar-28-2013, 5:54pm
I'd be wary of any mandolin that has a screwhead in the centre of the pickguard.

allenhopkins
Mar-28-2013, 7:27pm
Probably not...

Yeah, seemed odd to me, since some sources say that Martin still owns the Goya brand name. But there is this sentence from the Wiki article on Levin guitars: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levin_(guitar_company))

CF Martin stopped offering Goya instruments during the 1990s and sold the brand name in 1999 to Goya Foods.

I can't find another source for this statement, which is why I said "may have sold." I'll keep looking...

vetus scotia
Mar-28-2013, 8:13pm
I'd be wary of any mandolin that has a screwhead in the centre of the pickguard.
Yeah, the Kentucky 150 has that too. At least the Epiphone MM30 has the screw near the fingerboard. I don't understand why so many cheap mandolins even have these things.
Oh well, the Goya sold already, so I guess I will never know.

Nevin
Mar-29-2013, 11:00am
I played one of the ones with the pickup a few years ago, checking it out for a friend who wanted to buy it. It was fairly well made but had some issues. It was made in Korea. They were asking $75 and I recommended against it as the potential work (neck re-set)exceeded the value.

Fretbear
Mar-29-2013, 11:33am
"Well there's your Gallagher, your Gibson, your Goya, Gretsch and Guild
I've played every kind of guitar that them guitar makers build
I picked on a lot of axes but the best I've ever seen
Is my funky beat up wonderful old Martin D-18."
"D-18 Song"

MikeEdgerton
Mar-29-2013, 12:37pm
Goya has been using that brand since the 30's, there really is no way anyone could stop them even if they owned the brand name for instruments. Goya may have purchased it just to own it completely, I certainly don't know. Many years ago I was an agent for a Fortune 500 Company named Dean Foods out of Franklin Park, Illinois. There was another Dean Foods Company in Virginia (I think). No connection. They'd been using the name for years. Who knows.