Sekova mandos

[Ethan Setiawan]

Does anyone know anything about Sekova mandos? I started playing on one, and would love to find a bit more info about them. I think they were made in Japan, but that's about all I know. The only other time I ever saw another Sekova instrument was at the Evart Dulcimer FunFest in Michigan, where some dude had a Sekova guitar.

Thanks!

[allenhopkins]

Bunch of Sekova instruments around, apparently -- lots of electric guitars, some acoustic instruments -- but info on their origin is a bit sketchy. Quick Google research suggests that the Sekova label was used for instruments produced by Kawai Teisco in Japan and imported by US Musical Merchandise, a NYCity distributor. Here's a pretty comprehensive list of "badges" or labels attributed to various Japanese manufacturers; I have no way of evaluating the accuracy of the lister's research, however.

Kawai was/is noted for pianos and similar instruments; Teisco (which is Tokyo Electrical Instrument & Sound Co.) for a variety of electric guitars, keyboards, amps. Neither of these companies has much of a rep in building acoustic stringed instruments (well, pianos have strings, but you know what I mean), which might imply that your mandolin was built by another Japanese company, then sold to Kawai Teisco to be labeled Sekova and sent to the US.

A picture or two might help in more accurately ID-ing it. Tracing Asian labels can be really frustrating, as different distributors in different countries would request the manufacturers to assign specific labels to instruments sold through the distributors. The same instrument might be sold in the US under many labels, depending on which distributor imported and sold it.