Just acquired a couple of interesting Japanese clunker guitars...the one at the bottom of the pic is an Audition, as sold by Woolworths, and I bought it as two separate items...the neck and body, and the pickguard assembly...needs machineheads, trem and bridge..and the good news is that it looks like the trems are available as a repro item.
The tele-style one is was a junk-shop find, and is almost certainly from the same factory- the necks are nigh-on identical. These were sold as Jedson or Zenta. Almost inevitably, the trem arm and cover are missing, as are the control knobs.
The history of these is a bit vague, but the general concensus is that these were made by Teisco (later Kawaii). I remember these from my youth..they were looked down upon by those who had really glamorous guitars like the black Columbus Les Paul copies. The bodies are very thin, and the hardware is pretty shoddy compared to modern guitars, but the pickups have a reputation for sounding great..so it will be interesting to see what they turn out like once I've given them the once-over.
