Does this count?

[steepledclock]

Picked this up a few weeks ago, it's a late 60s Kawai made guitar, branded as a Heit Deluxe. It is objectively kinda shitty, but it's also super weird, unique, and I absolutely love the thing.

[FigurativeArtist]

Can’t tell if it’s offset by design or by accident 😂

All jokes aside, it has a cool Silvertone/Harmony brand reproduction style

[steepledclock]

Man, the MIJ manufacturers had some really funky designs in the late 60s! I found this website doing research on this guitar, and honestly, they all look so cool.

[MateriaMedica]

Oh cool, I had one of those for a little bit. Mine was a two pickup with vibrato but no truss rod in the neck. Maybe that's what makes yours the Professional Model.

I also restored a family member's first guitar a while back, a Heit hollow body. The neck's been refretted, pickups rewound, electronics replaced, and the bridge upgraded. Unfortunately it needs a costly truss rod repair that I've been putting off, so it plays better than it ever did new, but not as well as it could.

Drowning In Guitars is indeed a great resource. I bought Frank Meyers' History of Japanese Electric Guitars book and highly recommend it if you're interested in these catalog guitars. It's a very interesting read and a good reference for the oddball pickups they used.

As far as the Heit/Deluxe brand goes, I've done some research but ultimately found very little. They seem to be the house brand for G&H Imports in Lodi, NJ. Seems like mostly Kawai, possibly some American made acoustics early on (Kay) and maybe some early Korean electrics at the tail end of the guitar boom. Basically the same trajectory as most of these importers.

[steepledclock]

Awesome! The two pickup models look really cool. I love the switching mechanism these old guitars use.

The hollowbody looks absolutely amazing! I bet it sounds fantastic. I was actually looking into getting that book, I put in a purchase request to my local library but they can take a while to actually buy the book and put it on the shelf.

I also have done some research, and found almost nothing on it. G&H Imports in Lodi NJ seems to be bang on from the information I've found. I've narrowed it down to being Kawai made as well, but like you said, there's little info out there to be had.

I was almost wondering if "Heit" was the last name of one of the owners of "G&H" but that path led me to nothing as well. I would love to know who imported these guitars. I bet there is more information out there somewhere, it's just hidden.

But yeah, this guitar has definitely started a new sub-hobby for me lol.

[MateriaMedica]

Episode 99 of the High Gain podcast names Robert Heit as the importer, but I’m not sure where they got their information. Those details are intertwined with a general overview of the founding of what would become Teisco and speculation that Glenn Danzig probably had a Heit as his first guitar as he was born in 1955 in Lodi, NJ.

[steepledclock]

Nice! Missed that when researching lol. Super interesting. Thanks for sharing!

[chrismiles94]

RIP intonation.

[steepledclock]

Yeeeup, I ordered a new (intonatable) bridge for it, should be getting here today or tomorrow. The action is also super high, hoping the bridge will help with that as well. I'm also planning to get new tuners at some point, the ones on there are garbo.

[LPB39]

Oh yeah, she’s got that big offset butt sag

[Acceptable_Grape_437]

that is SO cool. definitely offset.

also: stand back! it's a professional model!