Matador Guitars (Written by Jimmy Noise / July 2012)

Unfortunately very little is known about Matador guitars. How ever there are a few things that we have been able to determine, based on the guitars. Currently three models of Matadors guitars have surfaced. These were manufactured by Teisco Co Ltd, in Japan. The models were also available with the Teisco Del Rey logo. The importer and sales out let for these are not known. There is a Town in Texas called Matador. Possibly there was once a store called Matador Music that sold these guitars???

The models sold were the E-112, the EB-100 an the EP-7. The solid bodies were both a single pickup instrument. The E-112 being a guitar and the EB-100 being the matching bass. Their design is very much influenced by the Fender music master. The Ep-7 was a two pickup hollowbody.


E-112	EB-110	EP-7

Production calculations based on Teisco serial numbers indicates that the factory made approximately 5,000 of the E-112 and 4,500 of the EB-100. However the majority of these would have had the Teisco Del Rey logo. So the actual number of the guitars manufactured with the Matador logo remains a mystery, but given the rarity of these models surfacing, it could be speculated that there was maybe 1000 units made in total.

It is possible that these guitars were imported by WMI Corporation. They were the exclusive importer of Teisco Del Rey branded instruments at the time. One of the company’s owners, Barry Hornstein, confirmed that they would order a special brand for a client if they ordered a specific number of guitars. This was more commonly done for major retail outlets like Sears, with smaller brands being a rarity. There are no records of what any of these brands were, so it is just speculation that Matador was possibly one of these brands.

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(Last Revised: 5^th of Nov 2012.)