This is an early H.S. Anderson HS-1 Madcat.(The model was later renamed the TE80) My estimate is 1973 or 74, possibly early 75. In 1975 they began stamping serial numbers on the back of the headstock e.g.215791 being December(12) 1975. Reading the numbers read right to left as with written Japanese. The latest serial number I have seen was from 1979, I believe that around 1980 they stopped stamping in the serial number into the headstock. It was around this time that the design of the guitars began to change subtley, with different positioning of the pickups and shaping of the headstock, by around 1983 becoming the Bill Lawrence BT2M-90 & BT2M-80G MADCAT.

The Neck of this guitar is 1 piece of maple highly figured with Tiger Stripes. The body of the guitar is a little unusual. It has a central Walnut strip, with caps of birdseye maple on the front and back on either side of the Walnut strip. Sandwiched in the middle is two wings of what is either Ash or Maple (I'm not 100% sure). Each wing is made up of 7 pieces of this wood. It looks like the pieces have been cut/bookmatched and the separated into each wing. It's hard to describe! It seems it's only the earlier Madcats that were made in this fashion, at some point it appears they moved to 1 piece instead of the 7 for each wing. (My guess is that this happened late in 1975). The guitar is one of the heaviest I have ever played! The Madcat originally retailed at 80,000 Yen, a significant amount of money in the 70s.

In the mid to late 70s a batch of Madcat guitars were produced for Hohner and branded as such - often refered to as OEM guitars (original equipment manufacturer). The guitars have famously been used by Prince for many years. The Prince seal of approval has made them quite collectable, and various re-issues and replicas have been made.

There are some decent websites documenting the history of this guitar, particularly some Japanese sites that include interviews with Hidesato Shiino, who played a fundamental role in the conception of the Madcat and who has also worked with many other famous Japanese guitar brands such as Greco, Yamaha and E.S.P.