Barclay was the in house brand for Brash Suttons who were one of the biggest music retailers in Australian with stores dominating the southern state of Victoria. The brand appeared on numerous pieces of musical equipment and came from a number of suppliers mostly from Japan. The brand was aimed at the low cost beginner items. The origins of these guitars hide under layers of brand names and distributors.

All three are branded Barclay and all three carry model numbers from Hoshino (Ibanez). Now the white one is definitely from Guyatone / Tokyo Music Factory and can be identified as a 1960 built guitar. (second page Bizarre Guitars book) The other two are most probably from the same source. The little “Barclay” amplifier is also made in Japan and whilst we can’t identify an manufacturer everything points to Guyatone. All three were probably distributed wholesale into Australia by Hoshino. In Sydney one of the largest music retailers were a company called J. Stanley Johnson and they sold guitars from similar origins under their brand “Jason”.

Ken