Electric mandolin and "EM-8", with carved top bodies and four and eight strings respectively. Blue Star produces four and five string models under the name "Mandoblaster". Jbovier produces four and five string "EMC" electric mandolins, which resemble the Fender electric mandolins, and a four string "ELS" electric mandolin. EMC stands for Electric Mandocaster and ELS stands for Electric Leo Smith. The Eastwood Guitars manufactures solid body eight string electric mandolin under the name "Mandocaster". It has Telecaster resembling body, two single coil pickups and a pickup switch known from Stratocaster guitars. They also make "Mandocaster 12" which is actually an octave guitar.
Mandolin mandolins. Morishige Takei (1890–1949), a member of the court of Emperor Hirohito, established a mandolin orchestra in the Italian style before World War II. He was able to maintain his mandolin-guitar orchestra until 1943, in spite of the National Mobilization Law of 1938 that allowed the government to assert control of music, and ban western music and instruments, including the electric guitar, banjo and ukulele. He was also a major composer, with 114 compositions for mandolin. Another composer, Jiro Nakano (1902–2000), arranged many of the Italian works for regular orchestras or winds composed before World War II as new repertoires