Odyssey Guitars was founded in Vancouver by Ken Lindemere, Joe Sallay, and Attila Balogh. Ken and Joe had a retail music store in Vancouver and Attila ran a guitar repair shop. Ken & Joe used Attila's services for any refinishing work. Over the years they became friends and in 1977 decided to start Odyssey: Joe was in charge of retail while Attila & Ken did the design and manufacture. By 1979 they had a total staff of 8 and were making around 50 instruments per month.

The Odyssey range included the Hawk guitar and bass which were the entry level instruments; the Model 300 with a flat-faced mahogany body, unbound ebony fingerboard; the Model 200 had a carved ash body, unbound ebony fingerboard and the top of the range Model 100 with a mahogany body, carved figured maple top and ebony fingerboard. There were also a few Odyssey semi-acoustics with the same design as the Model 100, but with a hand carved hollow spruce top.

Odyssey made all their own hardware – brass cover plates and pickup rings, solid brass tailpiece and bridge sitting on a brass sustain block. Various models were wired differently, but typically the guitars had a pair of humbuckers through volume and tone controls, and various mini toggles switches for pickup selection, phase and coil tapping.

Ken Lindemere sold his shares in 1981 to attend graduate school and in 1982 Odyssey closed down. Attila went to work for Ayotte Drums and was killed in a workshop accident in 1987.

Source: Odyssey Guitars catalogs 1979 - 1981

Source: Ken Lindemere website (7 June 2018)