-chuckle- I know them from other electronics lines than musical instruments. I suspect their relationship with musical instruments is about as accidental as that of Coors with beer (they started off making high-quality/high-performance ceramics and got into brewing via ceramic linings for brewing vats).
Author's response
Yep sounds about right. I ran across a Moog synthesizer at the local guitar center just before I wrote that piece. I was actually looking into a 64 channel mixing board, and saw the synthesizer area of the store first. Somehow I don't think that General Panasonic has quite the same ring for a Klingon, do you?