DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS (MATSUMOTO)VINTAGE MORRIS 9 STRING?

[snowjays]

Morris were sold here in Australia during the late '70 to early 80's and featured in a number of music stores here locally.  I owned two of the LP copies from around 1977, and when I bought my Ragtime in the early '80s, I was considering one of these 9 string Morris guitars instead.  I don't know much other than that.   The two lp copies I owned were from two completely different factories.  The black LP was identical to a 2350 Ibby and was fitted with Maxons, while the sunburst had completely different fittings and a thinner body.

[dave_g]

Egads, I do believe you got it

[Biggles]

Hi guys, sorry to bring this topic back from the dead (to be fair, I don't even own an Ibanez gitbox either) but when I read this I had to reply.

I inherited my Moridaira BW650 from my mother last year and it was purchased for her by my grandmother circa 1975 for around £750 from a music shop in Kent, England. I've spent the year it's been in my possession trying all I can to find out something about it. I've been googling away to little effect but I had a big breakthrough when I made the connection between Moridaira and Morris guitars, partly thanks to this thread.

From what I can see from the piccies our guitars are totally identical but what puzzles me are the labels. Yours is a kind of circular parchment with that neat little gold embossing, etc, whereas mine is just a parchment rectangle with "Moridaira Guitars" written on it instead of "TF Morris".

I was actually on the phone with the Morris office in Fairfield, CA earlier today (cost me a bomb but I was too excited) and spoke to a woman who, believe it or not, said that T F Moridaira was her father. It was crazy, I nearly swallowed my teeth. Anyway she said that her records to hand only went back 20 years but that the factory, either US or more likely Japan would have more detailed specs on our mystery guitars. I sent them an email, but Ms. Moridaira was helpful in saying that the BW series had solid AA sitka tops and that indian rosewood models retailed at $800-1500 in 1978 and Brazilian went for anywhere between $2000-3500 (depending on custom features, etc). Crazy. I wouldn't sell your BW650 short, I really think that the back and sides of my guitar is Brazilian and I'm not just hoping due to it's worth, my local luthier thinks it's too rich in tone (and smell 30 years after the fact) to be Indian rosewood. Yours may well be too.

I don't know about yours because it has a nice Morris label but I'm pretty sure mine was built for internal Japanese market only because there is nothing on the guitar that says anything other than Moridaira, literally after a year I had no idea Morris and Moridaira were connected until today and then it all fell into place. I have no idea how my guitar escaped into export, but I love it to bits now I would never part with it. I recently had it fully insured for £5000.

I can post pictures if you want, hope this is of interest. Cheerio from the UK.

EDIT: Sorry, don't know how I forgot this. I typed too excitedly and missed this out. I'm still hoping it's Brazilian, but the back and sides could well be Madagascan rosewood which is a wood that Moridaira have had in stock for years. Really don't think its Indian, but hey, any solid rosewood is freaking awesome!

[chazmo]

Interesting story, Biggles, and welcome to ICW.

Indeed, please post some pictures!  They seem like really beautiful guitars.

We definitely run into this a bit with multiple brand names for the same type of guitar that sells in different parts of the world.  Does your guitar have any name on the headstock, or is it just the Moridaira label that led you in this direction?

Best wishes.

[Ianj]

Hi:
      Below is a link to a Morris acoustic catalogue from the 80's. It shows a 9 string guitar similar to yours.

        http://www.t-shiga.com/sub7-5-1-79.htm

      The site this link came from is a collection of Japanese acoustic guitar catalogues from the 70s and 80's and is amazing to go through. It was compiled by a gentleman from Japan.

Regards: Ianj

[jrock42]

http://www.jahstix.com/photos/

I know it's kinda hard to see, but checkout the first photo; vined Morris. . .  Looks awfully familiar!

I see this guy in Penn Station now and again - I've got to ask him about it next time.

[gemberbier]

A little web searching found the obvious hit.  I suspect this is the same company, although the emblem has changed.  T. F. is probably for Toshio Moridaira (nicknamed Mori)...  Anyway, what do you think?  http://www.morrisguitars.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=57&Itemid=86

On the original Martin D-45, it was:
C M F
   a
   r
   t
   i
   n

in which CF stood for Christian Friedrich

Moridaira used:

T M F
   o
   r
   r
   i
   s

in which T stood for Toshio or The
and F stood for Factory I guess.

Most important was that it looked like a Martin D-45 headstock from a distance.


Not everything I've seen from Morris was good.
Their bolt-on Les Pauls were pretty crappy IMO, although some want us to believe they are comparable to Ibanez.
I could buy one for €55.- in the OHSC and I didn't take it, because I don't want to spend time and parts on restoring a cheapo guitar.


Ginger