The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

[note: the Moridaira website presents a wholesaler and its link to Morris goes to the new acoustic line. however, this Morris "Wing" and Moridaira are clearly associated, according to the unverifiable information on the back of the headstock.]

one

okay, so here are my babies: a straightforward Westone on the left and
the "mystery Matsumoku" on the right.

two

note the "Thunder I" model id on the Westone [Is were bolt necks; IIs
were set necks; IIIs were neck throughs and an "A" designation meant it
had active pickups]. no model information is on the Morris headstock.
in fact, the Morris has no serial number or country of origin anywhere
that is easy to get at [i haven't torn the pickups out, yet, to see if
they are marked with anything].

three

this is something with which readers on this site should be familiar:
the Westone neck plate which says, "Matsumoku, 2010687 [serial number]
and Made in Japan".

four

the Morris body is so painfully similar to the Washburn "Wing" guitars
[and as near as i can see, identical to the Hohner posted here]. one
difference seems to be that the Wings had smooth carved tops, while my
Morris and the Hohner, here, have plateau-shaped tops.

two, nice, clear humbuckers with adjustable poles on both coils are
individually splitable with the two mini switchs between the control
knobs. these pickups are much more defined, in the low notes, than the
pair of Seymour "classic 57s" that i recently put into an Epiphone Les
Paul. that bridge is a solid piece of cast, or forged, steel, instead
of a bent plate, and the fret markers are brass rings [very "Washburn
Wing"].

five

both of these guitars are "fake neck throughs": the Westone is a bolt on
and the Morris has a set neck. i have never seen a picture which showed
the back of a Washburn Wing with a set neck, so i don't know how this
compares. strings go through the body and you can see one bit of
"cheepniss" in the Morris construction: the lower body is one piece of
wood, while the upper section is two separate, laminated pieces. [same as the Lotus, posted in this section.]

six

the back of the Morris headstock has some unverifiable information on
two retail store stickers [which i have never removed]. the top one
says: "699.99", which someone may have paid, new, for it. the one below
it says: "Moridair, Morris VX45R, 01-24-85".

the strangest thing of all - this generic, no model, no country, no
serial number guitar, with the "ghost company" name on the headstock,
has tuners which are stamped "Morris".


now, i didn't know anything about Matsumoku when i bought either of
these guitars. i was a bass player in the mid eighties and i just
wanted the best 200 dollar guitar in town, so, i bought the Westone,
used. even though it had lousy action, worn frets and was untunable, i
kept it and didn't play any other guitar. it looked like a Vantage and
i saw people play those, on stage, so i figured it must be okay.

in the late ninties, i got a little more serious about guitar and, fed
up with the Westone's shortcomings, i bought the Morris, used, for 600
bucks.

recently, i wanted to get a "really good guitar" and i tried out a wall
of stuff in new and used music stores. i didn't find anything that was
as good as the Morris. i decided to lower my sights to getting a backup
guitar and i bought a used Epiphone Les Paul.

i was ready to sell the Westone for 100 bucks, because i believed it was
beyond repair. but, i dropped it off at the Ottawa Folklore Centre, to
get an estimate, as i was on my way to pick up the Epiphone.

well, darned if Brian, the OFC luthier, didn't fix the Westone for 100
bucks and change! when i got the three of them at home, i just played
them all and i realized that both Matsumokus sounded way better than the
Epiphone. so, i put the Seymour, classic pickups into it, to give it a
fighting chance - it's the guitar i lend to people, now.

i looked at tons of guitars, lately, and i guesstimate that i couldn't
replace the Westone, with similar quality, for less than 500 bucks, new
or used [there's no deals on used instruments, in Ottawa]. and i would
never get the quality of the Morris for less than a thousand. you might
be able to get a lime green, late 80s Ibanez, with a handle hole in the
body, for less than that - quality that hurts the eyes.

but, now that i am a Matsumoku convert, my babies will never be for
sale, as long as i can still pick 'em up and strum them a bit.



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Hi Rick - your Morris is a Moridaira, not a Matsumoku. I don't know if Moridaira still exists as a factory, but it certainly was a manufacturer in the 70s & 80s.

Your Morris is the twin of my Hohner - right down to the model number, the only differences being the logo & the tuners - mine are hexagonal-bodied sealed units. The ghastly trem bridge on mine was fitted by me in the late 80s - the plan is to bin it, fill the rout & replace it with the original bridge, which I still have.

The guitar in the broken link pic at the top of the page was identical to yours - have a thorough read through the thread, and this one as well:

http://www.matsumoku.org/ggboard/viewtopic.php?t=4281

You'll find one of the Lotus rebrands particularly interesting!

Jon.

Hi Jon,

Those Lotuses look pretty creamy ... but, i guess i've already got one!

I find it hard to believe that even the body construction, with the two bits of wood in the top section and one for the bottom, is the same in the Lotus. Is your Hohner like that? I always assumed that mine was built that way because the workers couldn't find a single piece of wood big enough for the top, that day.

So, yours is an HFX45 and mine is a VX45R. And there's no doubt that these and the Lotus were made in the same factory.

When people omit things like serial numbers, country of origin and other company identifiers it is usually because the guitar is an embarrassing piece of junk. I can't understand why something with the quality of the Morris would be marketed that way.

Just by the way, the neck on my Morris bends really nicely [the Westone doesn't wanna bend], so i use that to simulate a wang bar. You may not miss that thing when you get rid of it.

So, Moridaira, eh? More stuff to look up. I hope that, on balance, i posted more useful information than missinformation, but i suppose a little mystery never hurt anyone.

- rick

just found my 2005-06 Moridaira catalog, if they had a later one and it was carried by shops here then I`ve got one somewhere. They do carry the Morris acoustics and the catalog is full of imported goods, so not sure if they`re still operating a factory but they are still active.

Another connection on this - I'm almost certain that some time in the past (70's / 80's ) Hohner were distributors for Moridaira guitars in the UK - the Hohner branded one could be a UK specific export.