My treasure won on Yahoo! Auctions: Morris F-18
This Morris F-18 is the acoustic guitar I love most right now. It’s a guitar with a killer sound—you could call it a Japanese vintage piece.
Judging by the oval sticker and the black trapezoidal plastic truss rod cover on the headstock, this is a product from around 1970 to 1973 made by Terada Gakki.
Back then, the Morris guitar brand was famous for a radio ad (!) claiming, “With a Morris, even superstars aren’t just a dream.” This brand was likely produced by three companies—Moridaira Gakki, Iida Gakki, and Terada Gakki—probably because it sold so well.
While it’s common for a single factory to produce multiple brands, it was probably rare for multiple companies to manufacture under one brand.
This F-18 was made by Terada Gakki. They likely started out making various woodworking products, but later leveraged that technical expertise to shift into stringed instrument manufacturing. They became a prestigious factory known for OEM production for brands like Gretsch, Orville, and Morris.
I bought this guitar on Yahoo Auctions. Since decent acoustic guitars can be pretty pricey at music stores or Hard Off, I often get them by just buying them on Yahoo Auctions first.
Even with such a casual approach to acquiring them, I rarely end up with absolute junk, even though these are products from 50 years ago. You can see the quality of construction back then. I think the winning bid for this guitar was around 4,000 yen. The reason I got it so cheap was because there was a stain on the wood.
Hey, it’s pretty dirty, huh? (laugh)
But this turned out to be an amazing find. Even with those rotten strings, it still produced a huge, guttural sound. I basically believe that loud instruments are good instruments. A good resonance means it can convey nuance well, so with proper tuning, it can perform wonderfully.
Reviving the Terada Musical Instruments Morris F-18
Once I got my hands on it, I didn’t hesitate to paint it, swap out the pegs, and replace the bridge with a cow bone one, shaving it down a bit. The neck was perfectly straight and needed no work. By the way, the top is spruce plywood, the sides are rosewood—standard specs for an entry-level model back then.
Looking at the pegs in the photo above, they seem sturdy at first glance, but as expected, the pegs on a cheap guitar are no good. Replacement is essential. Well, these days you can buy them cheap on Amazon, and replacing them is easy.
However, the real hassle with this guitar was stripping the finish off the top. I spent about two days sanding away at it with sandpaper before finally getting to the finish. The sides were fine, so I didn’t touch them.
I masked off the entire surface, applied a light-colored lacquer, sanded it smooth, then randomly masked the top with tape and applied a slightly darker lacquer. I repeated this process several times, layering coats, sanding again, spraying clear coat, and sanding once more… It was quite a lengthy process, but I managed to get it finished.
This is how it looks now. It’s singing beautifully. I think it’s got a really cool, understated vibe (laugh). After the refinish, I swapped the endpin for a cow bone one.
Honestly, I hardly ever get to play acoustic guitars at sessions these days, so I don’t bring this one out in public much. But this one is definitely one of the top two acoustics I’ve ever owned. …It’s a partner I’ll stick with until the day I die.
A guitar that cost just 4,000 yen holds priceless value. There aren’t many instruments in the world that surpass it. It ranks among the top four in my long life so far, and finding a replacement would be difficult. That’s why Japanese vintage guitars are so much fun, right?
I mean, think about it—in my mind, I’m putting an old Gibson and a beginner-level Maurice side by side… That’s pretty crazy, isn’t it?
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