Kawai F-500D

Kawai, another of Japans' musical instrument giants, are much better known for their pianos and fine violins than acoustic guitars, but they did dabble with guitars along the way! Dabble being apt, because there is a mix of quality out there; some very clearly entry level and novelty guitars, plywood construction and toys, both electric and acoustic, and then a much more select choice of high quality guitars made around the mid-70s to the early 80s, the top models of which were hand-crafted using selected tone woods, and made in much smaller quantities than the lower priced models. Manufactured at Kawai Gaki, these hand crafted models began at the F-500D model, priced at 50,000 Yen at release, up to the top of the range FD-15, priced at 150,000 Yen. I have two F-500D models, made quite clearly at two different years and by different hands. This is the earlier one of the two being featured in this entry, and is a firm favourite in my collection.

This F-500D is a much loved and used model, with the odd scuff on its back, and worn frets which i'll need to have replaced a little while down the line, the top beginning to belly slightly but not enough to cause problems... but i doubt this guitar would sound as good without all the signs of its use. Regarding its specs, it features a select solid spruce top which really is fantastic - laced with silk (that fine cross grain sheen you see looking at an angle across the wood), aged and tight grained, particularly around the centre of the body. Over all the years of playing, this has opened up to offer up a world of tone. It has abalone purfling round the body and soundhole, and select rosewood sides and back, with a mosaic inlay down the centre back joint. The bridge is honed from select rosewood, as is the fingerboard which features Mexican shell hexagonal position markers, and is bound to a select mahogany neck. The headstalk is Martin square shaped, with Gotoh machine heads and the Kawai logo inlayed in abalone. It is all solid and attentive stuff. The real magic in this guitar is the bracing inside - the hand-crafted point really comes home here, with hand-scallopped and shaped bracing, that is exceptionally clean and smooth. Notably these braces are shaped slightly thinner compared to those on the early 80s F-500D i have, which gives each their own character.

I have tried to take some photos to show the quality of woods and craftmanship in this model below:





















You can find additional photos here

Pearl FW-135

Another Pearl guitar, this time modeled on a Gibson acoustic design, quite likely the Songwriter, but with their own details to mark it apart. The Pearl FW-135 (yet another different model name - price association), was priced at 35,000 Yen on it's release in the early 70's, and as per the previous entry, was only available for a couple of years.

Manufactured at the Hayashi Gaki factory, it is again beautifully built with some fine features. It is a solid spruce top dreadnought, with maple back and sides, finished in a fine sunburst, even on the flamed maple back with a gold and black weaved purfling down its centre. The top and back have cream bounding that has aged that nice vintage yellow, which sets off nicely against the black edge of the sunburst. It has a Martin style rosewood bridge and a quite unique crescent/half moon shaped pickguard with a woodgrain-like effect, which has a real appeal about it. The neck material is hard to tell due to the black finish, most likely nato or mahogany, and most likely 3-piece. It features a rosewood fingerboard, with split-trapezoid position markers in mother-of-pearl, and cream binding. I've always liked that Gibson inlay design. The headstock design is also similar to Gibson, but altered into a simple tri-point with mother-of-pearl Pearl logo on the top. The tuners are another unique design on this guitar - Japanese-made saucer shaped machine covers with round buttons. Again i have no complaints about the sturdiness of these and i like the look of them. Once again the Pearl truss rod cover also features on the headstock, this time without the P logo on it. Internally you can see "Pearl Guitar. Folk. Made by Hayashi" stamped on the central strip and the ripples of the maple, with solid bracing and clean and tidy joints. Another really well constructed guitar in near-new condition, quite something for nearly 40 years old.

At the moment i have Newtone tru-bronze lights on it, and you get that warm round sound, quite bright and less bassy than some of the others, its really nice to strum chords away on in folk and country songs, or picking melodies further up the neck. I should like to try it with some phosphor-bronze strings on it some time; it's hard to tell til you try out the different types what one suits the guitar best but i think it might offer another bluesy tones as well with those on. Either way, it is a fine player and a fine looker.

Here are some photos:














Additional photos are here

Pearl PF-770

Pearl; a name synonmous with quality drums for the past 30 to 40 years. Lesser known is the acoustic guitars they offered in the early 70s. Like Tama, the acoustic offerings were not available very long, perhaps a span of 3 years, before they focused all efforts on the percussive side of the business. Unlike Tama, these didn't have any exposure to Western markets and remained in the domestic market only. Whilst Tama used a select group of Ibanez luthiers to make their exceptional guitars, Pearl had their acoustic guitars constructed by Hayashi Gaki.

Hayashi Gaki was another guitar factory in the Matsumoko region manufacturing a number of different brands, including Nashville and Mountain in the early 70s. At the time of manufacture of Pearl acoustics, a Mr Mamose worked there as a design engineer - a man of repute in the Japanese acoustic guitar market. From this early start designing Pearl acoustics, he went on to produce Rider guitars for a couple of years (1975-1976) before founding the Headway guitar line in 1977, which continues today. These are both highly sought-after brands with models demanding high prices in their native Japan. Yet again, these both remain quite unknown to the West; a common theme of this blog...

The range of Pearl acoustics offered was quite vast, from entry level 15,000 Yen models, up to 200,000 Yen top of the range models - a huge amount considering a Martin D45 retailed at 245,000Y at the time. Despite a large range, Pearl acoustic guitars are quite rare given their short selling period. Currently i have 4 of them, with the first to cover being the PF-770, which retailed at 77,000 Yen back in 1971. The price puts it up as about the second or third most expensive model i own going by the original retail price. This PF is a standard dreadnought body, with a solid spruce top with triple cream binding. The sides and back are Indian rosewood, with an intricate mosaic purfling down the centre of the back. The bridge is a light rosewood with a bone saddle, and the pickguard is a funny thing - cushioned vinyl with the original P logo on it. Quite amazing that it's not worn off. The neck is a 3-piece mahogany with a chunky volute neck joint and a bound rosewood fretboard, and a Martin-style headstalk. The headstalk has a mother-of-pearl inlay of the Pearl logo, a bone nut, and what i think are nickle Japanese-made old-style button tuners that hold tuning very solidly. It also has a chunky black/white truss rod cover with the original Pearl P logo on it.

Tonally, it rings out; loud and full, well balanced, and lasts on and on. So lively, it feels like the whole body ripples under a hard strum. I have Newtone tru-bronze lights on it and find they suit this guitar really well. The harmonics on it are quite astounding. Honestly, I wasn't quite expecting this richness of tone when i bought it, i was primarily taken with the idea of it being another Drum company making an old acoustic (read anything about Tama acoustics and you will realise why such enthusiasm for trying another drum companies efforts at acoustics) and the fact it had so much of its original style and quirks.

Here are some photos:












As ever, for additional photos go here

Beebird BW-401

This is an interesting one, as this is a model i know relatively little about. I have yet to come across any Beebird catalogs, or many models over the past year to gather much more information about them. From the little there have been, i understand Beebird guitars were a higher end model from Terada guitar factories, who made guitars for many different brands, including Thomson, Tomson, Jagard, Vesta Graham, Morales, the occasional Morris, the occasional Suzuki, and Thumb - i have probably still missed a few. It does say on the inside label that it is part of the Nabish guitar group, but i can find nothing about them sadly. I bought this one still quite early on in the collection a little blind and wasn't too sure what it was going to be like.

It's an unusual guitar - not by looks, but by sound. It is quite different from the others i had collected or had before, and i would confess i was initially disappointed. Perhaps at that moment i was expecting full rich tones from it, not the woody tones i got instead. It did look beautiful; its spruce top striped amber grain, the sides some wild rosewood with the faint hint of red in its grain, the back a darker indian rosewood, the smooth gotoh tuners and the wood bound neck with beautifully filed frets. I put some phosphor-bronze strings on and adjusted the neck to give it more forward bow as it had some buzz on the first few frets. Over time and playing some more traditional scottish/irish style folk songs, i found its niche. The sustain and woody resonance lends itself so specifically to that style that none of the others have its character when i go to them to play that style of song. It's harmonics ring deep and long and quite barren. I wouldn't call the sound warm or lush, but more dry, quite haunting, and moody. It is hard to tell if this is a solid top guitar or not, but i think it is. It's sustain and tone would make me believe so, but its grain is hard to make out from the side profile at the soundhole. I have found this the best way to judge in most cases, but there are exceptions where the grain is hard to find even on solid tops.

Some photos:















and you can find additional photos here


as ever, video/audio footage is still a work in progress. one of these days!

Morris MV702-SP

Another Morris model to discuss is the MV702-SP, which is part of the Vanguard series released in the late 70's until the early 90's. Unlike the MD range, which was a re-invention of the old W (Western) range of the late-60s on to the late 70's, the Vanguard series was a new design for the Morris line, designed to be a premium level guitar without the copy guitar status of the others. No laminate soundboard models were offered, with entry-level guitars already having solid Sitka spruce tops, and all models continuing to be made in Japan rather than to Korea, which Morris had expanded into for making the lower end models around the early 80's. Happily, the internal labeling keeps you informed as to where each model was crafted.

The MV702-SP here is a later 80's model, which entered the market at 40,000 Yen at the time. It was an extra model slipped in between the original MV701 and MV705 models; oddly it doesn't feature the sculpted headstock normally seen on the Vanguard series, but instead the Martin style headstock is present - i have yet to suss out why, apart from knowing this is a Special model as noted by the SP suffix. About the guitar itself; it is a dreadnought body, with a very lovely tobacco sunburst top, which is quite rare for a Morris guitar. As mentioned before, the top is solid Sitka spruce, and the back and sides are coral rosewood - this is a lighter coloured rosewood to indian, with quite an open flowing pattern in its grain - i feel it does compliment the tobacco shades on the top well. The body is bound in cream, with cream purfling that has aged a vintage yellowed white, and a white/black mosaic design down the central back joint. The soundhole is adorned with yellow/black rings, and a flecked tortoise-shell pickguard. The body itself has been subjected to quite a few dings and scrapes - nothing serious, but they are present and worth noting all the same. It is hard to spot these because of the finish however.

The Vanguard range featured a slightly narrower neck profile, more akin with Fender style necks on their acoustic range. On this model there is a rosewood fingerboard with pearloid dot position markers, whilst the neck is constructed of mahogany. The headstock is of Martin design, with a rosewood veneer. The pearloid buttons on the Morris gold tuners are a nice touch and compliment the finish well. These tuners were exceptionally smooth last time i restrung, and hold tuning well.

The sound of this guitar is nicely balanced, with even tones from bass to treble. I took it out with some friends in the summer where a group of guitarists were, and they gave it a turn and were impressed with it; i had to go through the story of Morris guitars with them too at the time, and was left with the impression they were going to try and find one online.

Here are some photos:














You can find additional photos here

Aria G300

Next of the Aria's to talk about is the G300. This is designed on the Gallagher guitar that american songbook folk legend Doc Watson used. The story of that guitar is quite a charming one;





1968, Doc Watson was picking under a tree at a music festival with Merle Watson. J.W. Gallagher and son, Don walked over and offered for Doc to play the guitar that was in the case they were carrying. Doc did, liked the sound and when he went to hand it back, they struck a deal. “Keep it, for as long as you play it.”

That guitar became Ol Hoss and it was the first Gallagher guitar that year. The last that year was bought by the late, great, Grandpa Jones.

Today, the Gallagher family keeps doing what they do like nobody else…they make guitars that ring like a bell.

J.W. Gallagher first began woodworking as a cabinetmaker in Wartrace, Tennessee in 1939. He made fine quality furniture. However, by the 1960’s, J.W. Gallagher was making quality guitars exclusively..





I believe he has played one ever since.

Gallagher guitars have never aimed to be a huge manufacturer and has stayed humble and professional all its days. The wave headstock and the distinct pickguard really gives them their own image, which i think is hard; to craft a unique and recognisable design. Being so small, it is quite unusual to find them as a copied design in the Japanese market, but perhaps Doc was popular there, or perhaps they just looked at all the North American made guitars and wanted to replicate them. Whilst it never grew to be a hugely popular style in comparison to the Martin and Gibson copies, quite a few manufacturers used the style for a few models, and used different bracing designs for them.

The Aria is a really well preserved guitar for its age (made around 1975 as far as catalogs guide me), with a lot of special features that set it off very nicely. It is a dreadnought body shape with herringbone purfling around the soundhole and body binding, and has that distinct pickguard in tortoise shell. It features a solid spruce top, which often occurred around the 30,000 Yen price mark of the time, which was this guitars release price of the time. Over age this has dried out, which along with being quite a thin sound board, has developed into a fine round sound that lingers; quite bright and treble-some, which works well in folk playing and as a harmonising guitar up the fret board, where it sings clear of the chord strumming of the other. Having never played an original Gallagher guitar, i don't know how close the sound is to it's idol, but it is pleasingly distinct from the others Martin and Gibson styled guitars i have. The sides and back are indian rosewood, with cream binding, and a central intricate mosaic-design purfling between the two pieces that make the back. The neck is on the chunky side, with a strong C profile, and is a 3-piece, with a volute neck joint. The fingerboard is in rosewood with pearloid snowflake position markers, and is again set with cream binding that has aged a vintage amber. The headstock features that distinct wave design, faced with a jacaranda (Brazilian rosewood) veneer. Aria have altered the ornate G headstock logo into an A. The tuners are quite special and unique, with a gotoh style design but with ornate A inlays to match the headstock logo. I assume these are Japanese made, and work excellently. It is all very thorough and detailed; no less than i have come to expect of these Aria guitars, but it is pleasing to have so many of the original features. Interally it is stamped with the model number and "made in japan",and is clean and tidy.

Here are some photos:












As ever, please fine additional photos here

Thanks for looking.