I've had this month's story on my shelf for quite some time, because I could really weave so many interesting threads and connections to this guitar. How does one honor a tremendous man with huge contributions to music when limited to a single page? But I'm feeling like it's time to tell at least part of the story behind one of the most interesting people I've ever met through my love of guitars.
Back around 2010, I began researching Japanese guitars in earnest, simply because I was discovering that there was too much speculation, misinformation, and plain-old ignorance floating around, and I found the fire to uncover the truth burning inside me. I started by reaching out to some Japanese internet connections via email, with the hope that we could communicate and that I'd make more contacts.
This Firstman Liverpool Deluxe may look like a battle axe, but it's chock full of warm, surfy clean tones.
Eventually, I found my way to a blog that was operated by a fellow named Kazy. He wrote in Japanese and English, and much of the content related to Mosrite guitars and his connections to Semie Mosely and Nokie Edwards. It turned out that Kazy was the nickname of Kazuo Morioka, and he became one of the most amazing sources I've ever encountered.
The guy was an excellent pianist, and was an early player of electrified pianos and organs. He shunned a cushy job with his family-owned pharmaceutical business to work for Kawai as a demo player, and went on to own a chain of music stores across Japan. He worked with all the early Japanese guitar companies and seemed to know all their employees and histories. After talking with Kazy, I developed a notebook full of numbers, emails, and connections all over Japan.
Mihara preferred a clean but strong sound, so that's what you'll find with one of these old Liverpool guitars.
Kazy spoke perfect English and had even lived in the U.S., near Seattle, for many years. He was friends with Semie Mosely, and together they produced a line of guitars in Japan that were called Mosrite Avengers. Kazy was also great friends with Nokie Edwards, who I missed meeting in person by one day while we were both visiting Kazy in Japan.
This month, I'll highlight one of Kazy's most extreme guitar designs. Kazy started electric guitar production in the late '60s using the brand name Firstman. He had the stellar idea to connect with popular Japanese bands and make custom guitars that would give them a signature look onstage. I suppose it was similar to groups wearing matching outfits in that era.
This Firstman Liverpool was the first, made in collaboration with Tsunaki Mihara of the Blue Comets. In the late '60s, the band had a huge hit called "Blue Chateau." They even played on The Ed Sullivan Show! Kazy and Mihara collaborated over every detail and put all kinds of considerations into the pickup frequency, attack and decay, coil winds, etc. Even the violin body shape was chosen because of its inherent resonance and projection, but, of course, with a more extreme Japanese design aesthetic. The deep, lightweight hollowbody is a rather large 15" across the lower bout, and came with some resplendent details, such as full-body binding and chrome accents. Plus, there was a totally posh scroll headstock.
Columnist Frank Meyers interviews Firstman founder and guitar designer Kazuo Morioka.
Mihara preferred a clean but strong sound, so that's what you'll find with one of these old Liverpool guitars. This guitar projects like a vintage Gibson hollowbody and has simple tone/volume knobs and a 3-way switch. I suppose these shapely black beauties present a menacing first impression, but they have a sweet sound that matches well with surf music and instrumentals.
Two Liverpool guitars were produced as prototypes, and a lot of handiwork went into them. According to Kazy, everything was carved and shaped by hand, from the arched tops and backs to the necks to the scroll headstocks. Kazy and Mihara received these guitars, and then, after the Blue Comets would play shows, there would be orders placed to make regular factory production runs.
A few variations on this guitar were produced, including a Liverpool Junior and a Liverpool Special, and they all came in black. Alas, Firstman guitar production didn't last long, ceasing in 1970. Once again, we're left with these interesting examples of ingenuity and effort, like time capsules waiting to be discovered again by future generations.
Blue Comets "Blue Chateau" (Ed Sullivan Show in 1968)
Tsunaki Mihara plays his Liverpool Deluxe with the Blue Comets as they perform "Blue Chateau" on The Ed Sullivan Show.
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Tom Bedell in the Relic Music acoustic room, holding a custom Seed to Song Parlor with a stunning ocean sinker redwood top and milagro Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
A born storyteller, Bedell doesn’t keep his passion to himself. On Friday, May 12, at New Jersey boutique guitar outpost Relic Music, Bedell shared some of the stories he’s collected during his life and travels as part of a three-city clinic trip. At Relic—and stops at Crossroads Guitar and Art in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, and Chuck Levin’s Washington Music Center in Wheaton, Maryland—he discussed his guitars and what makes them so special, why sustainability is such an important cause, and how he’s putting it into practice.
Before his talk, we sat in Relic’s cozy, plush acoustic room, surrounded by a host of high-end instruments. We took a look at a few of the store’s house-spec’d Bedell parlors while we chatted.
“The story of this guitar is the story of the world,” Bedell explained to me, holding a Seed to Song Parlor. He painted a picture of a milagro tree growing on a hillside in northeastern Brazil some 500 years ago, deprived of water and growing in stressful conditions during its early life. That tree was eventually harvested, and in the 1950s, it was shipped to Spain by a company that specialized in church ornaments. They recognized this unique specimen and set it aside until it was imported to the U.S. and reached Oregon. Now, it makes the back and sides of this unique guitar.
A Bedell Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides.
As for the ocean sinker redwood top, “I’m gonna make up the story,” Bedell said, as he approximated the life cycle of the tree, which floated in the ocean, soaking up minerals for years and years, and washed ashore on northern Oregon’s Manzanita Beach. The two woods were paired and built into a small run of exquisitely outfitted guitars using the Bedell/Breedlove Sound Optimization process—in which the building team fine-tunes each instrument’s voice by hand-shaping individual braces to target resonant frequencies using acoustic analysis—and Bedell and his team fell in love.
Playing it while we spoke, I was smitten by this guitar’s warm, responsive tone and even articulation and attack across the fretboard; it strikes a perfect tonal balance between a tight low-end and bright top, with a wide dynamic range that made it sympathetic to anything I offered. And as I swapped guitars, whether picking up a Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides or one with an Adirondack spruce top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides, the character and the elements of each instrument changed, but that perfect balance remained. Each of these acoustics—and of any Bedell I’ve had the pleasure to play—delivers their own experiential thumbprint.
Rosette and inlay detail on an Adirondack spruce top.
Ultimately, that’s what brought Bedell out to the East Coast on this short tour. “We have a totally different philosophy about how we approach guitar-building,” Bedell effused. “There are a lot of individuals who build maybe 12 guitars a year, who do some of the things that we do, but there’s nobody on a production level.” And he wants to spread that gospel.
“We want to reach people who really want something special,” he continued, pointing out that for the Bedell line, the company specifically wants to work with shops like Relic and the other stores he’s visited, “who have a clientele that says I want the best guitar I can possibly have, and they carry enough variety that we can give them that.”
A Fireside Parlor with a Western red cedar top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
