It's always fun to pick up a guitar from a "new" brand, i e one that hasn't passed through here before. And especially so when the guitar turns to be excellent. Like this one, from pickup wizard Willi Lorenz/Billy Lorento/Bill Lawrence's sojourn with his own Japanese guitar brand.
The BTOM-60P is actually a signature model, for Kaori Okui of J-Rock band Princess Princess. Her bandmate Kanako Nakayama also had a signature model guitar, but from Greco, the SS-600P2 (write-up here), very likely a Tokai build.
However, there are no ifs or buts about who made this one: it's manufactured by Moridaira Gakki. They were Bill Lawrence's pickup distributor in Japan and the guitar barnd came out of that cooperation. And in fact, you can actually guess its origin just by looking at it: that semi-transparent leopard-skin pickguard is something I don't think I've ever seen on a guitar from other manufacturers. Legend has it that that guard is what first drew Prince to another Moridaira build: the HS Anderson (Hohner in the US) Mad Cat. Apparently it matched his stage clothes...
Anyways, this one seems to be derived from the BT2M-60 model, which is basically the same guitar, only with two pickups, Tele style. As a an Esquire, it's a rare breed in itself. As far as I know, only Fernandes ever did a full-on copy of the Fender Esquire, and just during the first couple of years of the Revival era. Definitely not a big-selling model, they're extremely rare today.
However, I don't think it's completely fair to call this a copy. Yeah, it's certainly derived from the Esquire, but it's been fairly extensively updated from the vintage specs. The body has a belly cut, the neck 22 jumbo frets on the overhanging fretboard, which is 9,5 in in radius. The pickguard, the excellent six-saddle bridge on a flat plate and the hooked headstock takes it further away from the vintage Fender specs. Playing it, it has a very modern feel. It's a great-playing guitar.
The pickup is a 6.8 kOhm Bill Lawrence T2 (which seems to be still in production) with traditional Esquire wiring. The switch is a three-way, the centre position provides the standard setting with both the volume and the tone control available, while the "bridge" switch position bypasses the tone control for a little extra push and treble zing. Some nice Roy Buchanan-esque tones there. The pots are 500k, so they let more treble though than the standard 250k's, but the pickup still sounds very musical with no ice-pickyness.
So, a very nice. high-quality, practical and non-quirky player's guitar. Having heaped all this praise on it, I have to admit that I've already sold it. A friend of mine fell in love with it, and anyway, I know from experience that I tend to find single-pickup guitars a bit lacking after a while. I'll be keeping my eyes open for the Tele version, though.
I've no idea how to interpret the serials of BL guitars, they might just be squential.
Both pots are Oct 1989.
Classic Moridaira.
The BTOM-60P is actually a signature model, for Kaori Okui of J-Rock band Princess Princess. Her bandmate Kanako Nakayama also had a signature model guitar, but from Greco, the SS-600P2 (write-up here), very likely a Tokai build.
However, there are no ifs or buts about who made this one: it's manufactured by Moridaira Gakki. They were Bill Lawrence's pickup distributor in Japan and the guitar barnd came out of that cooperation. And in fact, you can actually guess its origin just by looking at it: that semi-transparent leopard-skin pickguard is something I don't think I've ever seen on a guitar from other manufacturers. Legend has it that that guard is what first drew Prince to another Moridaira build: the HS Anderson (Hohner in the US) Mad Cat. Apparently it matched his stage clothes...
Anyways, this one seems to be derived from the BT2M-60 model, which is basically the same guitar, only with two pickups, Tele style. As a an Esquire, it's a rare breed in itself. As far as I know, only Fernandes ever did a full-on copy of the Fender Esquire, and just during the first couple of years of the Revival era. Definitely not a big-selling model, they're extremely rare today.
However, I don't think it's completely fair to call this a copy. Yeah, it's certainly derived from the Esquire, but it's been fairly extensively updated from the vintage specs. The body has a belly cut, the neck 22 jumbo frets on the overhanging fretboard, which is 9,5 in in radius. The pickguard, the excellent six-saddle bridge on a flat plate and the hooked headstock takes it further away from the vintage Fender specs. Playing it, it has a very modern feel. It's a great-playing guitar.
The pickup is a 6.8 kOhm Bill Lawrence T2 (which seems to be still in production) with traditional Esquire wiring. The switch is a three-way, the centre position provides the standard setting with both the volume and the tone control available, while the "bridge" switch position bypasses the tone control for a little extra push and treble zing. Some nice Roy Buchanan-esque tones there. The pots are 500k, so they let more treble though than the standard 250k's, but the pickup still sounds very musical with no ice-pickyness.
So, a very nice. high-quality, practical and non-quirky player's guitar. Having heaped all this praise on it, I have to admit that I've already sold it. A friend of mine fell in love with it, and anyway, I know from experience that I tend to find single-pickup guitars a bit lacking after a while. I'll be keeping my eyes open for the Tele version, though.
I've no idea how to interpret the serials of BL guitars, they might just be squential.
Both pots are Oct 1989.
Classic Moridaira.
