For sale is an incredibly rare and very well-built Japanese electric guitar with a fantastic story.
'Morris' was one of the very earliest brands operating out of Japan that aimed to emulate the build quality of their American counterparts. So named for its founder, Toshio 'Mori' Moridaira, who was the first Japanese distributor of Gibson guitars. Mori was fortunate enough to visit the Gibson factory in 1964 and took what he had learned back to Japan.
Being a fan of American culture, he was given the Anglicised nickname 'Morris', which he later applied to his own brand of guitars in Japan.
This guitar dates to 1971 as per the inner label and frankly, is a like-for-like reproduction of a 1971 ES-175. Even the neck profile and nut width are bang on - both being a 'skinny', as a contemporary 175 would have been at this point. Even the 'Morris' headstock logo and its shape are very clearly derived from an equivalent Gibson.
The tailpiece too is a faithful reproduction of a Gibson 'Zigzag' unit, as is the ABR-style bridge with wooden base.
The only real difference from a contemporary Gibson are the small Japanese style knobs. The pickups, fortunately, look to be very early Maxon PAF clones - which makes sense given the limited domestic electronics available to Japanese builders at the time. They sound very nice. Electronics fully serviced, sounding great and working as they should.
It features a real, dark rosewood fingerboard, inlaid with split parallelogram inlays. Being a Japanese guitar, naturally it is finished in poly rather than nitro. There is some mild checking to the lacquer, which contributes nicely to its vintage look.
There has been a previous repair to the binding at the side of the headstock as pictured and someone ambitiously replaced the truss rod cover with a Gibson unit - I have left this on (albeit, with no bottom screw) as it suits the guitar nicely. There are holes from previous tuners as pictured, though the current tuners appear to be contemporary Japanese tuners.
It arrived with a set of flatwounds - which are used but in good condition, so I have left them on as these strings can be quite expensive in their own right.
It is in relatively clean condition, with a great neck angle, no 'breaks' or neck repairs and with a few age and use-related marks which can be forgiven seeing as it 55 years old.
Frets are in decent condition and don't appear to have been worked on much, with plenty of life left in them.
It comes with a non-original fitted hard case as pictured.
As close as one can get to a 1971 '175, without spending thousands!