So what is a Mory Jazzmaster? Mory is the nickname of Moridaira Toshio, who went on to found the very successful Morris guitar company. He was also responsible for the production of H.S. Anderson line of guitars (designed by Hidesato Shiino, and made famous by Prince and his Wildcat Telecaster). However, before he did all that, Moridaira ran a small company called "Mory" which made guitars in a small warehouse (and this could mean large garden shed really) - reportedly behind his house - in Tokyo from roughly 1965 to 1967, at which point he launched the Morris brand. There are no Morris Jazzmasters that I know of. These guitars were handmade. (Another famous handmade guitar line in Japan were the Voice guitars, made by Mr. Iwase who originally used to work for Teisco). The Mory guitars are a little bit unusual in that they are of better quality construction than the factory guitars being turned out. The body on my Mory is actually 3 pieces of Alder, which is just about unheard of for mid 60's Japan, as most guitars were either made of Luan ply, of Mahogany covered with a veneer.
It says "Handmade - Mory High Quality Electric Guitar - Excellent Design - Wonderful Sound - Exceptional Finish - 32,000yen" - so, a little over US$1000 for 1965 Japan. Note the rocker switches instead of a toggle switch.
It's just about a dead on copy of a Jazzmaster, with a few minor exceptions, which changed throughout the years. The rocker switches being one, eventually being replaced with slide switches, and then a toggle switch. Original tuners were 6 on a strip I believe. Also, the tremolo arm changed from the October 1965 catalog (tremolo in the picture, and on mine) to the April 1966 Catalog (tremolo on the other Mory Jazzmasters posted here in the Offset forum, which is more Jazzmaster-esque, but still unique). The original pickguards on these were thicker, and two ply. These guitars were shielded at the factory, and the shielding was actually fairly well done, consisting of actual strips of sheet metal, as opposed to a foil of some kind.
Which brings us to the one I found. It had been long abused, and unfortunately was no longer in 100% original condition. Someone had changed out the tuners, the original pickguard was long gone and replaced with a Jazzmaster pickguard (complete with Krispy Kreme sticker for some reason), and of course that meant no more rocker switches. Original bridge was gone. Also, the tremolo cover was missing, revealing the incredible (as in "I can't believe that thing works") tremolo tailpiece. They'd also decided to add some original inlay work - using, a pick? what? Still, when I got it, it was playable. And despite all the dings and scratches, has one of the best sunburst finishes I've seen:
Was incorrectly strung up - but I can't really blame the person, the door hinge tremolo/tailpiece really doesn't look like it should work at all:
But aside from the goofy tailpiece, and a slight route for the original Mory bridge, bodywise it was a near perfect match when laid out next to my long suffering (and I do mean suffering) 1959 Jazzmaster:
Necks are also the same, though the Mory has a nut that terminates the fretboard, unlike the Fender nuts which are inserted just before the end of the fretboard. The headstock on a Mory is more akin with a CBS headstock (ever so slightly thicker) as opposed to the Pre-CBS headstocks.
Unfortunately I can't tell you too much about the pickups as the ones in mine had been rewound, but they had used the original bobbins, and they dropped right into the 59 Fender pickup covers just like they were made for it.
Since the ones in mine had been rewound, and were a bit unbalanced, I took them out, and substituted in a pair of amazing sounding mystery pickups (which are a story unto themselves - but for another time) from a 1960's bizarre Japanese guitar (kind of a crime to remove them from the original guitar, but the original guitar didn't have a construction to match the majesty of the pickups). Also had a tremolo arm made which is longer than a standard aftermarket Jazzmaster arm, because the tremolo system is about 3cm back from where it would be on a Fender. Eventually will have a new pickguard made for this which will match the original dimensions. But other than that, this is pretty much how I'm going to play it:
Beautifully ugly. But sounds and plays great.
...and yes, it works. I prebend the string ends a little bit, hook them over the pegs, and then use a short stubby flathead screwdriver to hold them in place while I tune the string up to tension. Once they're on. They stay on. I've even tried to make them come off, and they won't. I can't believe it works.
Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there.
