1983 Bill Lawrence Moridaira Telecaster Natural Maple MIJ

A very cool early-1980s Bill Lawrence T-style guitar, built in Japan by Moridaira during one of the most interesting periods of Japanese electric-guitar production.

This example carries serial number B35905 and appears to date to approximately 1983. While a definitive factory serial chart for these Japanese Bill Lawrence guitars has proven difficult to locate, surviving dated examples support an early-1980s date, including a documented 1985 natural Tele-style example carrying serial B50384.

The history behind these guitars is particularly interesting. Moridaira — the company behind Morris guitars — became Bill Lawrence's Japanese distributor near the end of the 1970s. Lawrence later described entering a joint venture with Toshio Moridaira, with the instruments being manufactured at Moridaira's Morris factory in Matsumoto, Japan. Lawrence supplied pickups and endorsed the instruments. By 1983, he said he discovered that Moridaira had expanded the line to include very traditional copy-style guitars.

That history makes this traditional blackguard-style T model particularly appropriate to the period.

Features include:

• Natural-finished solid body
• Maple neck
• One-piece maple fingerboard
• 21 frets
• Black dot position markers
• Walnut skunk stripe
• Traditional T-style single-coil pickup configuration
• Black pickguard
• Master volume and tone
• 3-way pickup selector
• Six-saddle string-through-body bridge
• Vintage-style tuning machines
• Chrome hardware
• Bolt-on neck construction
• Serial B35905
• Made in Japan

The body has particularly attractive grain under the transparent natural finish, giving the guitar a great early-'50s-inspired appearance.

One thing I would intentionally not claim is that this is a BT2M-70 Trigger II. Later BT2M-70 examples are documented with a Trigger II headstock designation, Black Label T1/T2 pickups and a different six-section saddle arrangement. The current pickups on this guitar are conventional T-style units, and without removing the neck to look for a model stamp I think the more accurate description is simply an early Moridaira-built Bill Lawrence T model.

The guitar has just been cleaned, restrung and set up with low action.

Overall condition is Very Good. There are light scratches, small marks and other normal signs of use expected from an instrument roughly four decades old, but it presents very nicely overall.

The frets show almost no wear and have a tremendous amount of life remaining.

A great example of the Japanese “lawsuit-era” guitar boom, and an especially interesting piece because of the direct connection between Moridaira, Morris and Bill Lawrence during this short-lived collaboration.

Case: Soft

Scale Length: 25.5“

Nut Width: 1.65“

Fret Wear: 10/10

Action at 12F (6th): .06“

Action at 12F (1st): .04“

Weight: 7lbs 14oz

Overall Condition: 8.9/10

Cool Factor: 11 out of 10

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Internal Use (Bin) - PA-13-1