They say ever guitar has a story................this one goes beyond that. Its a 1970 T.Haruo model #80. Here is how the story goes, the original owner who bought it new in 1970 sold it to me several years ago with the original hardshell case. I stashed it away for a couple of weeks and fell in love with it. For some unknown reason I put it on the floor at the shop and quickly sold it. As it goes I was kicking myself ever since I sold it and wished I had kept it. Well about a week ago the buyer walks into the shop with it and says my Dad is giving me his Martin so I dont think Ill be needing it anymore. I almost jumped the counter to hug him, instead made him an offer and now its back where it should have been for the last 2 years. Needless to say its a NFS (not for sale) guitar but I will be happy to share it with anyone who asks about it. There is more to the story however, the grandson of the Japanese Master craftsman who built this solid wood guitar now runs the business and builds all of the Gretch archtop guitars. As I did not find much information about T.Haruo in my net searches I did find the US distribution was limited during that time and that his business was still operating to this day and as I see it if Gretch is confident to let them build the archtops for them today then this is a great example of the luthier craft of the master.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 21:45:03 +0000
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