First man Broadway thin hollow body guitar first year 1967 Teisco "Mosrite"

What a beauty !   I was told this is a 1967 First man guitar . First man guitars were only made from 1967 - 1969 . I believe it is an early thin-body Broadway as the 1968 Broadway was a thicker guitar - see video demo of a 68 .   The pick-guard is not original but fits nicely .  The neck inlays are dots and most Broadways I have found did not have dot inlays .   The pickups are definitely from the Tesico factory so I believe they are original . The tail piece tremolo also is used on other Tesico guitars .  The bridge is unknown it looks fine but I have not seen one on other First man guitars .  I have included pictures of some other guitars made in the same factory .  Also the First man Mosritie poster . Overall this a beautiful guitar with some flaws as shown . It plays well for a vintage Japan guitar and sounds a lot like the one in the video .   

First man guitars were owned and operated by Kazuo Morioka who was a veteran in the Japanese guitar world by the time he started this company. He is credited as making the first electronic organ in Japan and worked for Kawai in the late 50's as an engineer.

He left Kawai in the early 60's to be a sales manager for Teisco while he also owned a large music shop in Kobe.

In '67 when Kawai bought out Teisco he decided to start his own brand of guitars made in the Teisco Gen Gakki factory which was one of the biggest guitar building factories in Japan at the time making guitars for many different brands for domestic and export.

During this period of upheaval in the Japanese guitar manufacturing world this factory made some VERY cool for a few more years until it itself closed in 1970.

In April '67 Kazuo started First man and hit the ground running with a few very innovative and cool designs.    They made a series of hollow violin shaped guitars and basses with scroll headstocks that are VERY cool.

Almost straight away First man started making "Mosrites" along with their own designs and in '68 became the "official" Japanese Mosrite manufacturer, not because they had any agreements or licences from Mosrite or Semie, but because they started replicating Mosrites so thoroughly and using the Mosrite name and logo, that people just accepted that they were somehow affiliated with the actual Mosrite.

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