Terada FW-47

This guitar is a 21 fret solid top dreadnaught acoustic made in Japan. It was purchased new by my great grandfather sometime in the 1950's to early 60's. It has a rather fat neck, and has an adjustable bridge via two screws to adjust string height on the treble or bass sides, or both.

From what I've been able to gather, Terada was originally a Martin imitator that sold their instruments for a cheaper price. However, the instruments were AMAZINGLY close to perfectly reprouducing the Martin sound. I've never played a Martin myself, but judging from the reviews of those who have played both the Martin models and their Terada counterparts say the sound is near identical.

This guitar was originally used by my Great Grandfather as a fingerstyle background instrument in a traveling quartet he was involved with. It has a nice deep and booming bass-y sound, yet manages to not override the treble. However, if you're looking for totally amazing treble, look elsewhere. The sheer volume of this guitar is suprising to me, as well. Personally, though it's nothing like a Guiild F47, it sounds quite good to me. It has definitely mellowed with age, and suits my liking fairly well.

Though it hasn't taken a trip to a luthier yet for some maintenence, when i pulled it out of its storage place, where it had been for about 2 decades untouched, the guitar was in amazingly good condition. Other than a nice coating of surface dust and some rotten strings, the guitar was still in immaculate condition. It had no surface checking, no worn spots in the laquer, or any sort of damage barring a couple very shallow scratches on the back. The finish still looks amazing, and doubles as a mirror when polished. ;-)

However, though I know nothing about it's factory state, when I pulled it out, it took alot of tweaking to get the action even tolerable. The string height was WAY too high, but the adjustable bridge made that an easy adjustment. Now, it plays well, but still not as well as many newer guitars I've played. Of course, the nut is quite worn in and needs replacing, which has forced me to ever so slightly raise the string height to avoid buzz. This is more than likely the culprit for the slightly more difficult playability. Otherwise, I'm very pleased.

As I said, it was stored for about 2 decades untouched and held up without any surface checking, cracking, or anything like that. And I know for a fact it wasn't kept in ideal guitar conditions, so that in itself is a small miracle. There is a bit of fretboard wear, but I'm sure it saw alot of use in it's day, so it's to be expected. However, the finish itself doesn't show any signs of intense wear, and still shines well when polished. For being able to hold up in adverse conditions and over alot of use, I'm compelled to give it a ten here.

Never contacted them, so I wouldn't know.

Though I ahven't been playing long, I still know this thing is a true testament to quality workmanship. For a 50+ year old guitar to have held together this long with only one slightly loosening cross brace is amazing to me. It's warm sound and rock solid durability make it a definite 9 for me. It' probably worth a good bit of money now, for the condition its in. From what I've been able to find out, I believe it cost slightly over $350 new back in the 50's or 60's. No matter though, because there's no doubt that I'm never going to sell it for sentimental reasons alone, much less the fact that it truly is a great sounding guitar.