No doubt you're saying to yourself right now, "Terada? Never heard of it." It wouldn't surprise me if you are. I'll admit that I'm including this guitar in such select company because of sentimental reasons. My first guitar was a Terada acoustic. Terada is a Japanese guitar manufacturer that generally seems to be little known outside Japan. The company began in 1912 as a manufacturer of toy violins, and started making stringed instruments seriously in the mid-1950s. By the 1970s, Terada was producing more than 10,000 guitars per month in its three factories around Nagoya, Japan -- guitars intended for both overseas and domestic markets. Currently, Terada builds only about one-eighth the number of guitars it made back in the 1970s. Terada has manufactured instruments for American companies in the past, and the company is still in business in Japan. I have seen gear lists for Japanese rock bands that included Terada guitars. So far, however, I have found only two other people who own Terada guitars. I located one of them via the Internet, and she gave me the e-mail address of the second person. I've never met either one of them.

I had never seen Terada guitars before I bought this one in 1974, and I have never seen one since -- not in person, anyway. I think I paid about $120 for this guitar, but I don't know what it would cost to find an equivalent one today. I think this guitar sounds nice, although I'll admit that I've never performed a side-by-side comparison with other guitars. I've spent the past 24+ years playing it from time to time, but never playing it for a long enough period of time to become especially good at it. That's why I refer to myself as a mediocre amateur. Music genes are not abundant in my DNA.

The TR-1000 is about a 00 size guitar, so it's smaller than the dreadnought guitars that so many people have. According to information I received from the manufacturer (thanks to Rose), my guitar was built in 1973. This guitar has a laminated spruce top, and laminated rosewood back and sides, with a mahogany neck. The fingerboard also is rosewood. My TR-1000 is highly unlikely to make anyone's list of great guitars, but I like it. Besides, after I buy a better guitar -- what do you think, a Taylor^® or a Martin?^® -- I think I'll set up my Terada for playing slide.

This Terada is a JW-837 Super Jumbo guitar, and it is owned by my friend Rose. I "met" Rose one day when I was searching for the word "Terada" on the Web, looking for information about the company and its products. Rose, who lives in Hilversum, Holland, really likes this guitar. Her teacher told her that it sounded almost exactly like his old Gibson^® J-200. Indeed, it is a copy of that guitar, and this variation has a sunburst finish and a country-and-western motif on the pickguard. This JW-837 also has a laminated spruce top, but the back is three-piece laminated maple with wood mosaic inlays. The sides are laminated maple, and the neck is mahogany. The fingerboard is rosewood.

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