He made three models - the Delicate (an earlier version of the above guitar, featuring slightly different pickups) which he discontinued soon after an American told him that "delicate" was associated with "weak", the Frontier 1000 as shown above, the Rich Man - a 12-string version of the above, which he estimates he built roughly 10 of, and an SG-8 Pedal Steel Guitar (I have never seen one of these except in catalogs). While the amplifiers were actually assembled in a separate factory (and produced in greater numbers, though still very rare), The Voice guitars were made by hand by Iwase himself at his house. Iwase-san's house will be torn down at the start of next year. Most of the neighbouring houses have already been torn down to make a new roadway for the Tokyo Olympics. Iwase-san in front of the house where he built Voice Electric Guitars. While his amps and guitars were very well received, including appearing on the cover of some Terauchi Takeshi records, there wasn't enough demand, and he quit the guitar business in roughly 1970 and went on to work on Ultrasounds. Unfortunately, he formed his own company just as the first electric guitar boom was beginning it's decline, and he ran his company on a very limited basis out of his house. He formed Iwase Desnhi (Iwase Electric) in 1965 and began producing amplifiers, and on a limited basis, guitars. He left Teisco in 1963/64 (shortly before the Tokyo Olympics) after he felt the company was taking a wrong direction. He was born in 1931 (making him 84 years old at the time of this writing - I was previously under the mis-impression that he was actually 90.) He didn't finish high school because his class was disbanded due to an outbreak of tuberculosis (a serious health issue in pre-war Japan).ĭuring the 1950s he joined Teisco, and produced amp and guitar designs for them, including a shifting bridge which allowed a pedal steel guitar player to switch between three different tunings with the flick of a lever. Iwase-san was born in what is now known as Shinagawa, Tokyo. Iwase-san holding the Voice Frontier 1000 that he built in 1966. I recorded an hour and a half of interview with him, but am just going to give some of the highlights. I thought it would be nice to do a little background on him and the guitar and shed some light on an obscure part of guitar history.
JAPANESE TEISCO GUITAR WOOD TYPE FULL
Such a great guy, and so sharp and active, friendly and full of life. It was a great honour to meet him a second time, and this time I brought along the Voice Guitar which I had found and put back into playable condition to show him and ask him about it. I was able to arrange for a second meeting with Iwase-san, the man who invented/made/was Iwase Desnhi - the company that made Voice Amps and Guitars. I believe it has something to do with the type of sticker/seal backing reacting to the lacquer. This is a common problem with the early Elk logos as well. This is an edit of a post I made on another forum, so there may be some continuity issues, but it should still be of interest to all lovers of offset guitars. Not only that, I even got to meet the man who made them. As anyone who has seen my thread on the Mory Jazzmasters knows, I am really into documenting the Japanese Jazzmaster/Jaguar clones that I come across and work on, and after a long search I finally had a chance to pick up a Voice Frontier 1000.
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