A conversation with Jiro Okabe of Pickers Guitar USA

[vibramutant1965]

Hello mosrite forum members and guests; this is the account of a brief conversation I had with Jiro (distributor of mosrite in Japan) in mid 1991. I was looking to open a guitar/music store. I had little knowledge this type of buisiness, but I had a financial backer that I was doing guitar work for. We were looking for guitar lines to sell and stumbled on Jiros phone number in an issue of Guitar Player. I gave him a call and was amazed to find myself talking to a very nice guy who was going to get us a small inventory of brand new mosrites. Jiro and I discussed a little mosrite history, and of course Semies health which was not the best, but he was working at that moment in time.We discussed the new models (the nokie) and (the semie 40th anniversery) and what quantity discounts we could get for what we were able to spend (which we thought was a very good deal). Jiro said he would send some literature and we said our goodbyes and I waited for the literature to arrive. It came and our order was placed, which was very exciting.Well, my finance partner had a 3 year old daughter, and he had been taking her to various doctors because she was having some strange behavioral symptoms, which turned out to be brain cancer.This was no more than 2 weeks after placing our order.I had to call Jiro and cancel and he was so sweet about it, what a nice guy. The doctors caught the cancer in time , had a long battle and won it, but it wiped out his savings.Of course we were never able to get our store going, and by this time we read about Semies death. I called Jiro to give my condolences, and I questioned him about what he thought was going to happen to mosrite. He seemed positive about them carrying on without Semie, and of course the rest is history. Well there you are folks, pictures of Jiros mosrite literature will be posted soon.

[Sarah93003]

Wonderful story. So happy to hear the daughter recovered. The literature will be very interesting to see. Thanks for posting.

[Veenture]

Thank you for sharing that story.

[olrocknroller]

It's absolutely incredible to me how many talented people have been stopped in their tracks by medical expenses... Here in Canada, we have our horror stories, but they are few and far between... I believe that the best way to have a healthy, productive population is for the state to provide necessary health care.

Who knows how this piece of history would be written had that little girl received her treatment with no cost, or at least reduced cost to her family. Thanks for sharing that wonderful story!

olrnr

[vibramutant1965]

these are the pics of Jiros lterature;

[vibramutant1965]

Sorry folks , thought I had it figured out, I will try again later....

[vibramutant1965]

( inside brochure)

[Dennisthe Menace]

.....WoW..... I'll stop there since I'm speechless....

[vibramutant1965]

hi mosheads, more pics from my conversation with jiro okabe, sorry this took so long, i had to find a kid that could figure out why the photobucket stopped working for my old mac. The photos are Jiro Okabes biz card, the Japanese market brochure and the retail price lists...

[vibramutant1965]