{TEXTBOOK} History of Japanese Electric Guitars

HISTORY OF JAPANESE ELECTRIC GUITARS PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Frank Meyers | 164 pages | 18 May 2015 | CENTERSTREAM PUBLISHING | 9781574243154 | English | United States Lesser-Known Greats From The Golden Age of Japanese | Reverb News The company, which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its presence on the American market and export to other countries beyond Japan, has consistently produced guitars that have sold in impressive numbers and attracted a notable following of celebrity players and esteemed pros. Yet the success of Yamaha guitars is influenced more by their reputation for high quality and the outstanding value their instruments offer for the money than by the usual forms of guitar hero worship that drive many guitar sales. As a result, Yamaha has quietly satisfied the needs of all walks of players from beginner to pro while an ever-changing parade of trendier instruments have hogged the spotlight. Although Yamaha was originally founded in to produce pianos and organs, the company did not start building guitars until the early Forties, eventually opening a factory dedicated exclusively to guitar construction in Hamamatsu in the late Forties. By the mid Sixties, the entire world had a fever called Beatlemania, and the only prescription was more guitars. The United States was particularly stricken, and domestic guitar companies struggled to keep up with the increasing demand for anything with six strings. To satisfy customers, particularly those on tight middle class budgets, retailers turned to Asian manufacturers to fill their shelves with affordable, low-cost instruments. The phenomenal increase in demand for guitars was very beneficial to Yamaha. The company already had more than two decades of experience building guitars, and the decision was made to pursue these new opportunities in a grand fashion. In , Yamaha sold their first export models, which consisted of the G50, G60, G80, G, G and G classical guitars, all produced at their Hamamatsu factory. That same year, Yamaha established a custom shop dedicated to the production of the finest instruments they could make, and they started to collaborate with outside experts. Their first collaboration was with Spanish guitar builder Eduardo Ferrer, who helped Yamaha refine the designs of its classical guitar models. At the same time during the mid Sixties, Yamaha expanded its production by offering its first steel-string and electric models, including bass guitars. These guitars still have a strong cult following in Japan today. As a result, Yamaha guitars were a very popular choice for beginners as well as experienced players who wanted an inexpensive backup acoustic instrument. Possibly the first major exposure for a Yamaha guitar in the United States was when Country Joe McDonald performed a nine-song solo set on the second day of the Woodstock Festival accompanied only by a Yamaha FG The guitar belonged to a stage hand, who loaned it to the performer when McDonald was asked to play an impromptu set before Santana took the stage. By the late Sixties, Yamaha had expanded its line of guitars considerably. The most notable development was the introduction of several high- quality acoustic models made from solid materials. Encouraged by the success of their acoustic guitars, Yamaha started to export electric models outside of Japan as well. The SG and SG, which featured a single-cutaway, dual-humbucker, set-neck design similar to a Les Paul, were the first Yamaha electric models to officially arrive on American shores in None of the SG models made much of an impact on the American market initially. In an effort to increase interest in their electric guitars, Yamaha reached out to Carlos Santana in and offered to build him a custom instrument. While Santana clearly loved his custom Yamaha SG, he also noticed numerous areas where the guitar could be improved and collaborated with Yamaha to develop his ideas. The SG featured a neck-through-body design and was granted two United States patents for its T-Cross System of attaching mahogany wings to the maple and its Sustain Plate, which was a brass block mounted in the body and connected to the bridge to enhance sustain. Whereas the FG series guitars were primarily affordable, budget instruments, the L series were designed as high-end acoustics. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia updatet Please go to their site and donate, so they can keep up their good work. Matsumoku Industrial was a Japanese manufacturing company once existed in Matsumoto city, Japan, between — Tsukada in Matsumoto, Japan. It was a family owned woodworking business that specialized in building tansu and butsudan. Matsumoku Industrial was contracted to build its sewing machine cabinets, and in Matsumoku became a partially owned subsidiary of Singer, Japan. Matsumoku also built amplifier cabinets and wooden cabinets for audio and television makers. Modest classical guitars, small steel stringed acoustic guitars, and violins were built and marketed in the mids. Combined with its staff of skilled craftsmen, Matsumoku was able to realize the mass production of high quality guitars. By the early s, Matsumoku had begun using CNC computer numerical controlled mills, routers, and lathes, one of the first guitar makers to do so. This created a significant economy of scale, allowing the company to rely upon factory automation rather than skilled labor for rough shaping of components and basic assembly tasks. This machine-cut yet hand-worked process offered improved profit margins at lower unit prices and yielded high quality instruments with unique character. American owned Unicord contracted Matsumoku to build most of its Univox and Westbury guitars. Penney sold Matsumoku-built Skylark guitars through its catalog division. Washburn Guitars contracted Matsumoku to build some of its electric guitars and basses from through though Yamaki was the manufacturer for the early Wing series. Shiro Arai founded Arai and Company in as an importer of classical guitars. In , Arai contracted Guyatone to manufacture guitars. These issues were addressed early on with Matsumoku. The relationship between the two companies was both amicable and symbiotic. Aria focused on sales in both domestic and export markets and provided design development. Matsumoku devoted its energies on engineering and building guitars and other stringed instruments. These Ash Bodied Guitars were only produced in extremely small numbers for the domestic market. However most were, maple bodies. Some Guitars were produced with the Urushi finish and again these were mostly produced for the domestic market, in both red and brown urushi lacquer. The vast majority of these would have Ash Bodies and the export models would be Maple. Arai and Company guitars were briefly labeled Arai, and then switched to the familiar Aria around Aria Diamond was a name chosen for its early hollow bodied electric guitars. Aria had two factories that produced guitars besides Matsumoku, one which made classical guitars, and another that made medium grade and specialty guitars. Gibson decided to move Epiphone production to Japan in the early s and chose Aria as its contractor. 10 Superb Vintage Japanese Guitars on Reverb Right Now | Reverb News I guess it was fate. Albert Molinaro is his name, and hand-crafted Fender-style guitars are his thing. He used to GRU ceased building guitars in build amazing Fender replica guitars for sale in Japan only. AirMusic Japan was the sole dealer until and then GuitarsJapan took over distribution for a short period until Albert is a good friend of mine and his guitars took a l-o-n-g time to make, since they were custom-made by hand and made-to-order. His guitars rank at the top of my list for Fender clones, bar none. Even Fender Master-built guitars. Shaped like a crescent moon, it was loaded with active EMG pickups and was adorned with green abalone inlays and sparkle finishes. Kawai also made copies of Alembic guitars of exceptionally high quality and those are somewhat popular to collectors as well. No model can compare to the popularity of the MoonSault, though. They are now extremely rare. He used woods that are next to impossible to get my gold Lenny Kravitz Flying V replica has real Korina wood on many of his models. He made Gibson, Fender and Zemaitis replicas and custom one-off guitars as well. His guitars are regarded by the Japanese as one of the best and most rare brands of all Japanese vintage guitars. Tune also is noted for their intricate engraving on the tailpieces on these guitars. The Korean models have Les Paul-style bridges and stopbar tailpieces. The Japanese versions have 1-piece mahogany necks. It is Yamaha we have to thank for changing that. In the US, C. In , it introduced the Martin Sigma range, which rapidly established a mystique around itself worthy of its association with the Martin legend. There are lengthy debates about serial numbers and plenty of fables about the materials used. Some claim the reason they sound so good is because they were made of all solid woods, which is not the case. In fact, most Sigmas had laminated backs and sides, and some even had laminated tops, too. Given how good a "First Generation" all-laminate Sigma Dreadnought can sound, this should give pause for thought among those who insist that only solid-wood acoustics can sound "right. Martin used various Japanese manufacturers to supply Sigma models, which were checked and set up in the US before sale. Potential Sigma buyers need to do their research, because not all Sigmas were made in Japan Martin had models made in Korea relatively early , and serial numbers and label styles are quite complex. Fortunately, the detailed information you need is available online. Yairi and S. Yairi, though related, ran separate companies. It was Kazuo Yairi K.

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