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Yamaki Custom 130 Acoustic Steel String Guitar

Most acoustic guitar players around the world know that since late 1960s Japanese makers were creating wonderful “copies” of Martin, Gibson and Guild guitars. Many experienced players know that many of these “copies” sound better than the “originals”.

This very fine guitar was made in mid/late 1970ties. At that time Yamaki was of one of leading Japanese Gakkis, making high grade classical and based on Martin blueprints terrific steel string acoustic guitars. Greatness of Yamaki acoustics has been recognized all around the world and their value remains unquestioned. Many experienced players know that they sound no different from “made in USA” originals. Some say, that they sound better.

If you are familiar with far more expensive Martin guitars, there is a great chance, that you’ll be very happy with this amazing Yamaki instrument. 

This guitar sounds simply fantastic. It offers very impressive volume, super response and very rich “rocky/bluesy” tonality. With its current action it plays super easy.

This guitar was priced 60 000 yen in 1977, when starting yearly salary of Japanese College Graduate was around 80 000 yen.

Despite few small dents on its sides, few tiny scratches marks on its back body, and perhaps few other minute marks, overall condition of this guitar can be described as excellent for its age. Most importantly it doesn't have any structural flaws, its fingerboard and levelled frets are in great shape, while its vintage sound surpasses sound of many brand new perfect looking guitars sold in USA for $5000+.  

Specification:

Top: Solid Spruce with reinforcing ring of wood glued underneath the sound-hole /Martin style X bracing with not scalloped braces /lacquer

Back & Sides: Latin America Rosewood “laminates” /lacquer

 “Laminated” is quite unfortunate term regarding Japanese made guitars. These plates were made from 2 layers of solid wood glued together with natural resins. They were made so well that they performed as good as solid woods while being far less expensive in guitar production and far more resistant to cracking in regular use. In recent years many guitar makers around the world adopted a new term "semi-solid" to describe these plates.

Neck: Mahogany with 2-way truss rod

Fingerboard: Ebony

Nut width: 43mm

Scale: 640 mm

The action is set to 2.50 mm under E6 and 2.0 mm under E1, with still extra room on the saddle.

This guitar will be shipped in used hard shell case in good condition.

 

 

Yamaki Story by Michael John Simmons (from acoustic-guitar-forum):

The complex story of Yamaki guitars is entwined with the histories of a number of other Japanese companies. In the late 1940s, brothers Yasuyuki and Kazuyuki Teradaira started working for Tatsuno Mokko, an instrument-building firm that later split into two different companies, one of which was called Hayashi Gakki. In 1954 Hayashi Gakki was bought out by Zenon, a large music distributor. In 1962 Yasuyuki left Zenon to start an instrument distributor he called Daion, which means “big sound” in Japanese. In 1967 Kazuyuki left Zenon to produce classical guitars under the name Yamaki, an auspicious Japanese word meaning “happy trees on the mountain.” By the early 1970s, Kazuyuki expanded the Yamaki line to include a large number of steel-string guitars, many of which were based on C.F. Martin and Co.’s designs and were distributed exclusively through Daion. Along with Yamaki guitars, Daion sold instruments from Shinano, Mitsura Tamura, Chaki, and Hamox, some of which were built by Yamaki at various times, and Harptone guitars, which they imported from the US. 


Sometime in the late 1960s, Daion began exporting Yamaki guitars to America, where they were well received. By the early 1980s, however, Daion felt that the Yamaki Martin-style guitars were getting lost among similar instruments from other Japanese builders like Takamine, Yasuma, and C.F. Mountain, so they redesigned the entire acoustic line and started building acoustic-electrics and solid-body electrics as well as oddities like double-neck acoustics. They dropped the Yamaki name and rebranded their instruments as Daion guitars. Daion began an extensive advertising campaign to introduce the new line around 1982, but this was a time when musicians were more interested in the new MIDI-equipped synthesizers than in guitars. In 1984 Daion stopped importing guitars to America and soon went out of business. Yamaki, on the other hand, survived the downturn of the 1980s and now makes parts for other Japanese guitar companies.

—Michael John Simmons

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Listed6 years ago
ConditionVery Good (Used)
Very Good items may show a few slight marks or scratches but are fully functional and in overall great shape.Learn more
Brand
Model
  • Custom 130
Finish
  • Lacquer / Urethane
Year
  • 1977
Made In
  • Japan

Victor's Guitar Gallery

Milton, GA, United States
Sales:417
Joined Reverb:2015

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