Materials:
Top-Spruce
Side & back-Maple
Neck-Mahogany or Jacaranda?
Features:
Did they copy the mid-60s YAMAHA Dynamic? Or rather, isn't the neck an OLD Martin?
I can't find the product number, it's written in English on the label.
It's fun to play a select guitar harmonious and of outsandingly high quality with expert craftsmanship. it's this Are you already thinking about the next generation?
That's the old logo of the Japanese Industry Standards Committee, which obviously standardized (acoustic) guitars:
Alas I couldn't find a document with the content of that standard. The second number is a mystery, maybe some kind of registration or approval/compliance confirmation number. Obviously this symbol can't be seen very often on guitars, but there is a prominent other example:
These Yamahas predate the Tokais by 5 years or so.
So i got this little beauty for 35 bucks (3500 yen).
Art No 540 is the model name.
Probably from the early sixties, the neck warped just a little, had 4mm string height when i got it, sanded the bridge and now 2,8mm and 2,5mm.
Intonation is incredibly spot on (!) with just this brass bar as a saddle.
The top is solid for sure. Side and back i don't know because the flamed pattern is not there if you look at the other side in the body. But at this time, was there such a thing as laminate ?
That's the whole greatness of this guitar: it seems a bit cheaply made (frets edges, ouch!) but the materials seem great, more the quality standard from the early sixties, when things were still made to last.
I wonder what wood are the fretboard and the bridge. Very pretty, though the fretboard is varnished.
Paradoxically it feels very sturdy, and at the same time very thin.
Hence the incredible loudness !
The neck is meaty, chunky, actually feels very good, though it is dead flat.
I chose to put steel strings on it, but i felt a bit insecure with an extra light set's tension and yet wanted some real steel strings so i bought a 056/013 set, left apart the sixth string, put the fifth 045 as the sixth, and so on, and added a steel 010 for the first string. Super Extra Light set.
Even with such a soft set, the guitar is loud, and very middy, there is some bass for sure, but it is certainly not a boomer. All in all a fairly good balance, and something 3D in the sound, a bit hard to describe.
Very, very happy with this Yahoo JP auction purchase !
Serial 610702, would anyone know what year it was made ?
1961 ?
Sneaky Bananas, if you're here i would like to hear your opinion.
Could it be that it was made in the same factory as the Yamaha Dynamics ?