hooplabuga
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- Jul 4, 2009
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Hey guys. Managed to score a Yamaki "Custom" off the local guitar ads here.
When I got the guitar, two of the machine heads were replaced with Morris ones. They work well enough, I could honestly care less.
Picture of inside the soundhole, "MADE BY YAMAKI 125"
Of the many catalogues I've read online, I couldn't for the life of me find a Yamaki Headstock that reads Yamaki "Custom." Is there a specific timeframe where this happened?
Also, a history of Yamaki guitars for what it's worth, taken from acousticguitarforum.com:
"I have a Yamaki guitar too, many are quite good instruments for the money, the one I have does possess very good tone, though I've played some that were average at best. In following them, the most I have ever seen one go on eBay for was a hundred or so above what you paid and this one was quite ornate, and in excellent+ to near mint shape. Here is some company history I dug up from the Acoustic Guitar web site that you might be interested in??
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
When I got the guitar, two of the machine heads were replaced with Morris ones. They work well enough, I could honestly care less.
Picture of inside the soundhole, "MADE BY YAMAKI 125"
Of the many catalogues I've read online, I couldn't for the life of me find a Yamaki Headstock that reads Yamaki "Custom." Is there a specific timeframe where this happened?
Also, a history of Yamaki guitars for what it's worth, taken from acousticguitarforum.com:
"I have a Yamaki guitar too, many are quite good instruments for the money, the one I have does possess very good tone, though I've played some that were average at best. In following them, the most I have ever seen one go on eBay for was a hundred or so above what you paid and this one was quite ornate, and in excellent+ to near mint shape. Here is some company history I dug up from the Acoustic Guitar web site that you might be interested in??
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
That's pretty rare.
