Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Happy Trees on the Mountain

For most of my guitar playing years, my guitar of choice for recording and performance has been my 1973 Yamaki Custom. My first guitar was a Yamaki Folk acoustic I rec'd from my parents as a birthday gift at 14. For the next ten years I tried locating another, but was unsuccessful. Guitar shows, shops, friends, guitar techs, etc. all provided little or no info. Mostly because Yamaki was not a widely known brand and was discontinued in the early 80's. Now the Yamaki guitars are gaining recognition. The name Yamaki is Japanese and translates to " Happy Trees on the Mountain" I more recently read a history of the Yamaki guitar and it's luthier Kazuyuki Teradaira. You can read the article here : http://www.acousticguitar.com/article/147/147,6261,Q&A-1.asp I found my Yamaki Custom in the mid nineties on consignment at Rockin Robin Guitars here in Houston. Two weeks prior I was in the same shop talking with a salesman whom had never heard of the brand. I was quite lucky.

A new addition to my guitar collection is a thin-body acoustic cut-a-way called Grand. Back to square one as no one seems to know much about this guitar. Found it at local pawnshop for 150 bucks. Now I can't come up with any background info on the instrument...no manufacturers history nor online models for sale...nothing. It's a gem and I now find myself dividing my time between it and my Yamaki.

3 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

hey I have a 1972 delux folk model # 115 its great would never get rid of it bought it at a yard sale in 96 had one missing tuner took it to L.A music store toget a new tuner they fix it put new strings on it and I could hardly get it back from them they were amazed at how good it sound I got it for 3 dollars they were floored best 3 bucks I have ever spent its a one in a million. hears the funny part the L.A music store is the oldest and bigest distributor of martin guitars for the last 50 years.

11:11 PM  
Blogger Aya said...

He, I have a Yamaki custom folk guitar. I got it from a friend last year. The nut is broken and I am wondering if it is worth replacing or if I should just throw it?

6:36 PM  
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