yamaki guitars

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:You are one very lucky man, Glen. I have had my Yamaki for over 25 years and it just gets better and better.

Try a 'Google" search for "Yamaki guitar" and you should find quite a bit (don't be afraid to try some of the Japanese sites, they have old catalogues that show some gorgeous guitars). The 'rate your gear' section of Harmony-Central.com is very good as well.

Play on, Gary Thomson

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: Does anyone out there know anything about yamaki guitars? I bought one long ago for $11. Best guitar I ever played. Can't find any info on them though. Would love to know something about my guitar

In answer to your question about Yamaki guitars, I don't know about the USA situation but in Canada the Yamaki guitars where imported by Long & McQuade Music for their chain of stores. In the early to mid seventies Yamaki was producing very good quality and in some cases superior quality copies of Gibson, Martin and Guild style acoustic guitars. I own an enchanted melody model of Yamaki that is an exact copy of a dreadnaught Gibson, with the big old style Gibson headstock and the bound tortise shell binding and a nicely put together mahogany body. This guitar has superb sound and volume, I found it in a pawn shop in Calgary Alberta and had a local luthier do a 700$ restoration to get it back to good palying condition. I also had a B-band pickup installed and this is my preferred guitar for stage work. I would not sell my Yamaki for less than $2000 Cdn it is sweet. A friend of mine has a better model of Yamaki that is a super copy of Martin, you would swear that it was a Martin but the yellow cedar top is a sure sign that it is a Yamaki. Every Yamaki I have seen has had a yellow cedar top, probably to give a great sound as a new instrument. Ebay has a Yamaki for sale right now which would be a bargin but the guitar is in Ottawa Canada and would need some TLC for sure.

The big manufacturers Gibson, Martin and Guild it is rumored that they muscled Yamaki out of North America due to their good quality and low price and the fact that they were such good copies of the originals.

Sincerely Yours,

Carl Rutley

I've just bought a Yamaki Deluxe Folk No115 in Perth Australia.

There is a paper label inside - Yamaki Deluxe Folk No 115 and of course Yamaki Deluxe on the headstock.

There is no serial number on the label however it says - YAMAKI MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS CO., LTD.

Looking around the web there are a lot of others also looking and some have serial numbers, some have other letters/numbers which seem to be some sort of model/production number.

It would be great if someone could give me and others more info about these guitars, it's not hard to find the Yamaki/Daion link but serial numbers on some and not on others has me intrigued.

I also have a 1977 Martin D-28 and the Yamaki has a similar body size but a shorter scale neck and a 'Brighter' sound in comparison.

Top appears to be Spruce when compared to the Martin and the back, sides and Fret board are Rose wood.

The neck has an adjustable truss rod, adjustable from inside the sound hole.

Tuners are the 'older' style open geared classical style.

The Yamaki has what appears to be the original hard case with someone's name written in English in gold, however it's a Japanese name so it may possibly be the original owner.

Thanks for any help.