Yamaki Deluxe anyone?

[firelakekid]

Hello everyone. Does anybody know about this guitar--Yamaki Deluxe. This is the name of the first guitar I bought I think in the mid to late 70's. I was done with a day of skiing and some guy was doing a gig in the bar. He sounded good and so did the guitar. It was a Yamaki Deluxe. The guy told me (a raw beginner at that point) that he couldn't afford a Martin and that this guitar was a good substitute. Mine does have a solid spruce top. It does not have the sound the Taylor 810 does at all, and I don't think it as good as a martin either. But it has good bass and overall sound it fairly good. The only thing I don't like about the guitar is the big fat neck. It feels like a club compared to the Taylor.
Any info on the history of this brand, who made it, etc. Maybe somebody will tell me it is a collector's item and worth much more then the $279.00 I paid for it.

[firelakekid]

Sorry. I should clarify that I did not buy the guitar from the guy at the bar, but got mine about a year or so later at a music shop. The label in the guitar says "Yamaki Deluxe Folk". The number is #120. After using this for about 16 years I did buy a Taylor 810 which I still have at present.

[Ian Anderson]

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


More info here...

http://pinebaskets.tripod.com/guitar.html

[Sparkysparks]

http://www.oldguitar.jp/catalog/yamaki.htm

This page should be of interest to you.

Post edited. There has been speculation that Yamaki built Harptones. I have posted in the past that they did not. I have recently come across concrete evidence that they in fact did build some. One of the owners of The Diamond-s company started a company called Trochol based in columbia Md. He contracted with Yamaki to build a small number Harptones. Like a small container full or so. These were built around 1981 and there was only one small order. I will reiterate that no Harptone were built by Yamaki before then.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

[Ian-the-Dog]

As mentioned above, Daion were the Japanese distributor for both Yamaki and, at one point, Harptone. Harptone guitars were very expensive in Japan due to the (then) weak Yen versus the $, and I doubt they sold many.

What I imagine then happened was that Daion got Yamaki to manufacture a range of buffalo-head Harptone clones, and then dropped the Harptone distributorship. I am sure that Yamaki did actually manufacture all the YB-series models, they bear the Yamaki hot-brand on the centre strip as well as the Yamaki logo.

Yamaki did manufacture for other brands (including Washburn at one stage). but not (AFAIK) for Harptone.

[sneaky]

so you searched for just the Yamaki threads? You seem to have brought them all back.

[Sparkysparks]

Yes that sound about right. Harptone sold off the guitar divison in 75?. I think they exported to Japan for only two years and I agree that Diaon made copies.

[Ian-the-Dog]

Originally Posted by sneaky

so you searched for just the Yamaki threads? You seem to have brought them all back.

OK - guilty as charged! Can I plead insanity?

I like them, and the fact they're a bit under the radar. If I'd had smaller fingers (or more ability) back in 1974 when I bought my first guitar, I'd have had a Yamaha then and probably been as big a fan as you.

I envy you being over there, I only see what comes up on Yahoo Japan but I guess that's only a fraction of what's available.

[bobby b]

I have two Yamaki's now and I love them!!

One is a 1971 Yamaki Folk Deluxe the other is a 1974 Yamaki 135 ( D35 clone ).

I just posted this..... ....... http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=214729

[Tone Gopher]

I bought a Yamaki Deluxe 12-string in '72 or so. Played it for many years in college coffee shop type venues on both coasts (CA and NJ). I used it onstage in a production of Godspell in Arkansas in '75 and don't recall what happened to it after that.

[Latif]

Yamaki was my first steel string, early 70s at the urging of an elderly violin and guitar repairman in Stockton who was selling them as an aside. I seem to remember a zero fret and saddle height adjusting screws on the bridge. I picked up a beat up D18 a year or so later and that was the end of my Yamaki days although I think my sisters best friend still has that guitar. I'd forgotten all about that till the recent Yamaki threads.

[bobby b]

Originally Posted by Latif

I seem to remember a zero fret and saddle height adjusting screws on the bridge.

Like so....


DSC_0054 by bobbyjeepyj, on Flickr


DSC_0049 by bobbyjeepyj, on Flickr

[sneaky]

Originally Posted by Ian-the-Dog

I envy you being over there, I only see what comes up on Yahoo Japan but I guess that's only a fraction of what's available.

I saw nylon string Yamakis on line recently.
You can use a third party bidder...like Rinkya... on auction sites in Japan, I have no affiliation with any of them but do read about them on guitar sites.

[Gettin' Better]

I also have a Yamaki Deluxe Folk from the early 70's that looks identical to yours, but mine is a 12 string. When I got it from my brother-in-law, there was a serious "belly" below the bridge. I've been keeping it tuned down 2 steps, and the belly is receeding. It has a zero fret, an adjustable bridge, and sounds surprisingly good. These are really nice guitars, and I can understand the attachment people develop towards them. I'm keeping mine.
Dennis

[spaceyben]

I've seen a Yamaki or two in second hand shops here for pretty cheap. Another decent one is History... the are a house brand for Shimamura and made by the fujigem factory here in town. My brother in law has one and it is phenomenal. It holds its own against the bourgeois and my vintage gibson.