History of the Yamaha guitar

The Yamaha guitar has been around for over 60 years and the company itself for over 100 years. In 1887, Torakusu Yamaha made its first reed organ, and began receiving orders to make more. In 1897, Nippon Gakki Co. Ltd. was founded with Torakusu as company president.

For more than 40 years, the Yamaha company made organs, pianos, harmonicas, furniture, phonographs, and finally its first acoustic guitar in 1942. In 1965, a year after the Beatles made their legendary appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show , Yamaha began production of solid body guitars. guitars In 1966, they began to manufacture the electric bass as well.

In the 1970s, Yamaha began to attract the attention of great artists such as Carlos Santana and Bob Marley due to the high quality and design of their instruments. Yamaha guitars were built to produce a warm, powerful tone with incredible sustain. Additionally, the “Broad Bass” was introduced in 1977 and quickly caught the attention of famous bassists from around the world, including Paul McCartney.

In the late 1980s, Yamaha opened a factory in North Hollywood, California. Here they started making guitars where they called in some professional guitarists to help them and advise them on what they would like to see on their guitars.

One of the reasons behind the success of the Yamaha guitar is the objectives that they pursue in their design. Every guitar should have a balanced tone and response, and the bass and treble should complement each other.

A very important step for Yamaha was the introduction of the dovetail neck joint into their design in the 1970s, which provides the best contact between neck and body. The neck joint is made of wood, which helps vibrations easily resonate from the neck into the body, producing a balanced tone and response.

Yamaha also strongly believes that the combination of different types of quality wood is extremely important in producing a great sound. The result of mixing these quality woods is that the treble lasts longer and the guitarist can control the texture of the note at all times.

Another important part of the construction of Yamaha guitars is the types of lacquer they use. They work closely with lacquer producers to ensure they get the best type of lacquer suitable for their guitars. Yamaha wants to make sure their guitars look great and have every chance to breathe.

Because of all these great design features, many artists have used and still prefer to use a Yamaha guitar on tour and in the recording studio. Some of the great artists who have played Yamaha guitars over the years include Michael Anthony, John Denver, John Lennon, Bob Marley, Brian May, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Carlos Santana, Bob Seger, Billy Sheehan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen and James Taylor.