I don't know anything about the history of this guitar, but I'm sure Tony could tell you.
Tony's one of the best-kept secrets of the Bay Area. He's extremely innovative, *fast*, and underpriced.
Tony built me a 12-string baritone, and later a 7 string, which eventually got concerted into a multi-scale bari. The 12 string bari was especially interesting. Tony proposed it, but had never built even a regular 12 string, so he said it would take quite a while, and lots of research. 2 weeks later he called me and said it was done! That's a long time for Tony :-)
His latest adventure is a 6 string that has 7 strings, you can switch in a few seconds between a regular 6 string and a banjo-style "high strung" 6th string. Whichever string you aren't using tucks away inside a channel in the neck. I thought he had a demo of it on you tube, but I'm not finding it.
A lot of Bay Area players own Yamamotos. Here's Todd Krider on a Talus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBPA3qMxt9A
And Mike Nepper on a spectacular Maple and Redwood Talus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgZGj3YmLr8
Fran Guidry has a wonderful OMY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYblF14osI4