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Old 04-05-2011, 09:10 PM
sneaky sneaky is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2002
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I`ve been told Nippon Gakki just means Japan Instrument...Hamamatsu is where their factory was as far as I know.
Listen, I own a LOT of old Yamahas, and all but one were made before 1966 when Yamaha opened their own guitar factory, most of mine date between the early 1950s to the mid 1960s, there may be some overlap between the first FGs...the 180 and 150 light green/beige-ish label...and the Dynamic nylon string models I have and my point is this...it is nearly impossible to get a precise date on the old ones, even Yamaha could not give you one so I doubt anybody else will be able to...we can get ballpark dates but thats as good as I`ve been able to find so far and that because of the Japan Vintage series of books and a Japanese web site I found dedicated to the old Dynamic guitars. My oldest yamaha has a 3 digit serial on the neck block and I`ve been told it`s early `50s...the books say they reached 6 digits by 1960 and just who was making the Dynamics remains a mystery since Yamaha did not have their own guitar factory till 1966 and that comes from an interview with Mr. Ueda who says he was transferred from yamaha Motor Division to get the factory up and running so I figure if anybody knows, it`s the guy who did it. See that interview in the Japan Vintage acoustic vol. 1 published by Shinko Music in 2005, a great source for info and it has an extensive article on the Dynamics along with the FGs. They say the two first FG models were light green/beige-ish labels and they say October 1966 as the release date, now thats for Japan, just what they did for exports I don`t know...the authors were Japanese and probably concentrated on the domestic models, but I doubt they exported guitars before they sold em at home and record keeping does not seem to have been a priority so getting exact info is very very difficult and thats why as the owner of lots of old MIJ guitars I have just come to accept the fact that I may never know everything about all the guitars I have, just the way it is and I don`t lose sleep over any of it. Lots of people on line seem to believe they have the best way to date old Yamahas but I am not as sure.
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