Why do Yairi guitars not hold value?

[kizz]

Originally Posted by wood&wire

I'm not saying K Yairi's family doesn't want to turn a profit but I think if they wanted to blow their operation up into a cookie cutter money making machine, they probably would have done so by now. I hope they never do. Quality > quantity IMHO.

I've owned some Yairi's and although you can be lucky to find a good one and some are well built, lots of low end guitars came out of the factory with plastic bone/nut and cheap tuners just like we see today on e.g. cheap Yamaha's and the hype around certain Yairi guitars can probably also be compared to modern cheaper Yamaha's. So I am quite convinced that Yairi, like so many others, was trying to make a profit.

[edcmat-l1]

Originally Posted by wood&wire

Meh, they have a small niche market of very dedicated followers, maybe that's all they want.

That's kind of how it seems but in reality a lot of celeb musicians have played Yairi guitars going back decades.

Peter Frampton
Dickie Betts
Warren Haynes
Bob Weir
Derrick Trucks
Roy Clark

I'm sure there's more but those are ones I know off the top of my head.

[wood&wire]

Originally Posted by edcmat-l1

That's kind of how it seems but in reality a lot of celeb musicians have played Yairi guitars going back decades.

Peter Frampton
Dickie Betts
Warren Haynes
Bob Weir
Derrick Trucks
Roy Clark

I'm sure there's more but those are ones I know off the top of my head.

lol, I guess maybe you didn't see the posts to which I was replying. If you find my post you quoted and read up several more posts you will see how many people claimed Yairi does not have enough name recognition, have not been documented, etc. Tell that to them. I didn't say they were tiny or didn't want to profit at all, I just said they may not desire to be #1 in the industry like Wall Mart. I've been to Alvarez's Yairi website and they do have a long list of celeb players including Jerry Garcia, Ani DeFranco, and Joe Bonamassa. Now go to Martin and review their list. I apologize for the confusion but I said "small niche market" as a comparison with a huge manufacturer like Martin. You can't sit here and say they are in the same ballpark in terms of market share, popularity, or name recognition. And that is not by any means a knock against Yairi, I love mine. It's just the reality of supply and demand.

[wood&wire]

Originally Posted by kizz

I've owned some Yairi's and although you can be lucky to find a good one and some are well built, lots of low end guitars came out of the factory with plastic bone/nut and cheap tuners just like we see today on e.g. cheap Yamaha's and the hype around certain Yairi guitars can probably also be compared to modern cheaper Yamaha's. So I am quite convinced that Yairi, like so many others, was trying to make a profit.

Originally Posted by wood&wire

I'm not saying K Yairi's family doesn't want to turn a profit but I think if they wanted to blow their operation up into a cookie cutter money making machine, they probably would have done so by now. I hope they never do. Quality > quantity IMHO.

1) I never once said they were not "trying to make a profit". Look at the bold part of my self quote. I essentially said they may not want to be #1 in the industry. One can still be less than #1 and still turn a profit.

2) I can neither confirm or deny your claims of inferior Yairi's, I only know of my own personal experience and other people I know. I'm sure they have lower models available that are not considered Masterworks. I have also seen many guitars with the Yairi name that are not the same K Yairi we are talking about.

[wood&wire]

Originally Posted by Bridgepin

I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, think about the quality of the guitar your able to buy that hasn't been hyped up that would drive the prices up much higher....That is if your not trying to sell one.

I was very fortunate that I found a MIJ Hohner HG-920 in 1980 and was very surprised at the quality of the build and sound, I tried to gather as much information as I could and decided to collect the entire series long before their prices started to go up. Today it's a different story as to what I would have to pay for them.

HG-920 All Aged Wood Arbor Series

Is that some sort of makeshift sleeve covering the bottom fork of your guitar stand?

[sinistral]

This thread is a fascinating time capsule. In 2012, someone asked the question, “Why don’t Yairi guitars hold their value?” In the intervening ten years, the thread has been revived every couple of years, and the answers have been pretty consistent—excellent guitars, poor name recognition (despite celebrity players and samurai-sword-like quality).

It’s not about trying to be #1, it’s about making a guitar that people want to buy at a given price and, more importantly for this thread, when initial buyers decide to sell, there are other interested buyers willing to pay a reasonable percentage of the new guitar price. The ability of a given manufacturer’s guitars to hold their value in the secondary market is driven by a multitude of factors (price, quality, quantity, name recognition. etc.), all of which influence supply and demand.

And it’s not a zero-sum game. The fact that brand x’s guitars hold their value does not take away the ability for brand y’s guitars to hold their value. A case study: Pre-War Guitars Co. was launched in 2016-17, five years after this thread was started. Even with a nondescript name, their guitars hold 90 - 100% of their value. What is it about PWGC guitars that is different from Yairi guitars? One of the biggest differences I can think of is supply—PWGC makes far fewer guitars than Yairi. But PWGC isn’t trying to be #1, and I doubt Wes or Ben ever fabricated a sword in their lives. Perhaps in Yairi’s quest to not be #1, they still managed to make too many guitars?

In ten year’s time, will Hseinmo guitars hold their value better than Yairi guitars? Time will tell.

[rollypolly]

Personally I don’t care too much whether they hold their value. I almost always buy used so I’m the one getting the deal, and if I sell down the line I get most or all of my money back. And I’ll probably buy another Yairi for the simple fact that I can get what I believe is a high end guitar for a steal of a price. That being said, they do seem to vary a lot, so I’m not sure all of their models are the same quality especially the Japanese market ones.

[kizz]

Originally Posted by wood&wire

1) I never once said they were not "trying to make a profit". Look at the bold part of my self quote. I essentially said they may not want to be #1 in the industry. One can still be less than #1 and still turn a profit.

2) I can neither confirm or deny your claims of inferior Yairi's, I only know of my own personal experience and other people I know. I'm sure they have lower models available that are not considered Masterworks. I have also seen many guitars with the Yairi name that are not the same K Yairi we are talking about.

I may have misunderstood your point, I apologize for that, but as I wrote earlier we are left with conjecture and guesswork, no one really knows when it comes to Yairi guitars.
2) The OP asked about Yairi guitars, not K.yairi specific.

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by edcmat-l1

That's kind of how it seems but in reality a lot of celeb musicians have played Yairi guitars going back decades.

Peter Frampton
Dickie Betts
Warren Haynes
Bob Weir
Derrick Trucks
Roy Clark

I'm sure there's more but those are ones I know off the top of my head.

Add Steve Hackett to your list.

[Guitarplayer_PR]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

Love zombie threads. Made in Japan guitars suffer from being as expensive to fix as US guitars, with the added wildcard of not knowing what they were glued with. Fixing them with a bolt on conversion is often the way to go one a cost basis, right or wrong. As time goes by guitars like the MIJ Squires do gain respect. It is a market few are willing to enter at the upper end.

As to origin of manufacture, I bought my daughter a Chinese viola thirty years ago, picked from among eight instruments in my living room with her teacher present. At $4500, it was the cheapest viola in the room, ranging to $8500. They were made in the US, France, Italy, and the Czech Republic. Had no idea which was which. A luthier built all of them.

I just read one of my pet peeves: it's SQUIER, not Squire. Japan-made Squiers have a history some of us know of why they're so important, particularly from 1982.

But going back to Japanese guitars, that hasn't hurt Takamines.

[wood&wire]

Originally Posted by kizz

I may have misunderstood your point, I apologize for that, but as I wrote earlier we are left with conjecture and guesswork, no one really knows when it comes to Yairi guitars.
2) The OP asked about Yairi guitars, not K.yairi specific.

No worries, I may have misunderstood whether this thread was about K Yairi or other Yairis. Though if it's the latter, I don't see how the thread would make sense considering the other Yairi-named guitars are essentially different brands, using different materials, and from different manufacturing facilities. It would almost be like saying, "Why don't Yamahas, Gibsons, and Estebans hold their value?" Apples to oranges to bananas.

[kizz]

Originally Posted by wood&wire

No worries, I may have misunderstood whether this thread was about K Yairi or other Yairis. Though if it's the latter, I don't see how the thread would make sense considering the other Yairi-named guitars are essentially different brands, using different materials, and from different manufacturing facilities. It would almost be like saying, "Why don't Yamahas, Gibsons, and Estebans hold their value?" Apples to oranges to bananas.

I have owned both guitars from Sadao and Kazuo and I saw basically the same build quality, the same applies to many Alvarez guitars. Sadao, Kazou and Alvarez, S&K guitars are mentioned in this thread when it comes to Yairi, so no I don't think it's specifically about K.Yairi.

[johnzias]

I have a DYM60 Honduran, which holds its own with guitars at twice the price. Plus the build quality is amazing.

As for Alvarez, there are few companies at their price points that make better sounding guitars. I'm not sure where the disrespect comes from.

[kbraker]

If/when I need another acoustic, Yairi is definitely on the list of makers(Used though). The DCB is enough for me to pay attention…