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Posts: 1108
Joined: Sep. 29 2009
From: Back in Boston
Good pot in Idaho
At least I think this e-bay seller might have enjoyed some good weed. Check out how much he originally paid for this guitar and what he is asking for in 2010. I did not know Japanese guitars, equipped with $5 butterfly tuners, enjoyed such collectability.
be hard to find a buyer but played one of these in australia when looking for my ramirez... was a great sounding instrument with good playability...loud and a nice growl. a lot of the japanese luthiers of the era copied the spanish makers with precision.. easily worth the money...would sound/play so much better than a new guitar in this price range... just basing on the one i tried
i was pretty amazed at the price of the guitar sold through fine fretted instruments. i figured this was one of those e-bay . postings that pop up way too often. the butterfly tuners do not do the guitar justice and give it the cheap look. not going to bid on it but it is good to know.
I was going to say, With all solid woods its probably worth the money. Dont be decieved by cheap tuners! loads of people use cheapo tuners on high end guitars. Most of the factory guitars have cheap tuners all of the way up to the top end models
At least I think this e-bay seller might have enjoyed some good weed. Check out how much he originally paid for this guitar and what he is asking for in 2010. I did not know Japanese guitars, equipped with $5 butterfly tuners, enjoyed such collectability.
Look at the tuners more carefully. Early Gotoh tuners used butterfly buttons, these are good quality Japanese tuners. This Tamura was a high end factory guitar that sold new for around $400-600. They were'nt bad but not up to the comparably (at the time) priced Spanish guitars. All of them I've seen had cedar tops. It's worth maybe $200-300.
I have a 1970 Fidencio Díaz which has those same tuners and I consider it a very good instrument. In fact, I am looking to replace the tuners, since after 40 years they are starting to give up.
i think my error on the tuners is the butterfly buttons--they are too frequently put on low end tuners. as to tamura--i would not have guessed a japanese guitar would fetch such money. i have to hand it to tamura for the guitars he/they made-- they have received very good reviews.
I presume they were factory made since they were sold everywhere in pretty large numbers. I worked in a music store selling guitars when they were popular and sold several of them my self. They just don't have the look or feel of a hand made guitar. Take a look inside and you'll see what I'm talking about. Two brothers working night and day couldn't have hand built that many guitars.
Paco de Lucía: About twelve or fifteen. Almost all of them are Hnos. Conde. Two or three Ramírez. Japanese, a Tamura and a Yamaha. They sound good, but I never play them.
Two brothers working night and day couldn't have hand built that many guitars.
ah! the productivity of the japanese! very impressed with the model i tried and yes did'nt quite have the feel of a 'hand made' guitar... ended up with a ramirez but the $1990 au on the tamura i tried seemed worth it in comparison to what else was on offer had i not had more spending power i would have bought this one say over a new conde ef 5n...or an alhambra... had'nt heard of the navarro's at that time...great guitars at a great price... guess we know a bit more about the tamura brothers some great pot in australia
there is a book produced by yamaha about their guitars and, back in the day, they had a blanca model with pegs and gave one to paco--there is a picture of him playing the guitar. looks like a nice guitar and given yamaha's capability of producing nice sounding guitars it probably was a good one.
as to the conde bros cranking out the guitars--rumor has it they have some help from some chinese elves.
there is a book produced by yamaha about their guitars and, back in the day, they had a blanca model with pegs and gave one to paco--there is a picture of him playing the guitar. looks like a nice guitar and given yamaha's capability of producing nice sounding guitars it probably was a good one.
It must have been in the late 60's - early 70,s that Yamaha came out with their high end guitars. I don't recall the exact price since the shop I worked in never bought any but the price and quality were supposed to have been in line with the top Spanish makes. I've never played one only seen pictures in a catalog. In those days Aria was the biggest factory, they must have had twenty different labels to stick inside depending on which "brand" you wanted.
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