One more for 2020, it turns out. Visiting a secondhand/recycle shop with my daughters I was kind of shocked to find a dilapidated classical acoustic made by Yairi, one of my favourite builders. I have a 1981 DY51 K Yairi acoustic with a solid cedar top and burl mahogany back and sides, it sounds divine. I've always loved the romance of the Yairi factory in the mountains of Gifu with its stocks of timbers gradually drying over decades. (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXiSh9p27gs for a tour)
Before Kazuo Yairi took over as master luthier, his uncle Sadao started the business just after WW2 and set about building an export market. The factory built mostly classical guitars along with manolins etc., but always to very high standards.
Anyway flash forward to 2020 and I was very excited to find a 1965 Yairi classical - maybe not absolute top of the line Japanese, e.g. Arai / Aria of that era are incredible - but well worth checking out.
I'm not a classical player and I didn't really think after a 3 guitar year I should be buying one, but my daughters conspired with my ex-wife and they got it for me for Christmas.
It had three broken tuners, two headstock cracks, two top cracks and the back had separated at the butt end. I was going to try hide glue to build my skills but decided that the cracks were too old and grimy for good joints, so Titebond Red was a better choice. (the repairs detailed at http://frets.com/FretsPages/pagelist.html are a goldmine for advice and ideas in fixing acoustics). Anyway a bunch of gluing and clamping, and some mechanical repairs later, it's in pretty good shape.
It'll never be a collector piece but it's playing for the first time in decades and sounds good, and improving rapidly as the repairs set in.
The top hasn't bellied, and it has a very unusual bracing pattern I can't find detailed anywhere, I'll try to take pics. Anyway, a kind gift, a lot of fun to fix, and lovely to play. Four guitar 2020 after all.
NGD: 1965 Yairi model 1174 classical
- MattK
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- MattK
- PAT. # 2.972.923
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- Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2008 9:51 pm
- Location: Hobart, Australia
Re: NGD: 1965 Yairi model 1174 classical
well I like it, anyway
- MKR
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Re: NGD: 1965 Yairi model 1174 classical
right on. Looks like an awesome player after all the hard work.
I'll say this: I'm not a classical player either never having owned one, but the odd time I have picked one up it has been super fun and real natural feeling to play.
I'll say this: I'm not a classical player either never having owned one, but the odd time I have picked one up it has been super fun and real natural feeling to play.
- øøøøøøø
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Re: NGD: 1965 Yairi model 1174 classical
Yairis are highly underrated
- August
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Re: NGD: 1965 Yairi model 1174 classical
I love K. Yairis. A DY-84 was the best responding and sounding acoustic I've ever owned or played but In the end the thin neck and tall, thin frets couldn't do it for me unfortunately. The new ones have certainly caught up in price these days and are impossible to come by around here anyways. But it's (strangely) not uncommon to see 3 or 4 old lowest-end AY Yairis listed locally for dreamer prices and then stumble upon a really nice old classical in a used shop for a couple hundred. I need to jump on it next time I come across one of those.
- BoringPostcards
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