Suzuki Guitars

W150 front

2011-05-31T05:49:00.001-07:00

W150 back

2011-05-31T05:48:00.002-07:00

W150 label

2011-05-31T05:48:00.001-07:00

W150 headstock

2011-05-31T05:32:00.000-07:00

WE200 front

2011-03-13T14:37:00.001-07:00

WE200 back

2011-03-13T14:36:00.002-07:00

WE200 label

2011-03-13T14:36:00.001-07:00

WE200 headstock 1

2011-03-13T14:35:00.003-07:00

WE200 headstock

2011-03-13T14:35:00.001-07:00

#7 front

2011-03-01T07:16:00.002-08:00

unusually great shape...from the 60's. Thanks Darrin!

#7 back

2011-03-01T07:15:00.000-08:00

#7 bridge

2011-03-01T07:12:00.001-08:00

#7 side

2011-03-01T07:11:00.002-08:00

#7 headstock

2011-03-01T07:11:00.001-08:00

#7 label

2011-03-01T07:08:00.000-08:00

MW35 front

2011-03-01T06:59:00.000-08:00

MW35 back

2011-03-01T06:58:00.000-08:00

MW35 fretboard

2011-03-01T06:56:00.000-08:00

MW35 label

2011-03-01T06:55:00.000-08:00

k3 front

2011-03-01T06:51:00.001-08:00

k3 back

2011-03-01T06:50:00.002-08:00

k3 headstock

2011-03-01T06:50:00.001-08:00

k3 label

2011-03-01T06:49:00.004-08:00

89 front

2011-03-01T06:49:00.003-08:00

89 back

2011-03-01T06:49:00.001-08:00

89 headstock

2011-03-01T06:48:00.000-08:00

89 label

2011-03-01T06:46:00.001-08:00

2009-12-21T13:13:00.000-08:00

Some more information re: Suzuki that may be of interest to Sado Yairi fans. He apparently worked for the company before the 2nd World War....the following from a Yairi brochure - sent by D. Hughes....

"At the age of 17 S. Yairi entered the employment of Suzuki Violin Mfg., Co. Ltd. He worked there for 12 years making violins, and left in 1935 at the age of 29...."

Of course, at that time, Suzuki was not making guitars. But good craftsmen can take their skills from one instrument and apply them to the making of another similar instrument. And Sado Yairi is very respected for the quality he built into his guitars.

2009-08-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

More Suzuki history

2009-01-09T08:12:00.000-08:00

The Suzuki violin manufacturing and the Suzuki violin company were one company before the war. After the war, a entity created by the US and allies called GHQ (for General Headquarters) dismantled some parts of 'Imperial' Japan and some companies were closed or restructured. In Suzuki's case, the two companies separated - the Suzuki Violin Company changing to the Kiso Suzuki Violin Company and the Suzuki Violin Manufacturing Company came to be called the Nagoya Suzuki Violin Company.

Kiso Suzuki went bankrupt in 1987 and the machines and materials were sold to ESP.
Nagoya Suzuki stopped making guitars in 1989.

WG-180 back

2007-03-12T20:05:00.000-07:00

WG-180 front

2007-03-12T20:01:00.000-07:00

WG-180 from about 1980.

Thanks to Will for the Pics!

w400 12 string label

2007-03-08T20:22:00.000-08:00

w400 12 string back

2007-03-08T20:21:00.000-08:00

w400 12 string front

2007-03-08T20:15:00.000-08:00

mr302 headstock

2007-03-08T19:59:00.000-08:00

The top =book matched spruce

back and sides = rosewood and the inner lining is mahogany
Internally it is lightly varnished as the original Macafferi with ribbing as per 1932 design (cross bracing),
Neck = mahogany with rosewood fret board and a zero fret at the nut.

mr302 back

2007-03-08T19:58:00.000-08:00

mr302 front

2007-03-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Peter C. for the pics!

kiso 9501 headstock

2007-02-17T19:38:00.001-08:00

kiso 9501 label

2007-02-17T19:37:00.000-08:00

kiso 9501 back

2007-02-17T19:36:00.000-08:00

kiso 9501 front

2007-02-17T19:35:00.000-08:00

kiso 9500 headstock

2007-02-17T19:34:00.002-08:00

ksio 9500 label

2007-02-17T19:34:00.001-08:00

kiso 9500 back

2007-02-17T19:33:00.000-08:00

ksio 9500 headstock

2007-02-17T19:32:00.000-08:00

kiso 70 label

2007-02-17T19:31:00.002-08:00

kiso 70 back

2007-02-17T19:31:00.001-08:00

kiso 70 front

2007-02-17T19:30:00.000-08:00

kiso 60 headstock

2007-02-17T19:29:00.000-08:00

kiso 60 label

2007-02-17T19:28:00.002-08:00

kiso 60 back

2007-02-17T19:28:00.001-08:00

kiso 60 front

2007-02-17T19:26:00.002-08:00

kiso 15 headstock

2007-02-17T19:26:00.001-08:00

kiso 15 label

2007-02-17T19:25:00.001-08:00

kiso 15 back

2007-02-17T19:24:00.000-08:00

kiso 15 front

2007-02-17T19:23:00.002-08:00

kiso 20 label

2007-02-17T19:23:00.001-08:00

kiso 20 back

2007-02-17T19:22:00.000-08:00

kiso 20 front

2007-02-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

nagoya sf312 back

2006-10-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

nagoya sf312 front

2006-10-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

nagoya sf335 back

2006-10-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

nagoya sf335 front

2006-10-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

kiso classical 80 back

2006-10-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

kiso classical 80 front

2006-10-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

kiso d35h back

2006-10-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

kiso d35h front

2006-10-02T13:11:00.000-07:00

nagoya w300 back

2006-10-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

nagoya w300 front

2006-10-02T13:07:00.000-07:00

takeharu wt300 back

2006-10-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

Takeharu wt300 front

2006-10-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

2006-06-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

This Suzuki information posted on the 2000 guitars database in 2004....
Posted by tetsu on June 05, 2004 at 08:38:36:
Hi,
I'm tetsu. in Japan. Although my english strange, please forgive me. I got W-300 for a week ago and it has a nice sound. May be you know about this information of Kiso Suzuki, but many people uses english don't know about Suzuki well. Because Suzuki is Japanese company.
Kiso Suzuki is old name of it company, now we call "Suzuki Violin". There is Nagoya City Aichi pref. Japan. this company is making a violin, a cello, a viola, a contrabass, and mandolin etc... but it's NOT making and repairing a guitar. Because there are no workperson to make a guitar and there are no drawing. This is why a guitar printed "kiso suzuki" or "Three S" is very rare. Suzuki was built by Mr.Suzuki Masakichi. May be Suzuki made guitars till first stage of the 80s (it means all Suzuki guitar is senior than me). Suzuki sometime made a guitar as OEM (ex. HILLBILLY, Tomson, sonoro, Watson, kansas, ƒ^ƒPƒnƒ‹(Takeharu)). In Japan, many people uses Suzuki guitar, but it's minor than Yamaha, Yairi or Morris. Suzuki guitar's Model No. means price of it. For example, W-300 is 30000 yen, AE-25 is 25000 yen.(1 dollar is about 110 yen. But during then to now, inflation was occured in Japan. By my mother's speaking, the value of money then was twice as today's it. It means W-300 is about 550 dollars today.) I think it is inexpensive, but I bought my W-300 for 15.5 dollars at auction;-))
It's no context information, but I wish this information helps you. If you have an question, please tell me. I'll search on HomePage it was written on Japanese.
have a nice life with Suzuki guitar.

2006-06-27T20:51:00.000-07:00

Some information regarding Kiso and Suzuki whcih may or may not be relevant to Kiso Suzuki guitars.
Around this time, (??) Suzuki gave violin lessons to Toshiya Eto, Koji Toyoda, the Kobayashi brothers (Takeshi and Kenji), Hidetaro Suzuki, and Yoko Arimatsu at his home.
1943 age 45, Shinichi Suzuki moved to Kiso Fukushima, Nagano-ken.
Also, found this reference...
In 1974 Maurice Summerfield, an English guitarist and great connoisseur in the world of jazz guitars, was producing his own brand of Maccaferri-style guitars in Japan by Kiso Suzuki importing them to England under name "CSL Gypsy". Two models were offered: D-hole and O-hole with 12 fret necks.Nous'che Rosenberg of Rosenberg Trio (www.rosenberg-trio.com) used a D-hole CSL guitar on their first record "Seresta" (brazilian equivalent of "get together") recorded in 1989 with no overdubs and co-produced by my friend Hans Meelen ("ears that hear everything")from http://members.fortunecity.com/gbowlds/jm-imac.html

2006-06-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

Some information regarding Nagoya region in Japan and Suzuki violin.

Masakichi Suzuki (1859]1944) Masakichi Suzuki was Japan's first violin producer. His father was a samurai moonlighter to make shamisen in Nagoya. Masakichi succeeded his father's craft business that soon failed. In the push for westernization in Meiji, he naturally became interested in shamisen's western counterpart: violin. In the 1880s, he started to manually produce and sell violins. He founded the Suzuki Violin Factory in 1900. By 1910, his factory was producing 65,800 violins per year. Nagoya became the manufacturing center of string musical instruments.
Suzuki Violin Co., Ltd.1-1, Hirokawa-cho, Hakagawa-kuNagoya 454-0027, JapanPhone: 52-351-6451Fax: 52-351-6453

nagoya acoustic sd335n back

2006-06-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

nagoya acoustic sd335n

2006-06-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Peter for the pics! Guitar is 10 years old;S/N 92074776

nagoya classical #32 back

2006-06-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

nagoya classical #32 front

2006-06-16T19:56:00.000-07:00

nagoya - 12-string N23 back

2006-06-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

thanks to Kim G. for the pics!

nagoya - 12-string N23 front

2006-06-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

Suzuki Guitar Pictures - Kiso and Nagoya

2006-04-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

This is a blog dedicated to older Suzuki Guitars. Suzuki Guitars have been around since the 50's and have attracted a growing interest by players and collectors alike. Many guitar players own more than one guitar, yet a common story it seems is that the Suzuki guitar is the one played most often, or that stays with them when all others are sold. The company may be known by the generic label "Suzuki", but there are actually three different Japanese companies that have manufactured guitars under the name of Suzuki during the 50's to the present time - but all having a common ancestry.
Kiso-Suzuki was one company to manufacture guitars in the region of Kiso-prefecture. A company was started in Nagoya too - Suzuki Violin Company, Nagoya manufacturing about the same number of models as Kiso, but with different numbers.
Today, it seems Suzuki guitars are still manufactured in Nagoya, Japan, though the guitar label does not state that information.. All Suzuki's have had a fairly good-to-excellent reputation and some models are very collectable; one reason is the quality of wood and workmanship; there is also a history of copying from the venerable Martin company, (some story is getting passed around that the copies resulted in a lawsuit by Martin in the 1970's, but apparently is not true according to allexperts.com writer bilrux@aol.com.)
Also, I had a tour of the Martin factory a few years ago and asked the president, Chris Martin, who gave us the tour (super nice guy)about the lawsuit, and he said 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery', or words to that effect.
I've attempted to create some kind of order out of the chaos that exists regarding Suzuki model numbers and dates of manufacture, but the following list is only incomplete. I'm looking for any information re: the models of guitars that were manufactured by this company and the materials used.'
When this goal has been reached, it will be a wonderful day for all of those guitar players around the world who own a Suzuki guitar and have said to themselves, "I REALLY like this guitar...what is the story behind it?" If you have any information to add to the Suzuki story unfolding here, please submit pictures and/or stories thru the relevant links at the top of the page. If you have any pictures of construction, repair, or modifcations, e-mail the pics to me at suzukiguitars@verizon.net and I'll publish them. Just identify the model and describe the pic. Thanks!

nagoya - acoustic #F180 label 12-string

2006-04-21T20:59:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #F180 neck 12-string

2006-04-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #F180 back

2006-04-21T20:56:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic F180 front 12-string

2006-04-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #380S headstock

2006-04-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #380S back

2006-04-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #380S front

2006-04-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #3S headstock

2006-04-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #3S label

2006-04-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #3S back

2006-04-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #3S front

2006-04-21T20:45:00.001-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #9 headstock

2006-04-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #9 label

2006-04-21T20:42:00.001-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #9 back

2006-04-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #9 front

2006-04-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #7 headstock

2006-04-21T20:38:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #7 label

2006-04-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

nagoya - acoustic #7 front

2006-04-21T20:34:00.000-07:00