I think that the guitar models ending in 50 (750, 650,550) were crafted with mahogany back and sides. I have also seen these guitars with rosewood fingerboards. Clase 900 and some clase 800 & 700 guitars had ebony fingerboards. All three of the top models - the 700, 800, and 900- had laminated rosewood back and sides. Yairi's model numbering system became very complicated and confusing.ĭuring the early 1970s, classe 900 was the top model, so your clase 700 guitar was 3rd from the top. This was the same numbering system used by Yairi & Sons guitars - at least initially. "Sada Yairi employed a very odd model numbering system, using the word clase to indicate the model number. I'm quoting the post here so the info doesn't disappear if the other forum archives things. I did, however find a post with some info I hadn't seen before. I did some online searching and most of what I found is pretty much what I have seen before. I'm not a expert and it's been a few years since I really looked into these so I may be completely wrong, this is just what I remember.ĭo you think you can get a picture of the water mark? My daughter goes to a multi ethnic school and one of her Japanese friends may be able to translate it. I don't know if records were not kept or what but there just doesn't seem to be a lot if information available. I tried to help a friend find some information on Yairi's some time ago but couldn't find much outside of the Alverez line. I think this is more an issue with Alverez than Yairi but, at least in this country, almost everyone associates Yairi with Alverez and I think but can not verify, that this association also hinders the prices of old Yairi built guitars. There are some very good guitars in the Alverez Yairi line but, unfortunately, there are some less than good ones too.
I believe that many of the Alverez Yairi's are undervalued because of the spotty quality of Alverez guitars over the last few decades. I known a couple of people that raved about their classical guitars from that time period. They appear to have had a good reputation as guitar builders before Alverez used their name for an upscale line of guitars. It seems to me that I remember reading that father and son worked together but that K. I'm not too sure that "K Yairi" was ever directly associated with "S. This is the label that is still in production today. Yairi" labeled guitars are the uncle/nephew's. I also understand that they sometimes built under other brand names and there appear to be some Yairi's that don't differentiate between father and son as builders. Yairi" on the label and the son sometimes marked his as " H. The father's guitars were sometimes marked with "S.
I know there was a father and son and I believe the third was either an uncle or a nephew, not sure which. I don't know much about the Yairi family but I'm fairly sure that there were two or three Yairi's building guitars in Japan in the "60s. It's a decent guitar particularly when compared to the typical "Japanese" guitar of the time but I don't think this is what you're interested in. I also own an Alverez Yairi, made in the mid '70.