# Suzuki Guitar -- Looking for information.



## Pikey_rules

Hi everyone . I got a guitar here from a nice few years ago. Suzuki Violin Co.ltd the model number is no.8 and i cant find anything on this model. Also it was made in Nagoya, Japan and I dont think there made anymore. I tried to post pictures but it wont let me for some reason.

-- Nvm ill use photo bucket. heres the links

http://i1020.photobucket.com/albums/af328/Pikey_rules/IMG_1922.jpg

http://i1020.photobucket.com/albums/af328/Pikey_rules/IMG_1920.jpg


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## Ship of fools

They stopped making guitars in 1996 and chances are you won't find really anything about it. I will tell you that it looks more like a classical model and not really meant for steel strings I think you need to check to see that it might be bowing the neck and you should change the strings to nylon. All Suzuki guitars were made as a beginner to intermidiate level entry guitars so there wasn't a lot of information regarding them as no one really took them as very serious guitars so they were sold mostly to kids in schools to get them started.
If you could post a better picture of the bridge and the headstock I could tell you better if you have the wrong strings on it.Ship ...........oh and welcome


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## shoretyus

I have a Suzuki 3 series parlour guitar that I had for 25 yrs until the bridge split that was very nice guitar. I also had another 3's dreadnaught that was my first guitar that was also very nice.


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## sneakypete

I own several Suzukis...oldest is from 1948, have a 1950 Kiso Suzuki pick guitar, have another with a hand made hand written washi label that is outstanding...my wife tells me it says special guitar on the label, can`t read it `cause it in Japanese, and I`ll tell ya what, it ain`t no student guitar...neither is the `48...both are all solid wood as is the pick guitar. I have seen that yellow label before on line in Japan, earliest was 1964. The `48 and `50 both have the date on the label. I have a couple of other lesser Suzukis, the ones with the diamond cut bracing, they may not be on the same level as the others I own but they are very very nice in their own right. They did become well known for student level guitars overseas at a later date but I can tell you, that`s not all they built. Japanese guitar history says the original S. Yairi...left the Suzuki violin company in 1935 in Fukushima prefecture to start out on his own, related to both Sadao and Kazuo Yairi, the latter is still building great guitars today. There is some evidence that Suzuki was involved with the earliest Yamaha Dynamic guitars going back to the early `50s until Yamaha opened their own factory in 1966. Suzuki has a long and distinguished history of guitar/violin building in Japan, and the Yamaha Dynamics had steel winding posts like yours so some players in japan use steels on theirs but with the uncompensated saddle I found they sounded better with nylon strings. Yamaha did have Dynamic strings produced for the Dynamic line of guitars and from the advertising I see it looks like they were steel, so not unheard of for those guitars with steel winding posts to be strung with steel strings in Japan.
Too bad your pics aren`t better, I`d like to see more.


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## sneakypete

pics of one of my diamond cut Suzukis...


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## sneakypete

the label from my 1950...











the guitar...











the 1948...


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## shoretyus

i wore this puppy out. The bridge split and I replaced it but it's in the wrong place.


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## shoretyus




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## Ship of fools

Hey Sneakypete the guitars that you refer to I do not think they were avavilable in North America, most Suzuki's during those times were mostly their cheaper lines. I have only seen your Arch top once before and it was owned by a professional musician from Nagasaki Japan ( great guitarist ) I do not recall any solid wood brands ever sold here, just don't remember.But thanks for the pics always enjoyable to see some from your collection.Ship


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## sneakypete

well started out as all Suzukis then most Suzukis but I think to say ... some Suzukis...were laminate is more accurate. No idea what was exported so I can`t say all Suzukis were one thing or another...I only go by what I see over here and those I own. They most certainly did build solid wood guitars, I have some...they also made laminates...not at all rare in Japan. Have seen that yellow label before, and from my pics you can see they changed the labels several times...and there was more than one Suzuki building in Nagoya too, someone was selling an M. Suzuki guitar on line here. When I was a kid just about everything we saw in shops that was MIJ was cheap junk but since I got to Japan I came to realize thats not all they were making, they were making some very high end guitars, seems to me they exported a lot of cheap crap and kept the good stuff at home. Stands to reason they took to guitar building since they were working wood for millennia. Nagoya seems to have been the place to be for guitar builders at the time, I have other more obscure names from that area that are outstanding, and some cost me very little money...I mean shockingly little money. So...some Suzukis are as good as it gets, others can be extremely average...really depends...I do not lump them all together.


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## sneakypete

suzuki


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## DanLindsey

*Old Suzuki Classical Labels*



sneakypete said:


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Hi Sneaky,
I am very interested in the labels of your old Suzuki Classical guitars...the solid ones. In this thread you previously posted label pictures but it is so old the links are dead. If it's not too much trouble could you please repost some pictures of the various labels with a short description of the of the guitars...like all solid, solid top, very good, , mid range, etc. Thank you very much.
Dan


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## kibby

They produced mostly violins. Here are a few at this site.

Suzuki Guitars


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## kibby

I don't believe there are pics on the web of this one so I'll post mine. It was made between 1984 and 2003. Electric acoustic with cutaway. The neck is a little too narrow but plays like an electric. Almost as nice as my LP. Electronics work very well.


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## sneakypete

I no longer have the pics of the labels in my computer but they are dated. The two that are still seen in this thread I believe are solid wood, at the very least they have solid tops, I have others that were made later and have the diamond cut bracing, when looking with my watchmakers loupe they appear to be solid tops, and I have one other Suzuki that has a hand made hand written washi label that says special on it and I am certain it`s all solid wood too...but I hope that doesn`t sound like I only go for solid wood guitars, I have some all laminates that sound pretty darn good in their own right so I`m not only looking for solid wood guitars, I have just lucked out pretty much, same goes for all my old Yamaha Dynamics, while so many folks seem fixated on the red labels, a few of us over here are after the older Dynamics, and according to my books they are solid wood too.....didn`t know that when I bought my first one but it was a factor in my buying all the others since...that and they were priced so low it was impossible not to buy them.


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## jkcdesign

*No.9*

Like mine the number 8 was part of the "folk series" late 60's into the 70's. They were fitted with ladder bracing, slotted head and steel post tuners, to be strung with steel not nylon. They have a reinforced steel neck with a very deep "D" shape and quite narrow, mine is 40mm at the nut. Interestingly the nut is not the end of the scale. The first fret is located adjacent to the nut which is slotted deep enough to allow the strings to lay across the fret wire. The saddle is a round plastic rod nestled into the bridge.


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## sneakypete

yes, I have heard that called the zero fret...some of my old nylons have that too.


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## faceofscribbles

Hey there, I have a question for sneakypete. I just picked up a Kiso Suzuki model# 80 at a yard sale, and I'd love to know what year it was made in and how much it's worth. It looks a lot like the guitar pictured here! I was wondering if you could tell me what model is pictured here, and what you know about it? Thanks!



sneakypete said:


> pics of one of my diamond cut Suzukis...


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## sneakypete

Unless it`s dated on the label, it has been very difficult finding out precisely when they were made...that one of mine you linked has the diamond cut bracing and a purple label...have them with a white label too but unfortunately I have not been able to find an exact date, frankly I`ve stopped looking. If I had to wager money I`d say probably from the `70s sometime based on models and labels I saw on line in Japan in the past, sorry...thats as good as I can get.


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