Current Japanese Guitar Industry News

Industry Buzz

October 11, 2009

Written by Andrew Mechling former owner and partner of GuitarsJapan.com

Welcome Fellow Guitar Players, Collectors and Enthusiasts,

Despite the US dollar taking a beating from the much stronger Japanese yen in recent months, there are a wealth of great Japanese guitars
available today. In better economic times, rare and unique guitars rarely hit the market at all, as demand was high and these guitars passed
from one hand to another without public notification or sale. Now, however, as money is tight everywhere, the public forum is "in" once again
which means that we are seeing guitars for sale we were not able to get previously. You may have noted price changes on our site and this is
an unfortunate result of the exchange rate. We use xe.com for accurate, current-to-the-second rates. When the market corrects, we're
hoping to lower our prices again to pass along the good fortune. So there's the good and the bad.

We have also diversified our interests in guitars to include "lefty" guitars for the southpaws among us. I understand how hard it is, as I'm a
lefty myself, although the only things I do right-handed is play guitar and golf. I think it has to do with what's available - if, when I was
younger, lefty guitars and golf clubs were available in my small town, I'd have almost certainly gone lefty. I often wonder how my game and
playing would be if I had started those endeavors naturally as a left-hander... So, we are making available to you the finest in lefty guitars and
basses and have even created a special gallery for them. Thank you to all the left-handers who have talked me into creating this gallery!

Another way we're diversifying is that, while we still have a passion for and will focus on vintage-style guitars, we will be adding a few new
brands of instruments to our lineup after passing rigorous quality and craftsmanship standards. One brand of special note it Caparison, who
have been building amazing shredder guitars for more than a decade. They're here to stay and surpass Ibanez and other shredder guitar
brands in terms of playability, tone, quality, and most importantly, VIBE. These guitars are awesome, with their signature abalone clock inlays
and the "Through and Through" headstock label. Even strictly vintage guitar buffs love these guitars, and that says a lot.

Thanks for checking in here, and I wish you luck on your search for the never-ending search of the ultimate guitar. Keep rockin' my friends -

Andrew

OH, I almost forgot... if you're even remotely into Japanese guitars, you MUST read the following book:

JAPROCKSAMPLER
HOW THE POST-WAR JAPANESE BLEW THEIR MINDS ON ROCK 'N' ROLL
by Julian Cope - ISBN 978-0-7475-8945-7

The title says it all - I could talk about this here,
but I've said a lot already.
Just check it out; you'll be glad you did.

Thanks for listening,

Andrew Mechling

Archived News and Blogs by Date...