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  1. #1

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    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-59325783_10215312880038234_5220743575347658752_n-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-59358926_10215312861117761_5482537912396414976_n-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-60124556_10156398417292239_8774039370165387264_n-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-59886247_10215312825716876_5795524626071158784_n-jpg



    Holy Grail day boys... Ya know sometimes you look at an ad and the photos just don't cut it BUT you see something that just makes you sit up and go God Damn !!! It's a ".............. ...... ...." -- something you never ever thought you'd see is staring you in the face.
    You ask for more photos but On Faith and your gut you pull the trigger anyway. And then the photos start rolling in and you're up half the night you're so excited. That's this one here.


    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi, YC140 Japan model, jacaranda stump wood body, lovely little wood marquetry around the top like on a DY96, all the bells and whistles, in real sweet shape. The seller's a great kid and it's on the way. I have a plethora of seller provided photos but I'm gonna show you the one that got me all lathered up. This photo told me that this was real special before I saw it in better detail.

    I posted the photos on Facebook and my AY collector buddies in Japan started chiming in, got me even more worked up...
    Big



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  3. #2

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    Big Mike, those Yairi guitars are awesome. I have been a sucker since my father came back from Tokyo in 1962 and said that Yairi was the top of the line in Japan.

  4. #3

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    So the thing that made me pull the trigger was the stump wood used as the headstock overlay. I KNEW I'd found true love when I saw that. Here's some shots of the back and sides. Oh yeah..


    .
    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-59325783_10215312880038234_5220743575347658752_n-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-59962207_10156398475847239_4795306371526426624_n-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-59777987_10156398417222239_8220241107288588288_n-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-59350623_10156398417172239_1436352022877044736_n-1-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-59522484_10156398417522239_3248293537015398400_n-jpg

  5. #4

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    This right here... check out the lovely multi colored wood marquetry... Usually Kazuo would hand laquer the insides of the body too, just one of his touches...


    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-ad6b8336-57e6-4c60-9f15-4765547d8186-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-6cf75da8-3983-4955-a093-21acc413f47e-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-04d25967-ff80-4b71-9557-a9c6746b4770-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-0e092fc4-7083-4d29-a7c0-388f32cf19d0-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-bfc285e9-46af-4d5f-aaae-8ba78551fb36-jpg

  6. #5

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    I had one of those in the 80's. Loved it. But I thought it was a CY140. Wasn't it?

  7. #6

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    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-150feaad-4f76-4297-a6d2-48fb444aac80-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-1ab27bf3-dbd8-4844-839c-29bd7d3f0296-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-9ec34b22-bed4-4b69-83fc-c43438082288-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-d0a8101c-d1d9-4cb0-a8f0-f023511c87af-jpg

  8. #7

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    Congratulations, Big Mike! That is an absolutely gorgeous guitar. I could spend hours just staring into the figure in the Brazilian rosewood and inlay. Wow!

  9. #8

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    ?Alvarez Yairi is distributed in America by St Louis Music. K Yairi are Japan and some european areas.
    Model numbers in America are different. DY for drecadnauts, whereas in Japan they might be YW... not all models match in specs either.

    The CY140 is for the Amrican market and it's up for debate when Kazuo stopped using solid jacaranda and went with the laminates which they are masters at. I've owned five or more of the CY140s, but what I always wanted was the solid jacaranda models and you rarely find them. To find one that is solid with the old style multi colored marquetry, well that is a SCORE...

    More photos when she arrives, she's already in UPS's hands...

    Big






    Quote Originally Posted by WilliamScott
    I had one of those in the 80's. Loved it. But I thought it was a CY140. Wasn't it?

  10. #9

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    Wow! Solid Jacaranda back and sides!!! That’s extremely drool worthy. Even better!

  11. #10

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    Wow!

  12. #11

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    There a lot of models that were made for the Japan market only. Thanks to the internet, enterprising dealers in Japan and loonies like me that love the best this kind of stuff is available.


    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-3d8a3cc9-d94c-4e99-830c-efa0004450dc-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-e7aaf505-7036-4f73-9f49-72c18a1a70b3-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-fbf13e2b-e46b-4acc-b742-860f60849d14-jpg

    THAT FIRST PHOTO IS OF TWO K Yairi GL models, far smaller than parlor guitars but really sweet little boomers. Ones mahogany body, the other jacaranda



    SECOND PHOTOS IS IF A K Yairi biwlback model called an OY80 Leo. The bowlback made of alternating staves of jacaranda, mahoganyband maple. The pickguard is solid jacaranda. Killer

    t

  13. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by BigMikeinNJ
    ?Alvarez Yairi is distributed in America by St Louis Music. K Yairi are Japan and some european areas.
    Model numbers in America are different. DY for drecadnauts, whereas in Japan they might be YW... not all models match in specs either.

    The CY140 is for the Amrican market and it's up for debate when Kazuo stopped using solid jacaranda and went with the laminates which they are masters at. I've owned five or more of the CY140s, but what I always wanted was the solid jacaranda models and you rarely find them. To find one that is solid with the old style multi colored marquetry, well that is a SCORE...

    More photos when she arrives, she's already in UPS's hands...

    Big
    I had a CY140 and it sounded great. And the back/sides were definitely lam, you could clearly see the different grain inside.

  14. #13

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    These are the other solid jacarandas I own
    DY95N. DY96. DY95
    GL600 ON THE BED

    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-3266e309-8335-49cf-b83f-4590a8b3c67f-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-ea3c2f4a-a1ed-44ff-8931-7be8341b6400-jpg

  15. #14

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    This is the DY95 a real sweet guitar

    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-365b2a96-6804-4fac-9e1c-2f84fdcd86ca-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-e6a43dab-b0d6-45c6-aa99-df776f821a85-jpg

  16. #15

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    Wow, nice score. I'm a fan of the brand as well, don't have any at this time but a fan from afar. Really, a work of art.

  17. #16

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    That's a sweet guitar. I have a fairly recent vintage Alvarez A/E classical, which is not in the same class obviously. I have always wanted a Yairi.

    Do you mind telling (ballpark) how much you paid for it? Prices I see on various vintage sites are all over the place--from under a thousand to several thousand.

    Show some more pics when you get it, and let us know how it plays.

  18. #17

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    73 Fender, Doctore Jeff, Greentone,

    Can't say enough about how rare it is to see one of these to ever show up at all, yeah the CY140s are very common because from around 1975 they've used jacaranda laminates. And they were making the YC140 for the Japan only market. I got in a bidding war with a guy I know from a Yahoo Alvarez Yairi forum for a very beat up CY140 with solid jacaranda - it didn't have the fancy marquetry but it had the gorgeous wood back and sides. In fact this thing was so beat to hell it looked like Trigger, Willie Nelson's Martin N-20 (BRW). We went back and forth and the night before the auction ended he made a final bid, I couldn't go any higher. Someone else made a last second counter bid and I think the guy I was bidding against paid 4k something for it.

    Back in the early to late 70s Kazuo Yairi had a bit of Jacaranda stashed. Unfortunately there was a horrible fire at the factory and a lot of rare wood went up in the inferno. But when Kazuo was making the ultra rare solid models like the DY92 bowlback, DY95, DY95N tree of life and the ultimate, the DY96, the most attractive patterned ones were from 1974 to 1978 - the number of these solid models made per year declined and later examples from 1979 to 1985 have far plainer timbers.

    For example one cool feature of the ultimate, the DY96, they used a big block of Jacaranda stump wood that had crazy patterns in it for the pick guard. So each time they made one of these they cut a slice of that wood for the pickguard. My first DY96 was a 1977 and it was off the hook. I paid $3200.00 which was a lot less than my eSnipe bid of over 5k. That was in 2002. In 2007 I sold it to my buddy Masami Itoh, a collector in Japan. I got married and I need money to move to Jersey. The day I sent it I got so depressed. That sucker was so nice. In 2012 right after Hurricane Sandy hit us I scored a 1985, the last year, and they had to switch to ebony for the pickguard. We had no power, water or heat and I watched the auction end from a pizza place a couple miles away - it's when we saw the first tv coverage since it hit us, I miraculously I won it for $1201.00. The guy I won it from is a buddy of mine who I counseled since 2003 on the DY96s... And then in 2016 I got my current DY96 a 1978 with gorgeous wood. But only 2 or 3 were made year with a total of only 22 or so ever being made.

    In all that time I never saw an early solid CY140 or much less a K Yairi YC140... Aside from that previously mentioned
    bidding war in early 2012 this is the first solid Jacaranda classical (CY140 or YC140) I've seen. These days with CITES being so strict on any rosewood products if you found a CY140 or YC140 solid overseas you'd be looking down a shotgun barrel trying to import it...

    So yeah I'm heavily into these solid Alvarez Yairi or K Yairi models. I was doing this shit LONG before I ever came along to these parts.

    The kid with this for sale had a BIN of $2200.00 and a Best Offer option, I offered $1900.00 and went back to look at the photos again and just do the BIN but he had already accepted m=y $1900.00 offer. Then he started texting me the better pictures. I was up until about 2am Monday morning just hyper as hell... Box is probably already in Chicago but hasn't been scanned yet in Hodgkins.

    Thanks for listening, can you tell how hopelessly addicted I am to the AY and K Yairi stuff.

    Big


    Now for those guys that want an AY dreadnaut the DY74 Wellington is a great starter model, they use straight grained rosewood on it. The DY85 has some of the Martin D45 bling and is laminated Jacaranda (but the abalone inlay does not cover the entire "keyhole" area around the
    sound hole. Great guitar though. Then there is the DY90 Super Abalone which has the entire keyhole bound. But they're all great laminated guitars - like taking a decent Ibanez L5 copy to a gig instead of your late 50's Gibson L5, they sound and look great but you won't vapor lock if you get a little ding in them. AND being lams they're tough and pretty sweet sounding. In fact I'd say that AY does the best laminated rosewood bodies of anyone. I wish I had a nickel for every time a newcomer came along on the old Yahoo forum bragging about his solid DY85... lol... They're nice but they're not solids. You put a DY90 up next to a DY96 the first thing you notice is the DY96 weighs about a pound less and it rings longer and sounds far more complex and sweet. Was you would expect. But if you want a sexy looking dread and only have about $1200.00 a late 70s DY90 would sure rock your world...

  19. #18

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    I have a 1981 CY 125 that I use for playing flamenco. I love it! I have gotten a nice low action and the sound is perfect. I bought it used. It has a great patina. The lacquer has aged beautifully.

    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-6951d511-73eb-4112-a5a5-0ddaa92daea0-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-e2db0eee-555e-4445-9a16-e945e92577d3-jpg

  20. #19

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    Big Mike, I have a S Yairi Classic guitar from the late 60's knocking around in my little workshop.

    It has some serious issues, like SERIOUS ISSUES.

    It's a neck broke guitar that had a 70's epoxy repair! Yikes.

    But the tone is something considering its neck block has 3mm of resin keeping it together.

    The craftsmanship that put it together is in a league of its own. The cheap strings that are on it sound so sweet.

    It's one of those back burner guitars that 'I'll fix one day'. maybe that day is now!

    I won't post pictures on your thread coz' it will detract from your NGD, but needless to say If your new squeeze is better sounding than this broken gem you are in for a treat.

    Enjoy

  21. #20

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    Mark M, your CY125 is a real beauty. I had a CY135 or Conquistador that had an odd cutaway and was made with gorgeous coral rosewood. Damn the wood on that was amazing. My cat Ivy would jump right in the case to lay on it as soon as I brought it out, he loved the smell of that wood.

    Jazzbow, Sadao Yairi is cousin to Kazuo. I think they all learned from Kazuo's uncle when they were kids but Kazuo had far more commercial success that Sadao did. There's a real hardcore cadre of S Yairi fans out there.

    When I was talking about my first DY96 and how I sold it to my buddy
    Masami-san... Well in my first post in this thread are two photos at the top... That is my old DY96 from 1977 and Masami-san says that other guitar's a CY140 SOLID from 1977... So it sort of answers at least partially when those were made solid or Solid Custom. You that DY96 pick guard, compare it to the photo of Tres Hombres shot in my bedroom, you can see how similar the pick guards patterns are. My current DY96 is a 1978... A slice or two apart off that block. Masami-san has an amazing array of solid Alvarez Yairi and K Yairi's... he used to have a little website with all the photos. He's a real well known collector of them in Japan, so well known he used to make trips to Kifu and had Kazuo work on the 1977 DY96 I sold him. In Japan his nickname is Abalone Supreme (the model name for the DY96).

    Big
    Last edited by BigMikeinNJ; 05-07-2019 at 09:47 PM.

  22. #21

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    UPS comes early

    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-24f31c41-91fe-42be-ac0a-6ec371936f55-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-5d750afd-f6bd-4334-b794-a11bfe918a14-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-863d58cf-c58d-48b7-a6fa-ef4bd12c0ddc-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-c2c277b4-9805-40d9-9520-6181118e1cbd-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-595302ee-4e0f-436e-aff1-45a9ce6224fb-jpg

  23. #22

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    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-dcbd73e8-58b6-4bae-a88f-12a573b49122-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-783d7192-592d-4d7a-a102-6099c9c10995-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-3d8d6796-718c-4425-9e9f-b3c440d6d844-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-12f5587c-a4b8-4bfc-a294-69a668533eeb-jpg

  24. #23

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    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-dc9b1be5-bd7e-48ac-aa81-33a729523d30-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-90057a18-e22c-4bd4-893d-52c8094db9c8-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-252057df-32c6-4f5b-969c-69ea325e3247-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-c54b0b20-6e3f-47e3-b85a-6761b7d4ec35-jpg

  25. #24

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    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-dcf0f800-45d6-4b84-b86c-b314915b400c-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-38d0edd6-9e5f-4607-b9d6-6d698f25597d-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-d729c074-6f06-4f68-a97a-a6886a6eaf1a-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-137c15c0-441d-4966-97f4-636468e4002a-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-392d5fee-a990-47f7-a8b2-90f8722751a7-jpg

  26. #25

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    1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-05817ac7-556d-430a-8a4a-7b2bf85a9288-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-b52a16e8-3633-4078-a27b-013a53c0819c-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-bdc474e2-a6db-4f9a-8c3b-edb8e003cb9b-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-4c17b06c-07da-4e04-a946-cbe6b5e26436-jpg1974 Alvarez by K Yairi YC140-d88b6c81-70e3-414a-a8d6-5d021fab4b21-jpg