The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Hello Everybody;

Since I'm a devoted fan of Japanese (and some of the Spanish) made classical guitars of the ARIA brand, I joined this forum today. So far it's the only place where I could find some detailed information about ARIA's early classical guitars.

As far as I can judge, these wonderfully made guitars still seem to share a good reputation in the English-speaking countries (US, UK, AUS, NZ). Not so in Germany, where I live. The acoustic instruments of the ARIA and SHIRO brands were very popular here back in the 70ies and 80ies, but nowadays they seem to be forgotten.
One good thing about it - with a little luck you can find old ARIAs for little money.
I love them for their excellent craftsmanship and the fine quality woods. The Japanese at Matsumoku have somehow managed to find woods of outstanding quality back in the 70ies. I used to have some higher level German classical guitars made by well-known manufacturers from the same period, and I know other people who own such guitars. Many of them have issues with cracks or warpings, even if having been kept under ideal conditions over all these years. Also, none of my guitars made by Höfner, Hopf or other German brands sounded as good as these old ARIAs do.

A few weks ago I found a very nice A 543 F Flamenco guitar in very good to excellent condition (except a few minor dents on the top) for only 90 € (approx. 100 $ US), good hard shell case and two brand new sets of quality strings included.
This is nothing if one considers that a comparably good sounding and playable guitar costs up to ten times as much (or even more, as for Flamencas).

I enjoy this guitar very much, with its "dry" and percussive Flamenco-style sound and the low action it is a nice variety.
Plays and sounds completely different than my A 550 (mahogany/cedar top) or one of the Spanish-made ARIAS (mahogany/spruce top).

Now here's my question concerning this particular guitar:

There's a catalog of ARIA cassicals here on the website, and it's printed in there that the sides and back of the A 543 F are made from the same wood as the top - either cedar or spruce.
Mine has got a fine-grain spruce top. But the sides and the back don't look like spruce at all. The grain is different, and the color is different, too. The top has a honey-like color, and the rest is much more yellowish.
Many "Blanca" Flamencas are made from cypress or sycamore for the body, and I have seen new guitars in the shop of which sides and back look more or less like on my A 543 F.

Could it be that there's a mistake in the catalog? Or am I wrong and they are right?
Does anybody here know more about it?

If so, I would appreciate your answers very much.

I tried to upload pics this afernoon, but something went wrong, and all the text was gone, so I won't try it again in the same post.

Thank you very much in advance for your replies and opinions

best regards from Germany
Stefan

It doesn't seem too logical that the backs and sides would be spruce or cedar as these are usually reserved for the tops. I suspect that the catalog was in error. Try again to post those photos, that is always interesting.

Just an opinion here - - if you have a well built, solid guitar that you love to play and it sounds great to you, in the long run does it really matter what it is made of?

It is true, it doesn't matter. I'm just curious and I find it interesting.
Different woods have different characteristics soundwise, and I like to know more about it.

When I was younger, I played the bass guitar in a Heavy Band. I used to read a lot of interviews with musicians and all that stuff those days.

Concerning the mystical stories of old guitars sounding much better than newer ones, I remember one guy saying (I think it was the bass player of Judas Priest):
"I'm not a person who believes that a '63 precision bass sounds better than a new one, or that this or that sort of pickup is the only real thing. As far as I'm concerned, a bass may be made of my grandmother's table last week - as long as it sounds and plays great, it's my bass".

On the other hand, I found out that these old ARIAs sound very good to me. Not necessarily better than brand-new guitars, though.
I like them, and I can get them much cheaper. I simply couldn't afford a new guitar that comes close to the A 543 F.

I try to post the pics asap. I have to find out how, since the files are too big.

The Aria classical guitars from the 1960s-70s were well made intermediary guitars, but not quite in the league of the Kazuo Yairi, which produced some of the finest sounding CGs ever made. The higher end Yamaha's were also good, but the Yairi's had that extra something. What Aria did ccomplish though, was introducing well made and affordable instruments, which were leagues above the budget guitar brsnds.

For a very brief time, the Japsnese created a magical musical instrument platform, connecting musicias across diverse cultural boundaries. Hip, Hip, Hooray!

Finally I found out how to upload the pics

Yes, the K.Yairi Guitars are famous over here, too. One of my fellow musicians in the old days used to play one, a steelstring. She bought it second hand, but it was still pretty expensive. Beautiful guitar, very nice woodwork, great tone.

The old Arias were good value for the money, but hey were not cheap. The A 550, which was an entry-level model according to the catalog, cost 350 - 400 Deutsche Mark back in the late 60ies and early 70ies - an average salary of a worker at the time.
The models from A 556 to A 560 were pretty expensive, the target group were advanced players and semi-professionals, as far as I understand.
The sound of the A 550 is remarkably good and well-balanced, it outplays most guitars in the range of 350 to 650 € for my ears. Good action and playability, too.

The A 543 F is a class higher. Solid back and sides, bone nut and saddle, absolute perfect fretwork and lacquer finish.

Since I'm not a great player, for me this will do for some time.

I can't attach more than three pics in each post, so I'll post antoher reply for the next three.

Herr comes the rest...

thanks for the pictures! if the backs and sides have ray flakes similar to lacewood, then I suspect it is American Sycamore. European Sycamore is actually a maple, a little harder than American Sycamore but does not have ray flakes. so probably your guitar has a spruce top and American Sycamore back and sides.

Hi Willbo,

and thanks for the hint! Yes, it looks very much like you've described it. So most likely it's American Sycamore.
As far as I know, the Japanese used good tone woods from all over the world, and they imported much from America.

Anyway, I like the guitar very much. I put on a new set of strings yesterday, since the D'Addario EJ 46 didn't really fit.
The guy who sold the guitar put them on. I don't know why, these strings sound somehow kind of "dull" to me.
I've tried them on several guitars with different results in the past, but they are not for me.

The new set are Luthier 30 Concert White Silver, and they sound great with this Flamenco type guitar, very crisp and lively.
I tried them for the first time, because they are only half the price of the Savarez Tomatito, which are great strings, but definitely over-prized.