HAND MADE IN JAPAN RYOJI MATSUOKA M50 GREAT RAMIREZ STYLE CLASSICAL GUITAR

Brand: R.Matsuoka
;Country/Region of Manufacture: Japan

HAND MADE IN JAPAN RYOJI MATSUOKA M50 GREAT RAMIREZ STYLE CLASSICAL GUITAR

Please read my 7 days return policy at the bottom of the page.

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If you are thinking about a purchase of a used vintage guitar you need to accept the fact that such guitars may have cosmetic flaws solely associated with their age, but not related to any particular damage. For example their finishes change their look over the years and are not glossy and crystal clear like on brand new guitar. In addition, such guitars may require fret dressing, new tuners, string action adjustment or a simple repair before they can be fully enjoyed. I see guitars as musical instruments, not as furniture. When I describe guitar as being in excellent condition I don't talk only about its cosmetics but mostly about its structural & functional condition, sound and playability. If you are seeking a perfect looking, low maintenance guitar you should abandon a thought about buying used vintage one, especially from me. 

I don't offer "sound samples" because they never reflect true sound of a guitar as we hear it playing in our own room. You can greatly change tonality of any guitar by using different strings.      

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SUPER SOUNDING RYOJI MATSUOKA M50  CLASSICAL GUITAR 

All Matsuoka models starting from M70 (MH70) to M180(MH180) are currently made in China. 

Model M50 from 1983 is of equal quality to currently made model M150 (also made in China).

According to Japanese collector, a previous owner of this guitar, it was made in 1983 and this is one of the all solid version of model M50 made by R. Matsuoka.

I can’t verify or deny this description. Guitar sounds far better and is certainly made different way than all other M50s from 1970s and 1980s that I had in my hands. Inside wall of the back looks very dark and is most likely painted with lacquer. Sides are lined with light colored cypress. These are always indicators of high grade Japanese made guitar. Japanese luthiers learned this method from great Spanish luthiers. Jose Ramirez was making guitars the same way, including models with laminated back and sides priced (in today’s money) at $10 000. Nobody even thought about questioning their quality.  

Guitar remains in practically mint condition. It has only few pin-head size marks on its entire body and some kind of finish imperfection (fingerprint-like) on the face of the headstock (only visible at certain angle).

After being on display for many years the fingerboard of this guitar has dried out and original frets have become loose. Therefore I asked Greg Hails (the owner of Aperio Guitar in Jones Creek, GA) to re-fret this guitar. He has done excellent job and used stainless steel frets. Cost of re-fretting $300.00.

Real Value of Japanese Vintage Guitars

The key to understand value of vintage Japanese guitars is to acknowledge galloping devaluation of Japanese yen in 1960s & 1970s. This devaluation was somewhat slower in 1980s. The best measure of this devaluation is Starting Yearly Salary of Japanese College Graduate (SYSJCG).

SYSJCG in in 1965 was 19 600 yen, in 1969 – 34 600 yen, in 1970 39 200 yen, in 1972 – 62 300 yen, in 1975 79 200 yen, in 1977 121 200 and in 1980 - 163 000 yen.

During 1960s and most of 1970s model numbers of Japanese guitars were strictly interconnected with their prices in Japanese yen. In late 1970s and during following decades model numbers were no longer strictly associated with their prices. Many Japanese guitar makers introduced model names instead of model numbers. Others were still using model numbers with addition of letter abbreviations or other symbols.  

The best and only logical approach while evaluating real value (real grade) of vintage Japanese guitar is to compare its price in Japanese yen with SYSJCG during the year guitar was made.

Any guitar priced 100 000 in 1970 (labelled usually as No10) would be priced 200 000 yen in 1975 (relabeled to No20 or 2000), 300 000 yen in 1977 (labelled as No3, No30 or 3000). Starting in 1977 Masaru Kohno introduced his model No50 priced at 500 000 (skipping theoretical model 40). Soon other famous Japanese luthiers did the same. By 1983 Kohno started using model names instead numbers and was raising their prices as he was pleased. Naturally soon other Master luthiers did the same.

Knowing all of that, you can bet on that Masaru Kohno No50 made in 1982 is practically the same quality as Kohno No15 made in 1972, or Kohno no20 made in 1975 or Kohno No30 made in 1977. I know it for a fact.

The lowest grade models currently made by Matsuoka workshop are M75 and MH75. They are commonly considered as “beginner guitars”. Matsuoka model M30 made in 1973 is simply far, far better instrument. It is naturally better than model M50 made in 1977, model 80 made in 1982 or model M100 made in 1990. At present, the highest grade Matsuoka models are M300 and MH300. They absolutely stand no chance in competition with model M150 made in 1975… or model M200 made in 1977.

It is very important to mention that if modern era luthiers are using 40 years old woods to make a classical guitar, its price is at least $8000.

This particular Matsuoka M50 sounds 3 times better than any other M50 that I have tried and/or sold in the past. The guitar has very unique & sweet sound, with clear trebles and deep basses, with great sustain and decent volume. It is definitely comparable with many guitar models available on US market in price range $2000 - $2500.

This guitar is very competitive to much more expensive instruments, made by much more famous guitar makers. Also within R. Matsuoka lineup this guitar with Solid Rosewood back and sides produces noticeably better sound than regular model M50, M60, M70 and so on. The exceptional sound of this guitar can also be linked to its well open Spruce top and naturally unique Matsuoka bracing, that could be described as transverse or semi-lattice bracing.

Description

* Ryoji Matsuoka M50 All Solid Woods

* Solid Spruce Top with original Matsuoka bracing

* Back & Sides: Solid Rosewood or Rosewood Doubleplate

Calling this construction "laminates" would actually be very incorrect and quite misleading. This genuine Japanese invention has really nothing in common with modern era cheap particle-board laminates. This construction is nothing but 2 solid wood plates glued together, hence in fact nothing but reinforced solid woods. Such plates perform no different from solid woods, while don't crack as easily, are much easier to work with, and allow for much lower prices of these instruments. Such guitars have always been and still are a true blessing for all guitar enthusiasts with limited funds.

   Sides - sides are lined with cypress

It is absolutely not true that "all solid woods" guitars always have side braces. There are many "all solid woods" guitars without side braces as well as there guitars with lamintaed b/s with side braces. In fact Japanese high laminates used in guitar making very fiten were much thinner that plates made from solid woods. Therefore they needed extra support with side braces. Very often used by Spanish and Japanese luthiers cypress lining replaces side braces. 

* Mahogany neck

* Ebonized Rosewood fretboard

* Fine wood mosaic inlay around sound hole
* Hand Polished Nickel Silver Frets

* Rosewood Bridge

* Slotted Ramirez Style Headstock

* Bone nut and saddles

* Nut width: 51.5 - 52mm

* string spacing at the saddle is 58.5 - 59 mm

* Scale: 650 mm

* Gold hardware

The action is set to 3.00 mm under E6 and 2.50 mm under E1mm. But there is still enough of room on the saddle and neck/body angle is so perfect that you could try to experiment with even lower action.

 As already very (too) experienced seller I have to add this official statement:

For some “heavy handed” players such action maybe too low to avoid any buzzes. In such case the solution a higher saddle. Final set up is your responsibility. If you don’t know how to do it, you will have to visit your local luthier and pay for it.  

This guitar will be shipped in used case of minimal value. You don’t pay for the case. You only pay for the guitar. Please consider this case as a free bonus and don’t expect too much. I will not accept any complaints regarding the condition of the case. 

Message to Australian buyers !!!!!

In order to ship a package with guitar to Australia at affordable rate +/- $100 (USPS International Priority Mail), height of such package can’t exceed 42” and its girth+ length can’t exceed 97”. Therefore I will pack the guitar into a case that is short enough to meet this requirement. 

Ryoji Matsuoka was well known Japanese guitar maker who has been producing guitars in Nagoya, Japan since the 1960s. Nagoya is Japan’s 4th largest city and a major industrial port city located on the main island of Honshu in Aichi prefecture. 
The Nagoya/Aichi/Kani area (Kani is the prefecture next to Aichee) is one of Japan’s major musical instrument making centers. The city and the outlying areas have a long classical guitar making history with many small shops producing guitars. Major guitar and violin makers include Matsumoku Industrial, Suzuki, Takaharu, Sada Yairi, Kazuo Yairi (Kani), Daion, Yamaki, Ibanez/Hoshino, and Ryoji Matsuoka. Additionally, there are numerous small guitar shops and factories that contract to larger firms, such as Yamaha in Hamamatsu. 
The Ryoji Matsuoka guitar works was a small scale guitar manufacturer with less than 15 employees. For a few years during the 1960s and early 1970s, Matsuoka produced the higher end Aria guitar models for Shiro Arai, founder of Aria . These Aria models either have Ryoji Matsuoka's name on the label or are marked RM with a red stamp on the neck block. Matsuoka also made some models for Ibanez, including a few steel string flatop and archtop models.
During the early 1970s, Matsuoka produced Fleta, Hauser, Kohno and Rubio. The copies of Kohno guitars with 2 ebony strips in the necks and higher grade spruce tops were made in much greater numbers than copies of other luthiers. They were also sold at higher price.

From 1975 to 1980 the company produced their own line of guitars: the concert, artist and artisan series.
The Concert series includes the M20 (laminated spruce top, nato neck), M30 (solid spruce top, mahogany neck), M40 (solid spruce top, mahogany neck). All 3 models have laminated rosewood back and sides and rosewood fingerboards.
The Artist Series includes the M50 and M60. These guitars have better quality spruce tops and were made in several versions. Some of them, less expensive versions, were made with laminated Indian Rosewood or laminated Jacaranda back and sides, ebony fingerboards and plain neck. On the other end of the spectrum there were also all solid versions with Solid Indian rosewood or solid Jacaranda back and sides, with one or double Ebony reinforcement in the neck. 
The Old World Artisan Series includes the M70 and M80, made with all solid woods and one-piece mahogany necks.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Matsuoka models included the M50, M60, M70, M80, M100, M150, M200, and M300 with Ramirez style headstock and models MH100, MH150, MH200, MH300 with Hauzer style headstock. All of them were made with solid Spruce tops. M50, M60, M70 were made either with laminated back and sides or as all solid guitars. All other models were all solid wood guitars.

In the late 1990-ties models M65 and M75 with Cedar tops were added to the production line mostly with laminated back and sides.

To make matters little more complicated, by the end of 1990-ties some Spruce top models were also made with Cedar top without any change on the label. So we can for example encounter model M60 with either Spruce or Cedar top. Most likely each guitar was sold with attached precise specification.

Since early 1990-ties Matsuoka has also been making guitars for Aranjuez label (launched by Juan Orozco) and lower priced cosmetic copies of a Mathias Dammann classical guitars (they were not exact copies). The top Aranjuez model M720 has been made in cooperation with Kohno/Sakurai workshop. Masaru Kohno and later Masaki Sakurai were making tops with their superb bracing, while Ryoji Matsuoka was responsible for all other parts and final assembly. This cooperation continues until today between Toshiaki Matsuoka and Masaki Sakurai. These M720 guitars with Matsuka and Sakurai labels offer exceptional quality of sound at moderate price. They are sold at Guitar Salon International in Santa Monica, CA for $2700.

Allexperts .com

Japanese luthier Ryoji Matsuoka offered good quality classical guitars during the 1970s. Guitars were offered as part of the M Series with models starting at M-20 and ranging by ten digit increments up to the M-100. They were distributed in US by Tornavoz Music in Santa Monica, CA. The higher the number of the guitar the higher quality materials were used. In 1975, prices ranged between $270 and $1,050.

Mentioned above prices absolutely don’t reflect actual value of these guitars, but quite beneficial for US buyers, money market exchange rates at that time. The exchange rate between USD and Yen in 1975 was around 300 yen per dollar. With current exchange rates the same guitars would be priced at $810 - $3,150.00. If these guitars were made in Spain their prices would be 3 times higher. It is also worth to mention, that since spruce tops produce louder and sweeter sound as they age, this guitar being 30 years old is a true gem.

Returns

If you are not happy with your purchase you may return the guitar for a refund of a purchase price of a guitar.  The cost of shipping both ways will not be refunded.

All you need to do is to:

1.    Notify me within 5 days after delivery   

2.    Pack guitar the same way I do it, using the same box and materials

3.    Ship it back to me within next 2 days

Another words I expect this “trail” period to occur within +/- 7 days. Naturally guitar has to be returned in the same condition as I ship it to you. This is simply honest offer for honest buyers. My goal is to make your purchase as risk free as possible. I know very well that spending $1000 of hard earned money is not emotionally easy undertaking for majority of guitar lovers. I am sure that reading my feedback can ease a bit your “purchase anxiety” but it still will be there no matter how hard I try.

Victor                                                              

P.s. If you'd like to check my other posted on E-bay guitars click on the links below:

http://youtu.be/W1FaCjodgZM

http://youtu.be/_3tJW9ljjdM

http://youtu.be/ExVwfhLy1gQ

http://youtu.be/XNdeSWxb2nU

http://youtu.be/mecVgriaKJ0

http://youtu.be/O9ErnhZhDxw

http://youtu.be/ceVTybPnq7c

http://youtu.be/Zyz8eZeTSRQ

http://youtu.be/T8bkPi4jhss

HAND MADE IN JAPAN RYOJI MATSUOKA M50 GREAT RAMIREZ STYLE CLASSICAL GUITAR

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