NOBORU NAKAYAMA "MAESTRO" 2010 CLASSICAL/FLAMENCO GUITAR IN EXCELLENT CONDITION

Brand: Noboru Nakayama
;Country/Region of Manufacture: Japan

NOBORU NAKAYAMA "MAESTRO" 2010 CLASSICAL/FLAMENCO GUITAR IN EXCELLENT CONDITION

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

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 Noboru Nakayama Classical/Flamenco Guitar in excellent condition

This guitar was made in 2010 by Noboru Nakayama, who learned his craft under legendary Japanese luthier Sakazo Nakade. At the start of his own career Noboru Nakayama decided to make mostly flamenco guitars. This guitar, which can be classified as classical/flamenco, is great example of his fine work and deep understanding of attributes of good flamenco sound.

Noboru’s brother Osamu Nakayama was another famous Japanese luthier, who learned his craft while working at Jose Ramirez III workshop since 1961until 1970. After his return to Japan in 1971 he was making guitars that were nothing else but exact copies of Ramirez guitars. Naturally whole bunch of Ramirez guitars sold through 1960s were actually made by Osamu Nakayama.

This particular guitar remains in at least excellent condition. It doesn’t have any conspicuous dents or scratches on its body. The only element that prevents me from calling it “near mint” condition are 2 repaired cracks on soundboard, located on both sides of the fingerboard.  This repair was done by a professional luthier so well, that I am unable to recognize whether these were the cracks through the wood or just within the finish. Nevertheless it is all fixed, reinforced from inside with additional blocks of wood. The traces of these cracks are hardly visible at first glance.  

This guitar is very light. It offers great volume and response, crispy and crystal clear trebles, strong and raspy basses, great note clarity and separation and great sustain. All these traits definitely qualify this guitar to be used by flamenco player. It however can be used to play classical pieces as well as tunes in many other styles.

What is super important to flamenco players is the fact that this guitar has slim and very comfortable neck profile, “perfect” neck/body angle allowing for setting its action to 2.20 mm under E6 and 1.80 mm under E1 without causing any significant buzzing. 

Specifications:

Top: High Grade Solid Spruce/lacquer

Back and Sides: Solid Tiger Maple/lacquer  

Neck: Mahogany

Fingerboard: Ebony

Scale: 650 mm

Nut width: 52 mm

Its current action is set to 2.20 mm under E6 and 1.80 mm under E1. Second saddle takes the action up by 2 mm, which gives a player practically unlimited room for experiments with string action.

Guitar will be shipped in original arch top hard shell case in at least very good condition. 

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. 

 Some info about Asturias guitars

Asturias Distributers regard Asturias Guitars

"The Asturias Workshop is located on the island of Kyushu in the southern part of Japan. Seventeen people are employed there, most of whom have worked at Asturias all their lives or have a family connection. 

Throughout the guitar making process, the parts of the guitar are carefully selected and thicknessed to ensure optimum balance and then glued by hand. 

Great care is taken in choosing and storing materials. For example, tonewoods for the top are naturally dried for 3 to 4 years, then kiln dried before making up and fitting of rosette. The partially completed top is then stored for a further year. Similar methods are used for necks and other parts. From this stage each instrument is individually built and takes between 2 and 4 months to complete. 

Each Asturias guitar receives seven coats of varnish; each coat is carefully rubbed down to ensure an even thickness and purity of sound."

Asturias has a much bigger following in Japan, and a number of models on these sites might not be available in your country. 

Asturias and Kodaira Guitars

Kodaira is a secondary or discount model that is manufactured by Asturias in Kobe, Japan. 

Kodaira guitars are of the same quality as regular Asturias guitars, but they do not have the frills, adornments, and higher grade woods of Asturias guitars. 

The Kodaira model number system is similar to the model numbers used by Asturias in the 1980s. The label does say Kodaira or Kodaira by Asturias. The current Kodaira line up starts with the AST 60 and ends with the AST 100. 

During the 1970s & 1980s Kodaira models included the AST 40, 50, 60, 70, & 80. During that time Kodaira model numbers were tied to the Yen with the AST40 costing 40K Yen, AST50 costing 50K Yen, etc. 
Asturias and Kodaira are great student workhorse guitars. These guitars were sold in a variety of scales: 650, 640, 630, 590, 550 and 530. There was also a 700mm bass model.

Asturias & Kodaira has separated for many years ago (more than 10 years, maybe more than 20). 
Both are under marketed under the same umbrella, maybe owned by that corporation too, also
the rumor (may not be true) is that Kohno Manufacturing might own that corporation. We just
don't know the web of Japanese business system.

Anyway, in the last 10 years (or more) Kodaira isn't the same as Asturias anymore (except that
outside JP, they might still use Asturias AST brand.) 

The build & quality of both brands in the last 10 years for the same price in JP Yen have 
dropped in order to maintain the price point. However they both are still very reliable and
very durable. I always recommend them for my students and friends who are on budget.

A few years ago Asturias introduced several newer models called "Traditional Works" in the style of Romanillos and Torres. Very beautiful in appearance.

The English guitarist John Mills owned and performed a spruce top Asturias model AST 3456 built by Masaru Matano (similar to JM15) for his Asian tour in late 70s. He later switched to his Masaru Kohno 20 circa 1978 (which was later sold to another friend). For his world tour, John Mills was then playing his David Rubio.

Asturias collaboration with John Mills apparently broke off in the late 80's, and that for marketing purposes, the John Mills models were replaced with 'Renaissance' for JM 20 and Custom for JM15. The difference of the two is only purflings: the Renaissance has tie-block purflings, and the Custom has 3 layer plain purflings. Tonally the two models are as good. In fact I think Asturias belonged to John Mills was the best despite its lower model compared to my Asturias JM20 which I bought from Eli Kassner (Toronto Guitar Society) in 1984.

Asturias, under chief luthier Wataru Tsuji, then made another high-end model with Brazilian rosewood called Grand Suprema which was sold at about US$5,000 in 1987. The Grand Suprema has more clarity whereas my JM20 has a sweeter tone with excellent response, except the bass (6th) was poor. 

Why Asturias Guitars are not well known in the USA

During the 1980s, the Guitar Foundation of America (GFA),conducted a series of double blind research tests on a variety of classical guitars and rated Asturias guitars at the upper end for sound quality and playability. 

As a result of the GFA’s high rating and through word of mouth by other satisfied musicians, Asturias guitars started to gain a following in the US. But the popularity was short lived, because the guitars were extremely difficult to get in America . While Asturias guitars have a strong following in in Japan, & in other parts of Asia and Europe, many Amercan guitarists haven’t heard of Asturias classical guitars. 

The problem was that Asturias’s long time US distributer, JTG of Nashville, did little to no advertising nor did they provide much information about the available models. Only one or two catalogs were produced in English during the last 30 years and that was just for Asturias classical models (Asturias also produces a number of high end steel string guitars). 

Up until recently, it was very hard to get any sales info regarding Asturias guitars in the US. No distribution system was in place and you had to make purchasing arrangements directly from the distributer. Plus, a number of the models produced by Asturias had six month + waiting lists for US buyers. 

About 8 years ago, I tried to purchase an Asturias A7CP Sp/solid rosewood classical cutaway from JTG Associates and after several phone calls, I was told that the model could only be purchased on special order with prices ranging from $1800 to $3000. 

JTG Associates had very little information regarding Asturias models and they did not seem interested in obtaining any further information. Plus the information that they had was incorrect: the A7CP was not a special order model. Frustrated with their apathy, I ended up purchasing the guitar directly from Japan for $1400 and got the guitar in less than 2 weeks. 

Luckily JTG is no longer the US distributer. The new distributer, GSI of Santa Monica, CA seems to be much more responsive to buyers needs and freer with information regarding Asturias models. The major European distributer, Casa Bennelly, is also a great source of information.

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

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http://youtu.be/mecVgriaKJ0

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http://youtu.be/ceVTybPnq7c

http://youtu.be/Zyz8eZeTSRQ

http://youtu.be/T8bkPi4jhss

NOBORU NAKAYAMA "MAESTRO" 2010 CLASSICAL/FLAMENCO GUITAR IN EXCELLENT CONDITION

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