Nice! I always found Yairis well respected but never tried one....
I never knew they made guitars or anything, for that matter, out of Jacaranda!! Interesting. Bernie, if you'd ever had a Jacaranda tree you'd remember!! Every spring beautiful purple blossoms that are lovely until they all fall off and cover the ground and stain anything that touches them.
I never knew they used them to make guitar backs and sides! Those guitars look fun, How does Jacaranda sound??
In the 70s the term was mainly used to describe a South American rosewood, sometimes including Brazilian. I also have a soft spot for Japanese vintage guitars and own two Nagano Suzuki 3S, including one with Jacaranda back and sides. Though I have heard that many of the Yairi were laminate?
these are such awesome acoustics!
In the ‘70s, St Louis Music, as the US importer of Alvarez instruments, had a pretty big footprint in the marketplace. Their arrangement with Yairi put the Yairi-Alverez models at the top of their pecking order. I believe the tops were typically solid, but most likely the back & sides utilized both solid & laminate woods, depending on the model and it’s price point.
So Ralf, do you think these are even the same trees? Honestly, the Jacaranda i've known are small and spindly and even the older ones you see would be hard to imagine much wood coming from. So maybe different species altogether??Jacaranda Rosewood
The family of Jacaranda Rosewood is Leguminosae, and its genus is Dalbergia. Many people in Indonesia believe that it is a subspecies of dalbergia nigra (Brazilian Rosewood). The definition of the...santaroz.weebly.com
But: Brazilian Rosewood (D. nigra), is called in Brazil "Jacaranda da Bahia". (Salvador da Bahia being one of the ports from where the wood was shipped in the past). So the Japanese luthiers in the past often called Brazilian Rosewood simply "Jacaranda".
Ralf
I said: "Brazilian Rosewood (D. nigra), is called in Brazil "Jacaranda da Bahia". Brazil speaks Portuguese. Bahia is the reference to the port city Salvador.
laist.com
Ralf, agree to disagree...I said: "Brazilian Rosewood (D. nigra), is called in Brazil "Jacaranda da Bahia". Brazil speaks Portuguese. Bahia is the reference to the port city Salvador.
So the Japanese used the word "Jacaranda" for Brazilian Rosewood in the 70ies. Many of those laminated wood guitars from the time are indeed Brazilian Rosewood guitars as far as I understand. But also other Dalbergia species. The link I posted in post #11 talks about yet "another" Jacaranda that is used today in South East Asia and is pretty rare.
The blue/violett Jacaranda tree in post #5 is of course not Brazilian Rosewood (D. nigra)! Those flowering trees in California or South Africa are "Jacaranda mimosifolia".
The Story Behind LA's Beautiful, Ephemeral Jacaranda Blooms
These trees, like most things, are not native to Los Angeles.
Ralf
In any case, it's a very pretty wood, Brazilian or not.
What is very peculiar about this example is it has Martin D-41/D-45 style hexagon inlays. I don’t know if it was special ordered because whoever bought it didn’t want the tree of life inlays or if this is a mislabeled YW-600. I don’t believe it’s a fake because with just as much effort you could stick a Martin logo on it and try to pass it off as a D-41. I did however find one other YW-700 with the hexagon inlays so at the moment I’m guessing that mine was special ordered this way.
