Sunday 18 November 2012

Yamaha AES 820's cool headstock


I have to admit that so far I've overlooked the Yamaha AES series to which this early 2000s Yamaha AES 820 belongs. OK, it has some typically Yamaha cool features, like a very special beveled German carve, a quite interesting stoptail, a certain elegance in the disposition of the knobs, but still it has something of a fat LP that made me look away each time I saw it - just not my type...

It's only today that I noticed its headstock and realized that it uses a tuner configuration that feels so obvious that I've been wondering for ever why it's not a standard feature, since it allows to keep the strings straights while connecting to 3x3 tuners. The headstock has a classic roughly rectangular shape, while the tuners form a triangle like on a Flying V headstock - and some tuners have longer stems to fit the shape: simple and I guess efficient. I will have to try this guitar one day - especially as I've learnt that there is a baritone version of it.  

Bertram D

PS. I always wonder why Yamaha has such a poor website, no online archives and so little exciting current models after their great history of electric guitar making...  

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9 comments:

  1. I've been tempted to buy one of these for quite a while now but never seem to have the ready's.
    In do think the headdstock looks a bit crosseyed!

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  2. In Japanese they have the whole back catalog with dates, specs, etc.
    http://www.yamaha.co.jp/product/guitar/archive/

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    Replies
    1. thank you - I knew this catalogue, unfortunately my level in Japanese doesn't exceed basic politeness and ordering sushis in a restaurant! ;-)

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  3. Tuners would be hard to replace if broken or lost, etc, and I don't know whether there are big benefits of keeping the strings straight.
    Cool guitar though!

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    Replies
    1. Leo Fender believed enough in string alignment to create his revolutionary 6-in line headstocks - use of a tremolo at least seems to make it a big plus!

      and I thought about replacement too (actually I was thinking about how I could get some to build my own version of this headstock!)

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    2. I see your point there, though I think if there are such benefits it's probably better to use a six in line headstock due to the tuner replacement issue with those long ones.

      David featured a guitar on this blog some time ago with similar tuners now I think about it actually! I wonder if one was an inspiration for the other.
      http://guitarz.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/in-beginning-there-was-guitar.html

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  4. I remember Guitarz posting about a similar headstock with tuners like these (possibly the same guitar) and hating them because of how hard it would be to find replacement tuners if they broke D:

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    1. Yeah, it all depends on who exactly said what... We don't all have the same opinions here at Guitarz, which is part of what makes the blog all the more interesting.

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  5. Blimey, our readers remember better what was posted on this blog than I do! So there are at least two of these guitars, so there are more chances to find replacement tuners!

    And actually it was another post by David that triggered my interest for this kind of tuners, about a 1947 Gretsch with a quite unique headstock... http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2011/02/1947-gretsch-electromatic-spanish.html

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