Are you looking for the best Japanese guitar with professional features?
The Japanese guitar with significant models, exclusive and high-end customs are available, with the most advanced design and technology.
You can purchase such a Japanese guitar on a low budget too.
Therefore, you don’t need to look further. In this article, we shall list down the Best Japanese guitar brands you lookup online.
Best Japanese Guitar 2021
- Japanese Scale Guitar
- Traditional Japanese Guitar
- Japanese 3 String Guitar
- 8 Best Japanese Guitar Brands
- Final Words – Japanese Guitar
Here’s the list of the most demandable Japanese guitar name with their best qualities to give you an overlook of them.
Japanese Scale Guitar
Kumoi Scale Guitar
Kumoi or Hon Kumoi Shiouzhi is a pentatonic Japanese scale guitar having a very striking or, more specifically, Japanese sound. Therefore, it can be an excellent addition to solo music. Moreover, it has two notes on one string and three on the other string.
You can also approach the Japanese guitar scales using the traditional two-note-per-string pentatonic approach with fingering. The fingering eliminates the third or fourth degree of scale without losing sound quality and exotic nature.
Traditional Japanese Guitar
1. Sanshin Guitar
Sanshin is a traditional Japanese guitar, often likened to a banjo. It has a snake-skin covered body, neck, and three strings.
The Sanshin is the soul Okinawan folk music, usually played by the youth. Moreover, its use is every day in informal gatherings, including weddings, birthdays, community parties, festivals, and other celebrations. Therefore, in subtropical Japan, the Sanshin is an essential part of life.
Besides, you have to play Sanshin with the right hand and left hand pressing the strings, but it has no frets, unlike the guitar.
2. Shamisen Guitar
Shamisen is another traditional Japanese three-string guitar. You have to play it with a plectrum called a bachi. Also, the construction of this guitar varies in shape, depending upon the genre in which you use it.
It is popular in puppet plays and folk songs, and for this type, it has a longer and thicker neck to match the music of those genres. Typically, its construction model is similar to that of guitar and banjo.
However, the channel is fretless and slimmer, and the body resembles the drum. The string is made up of silk or nylon.
3. Biwa Guitar
Biwa is a short-necked lute having a graceful, pear-shaped body. Also, it has a rounded, shallow back and silk strings, which are typically four or five in numbers attached to the slender lateral pegs.
Besides, for this instrument, you also need a sizeable wedge-shaped plectrum called a bachi. Also, it is one of the sacred instruments in Japan, often used at Shinto weddings. They are plucked string instruments similar to the lute and oud but with a shorter neck and frets. It has fourteen frets most suitable for folk music.
Japanese 3 String Guitar
1. Gotten Guitar
It’s also a traditional Japanese three-stringed plucked instrument, often considered a relative or a derivative of the Sanshin.
The significant difference between a Sanshin and a Gottan is that the body of a Sanshin is of hollowed wood cavity covered with a tire of the membrane. In contrast, the Gottan includes its body, neck, and solid wood, usually a single type, most often Japanese cedar.
Besides, Gottan’s musical repertoire is pretty light and cheerful and primarily popular in folk songs. Also, it was typical for door-door musical busking, known as kadozure.
2. Kokyu Guitar
Kokyo is another traditional Japanese guitar that is similar to Chinese huqin. Moreover, the instrument is pretty identical to shamisen in construction, more like a more petite version.
Typically, it is 28 inches tall with a neck made of ebony and a hollow body made of coconut, covered on both ends with cat skin. It has three strings like shamisen, but its bridges are pretty different from it. Moreover, it’s common in the jazz and blues genre of music.
8 Best Japanese Guitar Brands
1. Yamaha Best Japanese Guitar Brand
Yamaha has been providing us fantastic Japanese bass guitar for the last two years. The overall quality of Yamaha guitars is testaments making instruments that sound great, and the price is perfect as well.
Moreover, they’re comfortable and easy to play with. This makes them an excellent choice for beginners. Also, they have Japanese classical guitars that are built with top-notch features suitable for students.
Therefore, Yamaha holds their value exceptionally well, and they’re reliable high-quality guitars.
2. Takamine G Series & Takamine Jasmine
These are the most affordable guitar that Takamine makes and is typically a good option if you’re not ready to spend hundreds of dollars on your first guitar. You’re still going to get a great sound, and it’s a perfect option for a beginner’s acoustic guitar.
It’s thinner with a pin-less bridge, and it has laminated wood. The Takamine series has quality performance at accessible prices. They offer a wide range of guitars for players in all musical genres. Combining beautiful tones and generating recent designs, smooth playability is a hallmark of this impressive instrument collection.
3. Morris (Moridaira Guitars) – Japanese Acoustic Guitar Brand
This Japanese acoustic guitar brand offers various guitars through few hundred-dollar models for beginners to hand-made models for professionals or even ultimate customs model made of fine wood.
They produce over 6,000 guitars annually with pure passion and affection without compromising the quality of the guitars; that’s why it’s comparatively pricy.
4. Fernandes – Burny Guitars
They’re a reputable company as they were in the 80s and 90s when most of their lines were in Japan. They initially made acoustic guitars and later started producing electric guitars. Also, their range varies from inexpensive starters to custom high replica instruments of exceptional quality.
5. Fujigen Gakki
This is one of the most famous Japanese guitar brands 70s, also known as FGN, produces quality string instruments. In 1962 they started building electric guitars then later started making guitars for companies including Hoshino Gakki, Kanda Shokai, and Yamaha.
6. Electric Sound Products (EPS)
This Japanese guitar brand primarily focus on the production of electric guitars and basses. They are both in Tokyo and Los Angeles. They found fame by making and endorsing guitars for guitarists who became leading exponents of thrash metal in the 1980s. Now they have become the most popular suppliers of guitars for heavy metals.
7. Yamaki Acoustic Guitars
If you’re interested in upgrading your home music studio, then Yamaki Acoustic guitar is the perfect option for you. However, they are not easy to find and a bit expensive too.
8. Alvarez Acoustic Guitars
The quality of this among vintage Japanese guitar brands is excellent, and the sound is good too. The classical Alvarez guitar is all in a fantastic price range. They’re also one of the best acoustic guitars for beginners.
Final Words – Japanese Guitar
The list mentioned above of the best Japanese guitars and vintage Japanese guitar brands you can find online. I have also attached the pictures and links to amazon to help you have a good idea about them.
