2005 Alvarez by Kazuo Yairi FYM95V steel string SOLD

Alvarez guitars are built in the Yairi plant in Kani, Gifu, Japan, a small town in a mountainous area. The Yairi family has been involved in classical guitar and violin building since perhaps 1935, with an earlier Sadao Yairi working with Suzuki Takehuru in Nagoya. In the 1960’s, a nephew Kazuo Yairi moved to Kani and opened the current plant, building Alvarez guitars under contract for St. Louis Music. That arrangement continues to this day.

Another nephew following the same path, a different Sadao, also builds classical guitars as S. Yairi, but these have no real relationship to the K. Yairi Alvarez guitars. This Sadao also has a son, Hiroshi, and there are also H. Yairi guitars.

This is a good example of a Kazuo Yairi Alvarez guitar in a folk design. The OM size is very comfortable and balanced, and the instrument is bright and sparkly, lively and responsive.

The patented ‘direct coupled’ bridge design is interesting. On standard steel string guitars, the bridge pins push the ball end of the string forward to hook against the bridge plate. The lower the pins are relative to the saddle, the more volume and top end there will be. On this design, the pin block is separated from the saddle, providing the maxiumum distance between the pins and the saddle. The pin block is actually mounted from the inside of the top, and the part inside is rather larger than you see from the outside; it’s quite stable and resistant to lifting. One of the goals with this design is to make it impossible for the bridge to lift.