- Kiso Suzuki Violin Company
- Kiso Suzuki Guitar Serial Numbers Lookup
- Kiso Suzuki Guitar Serial Numbers Explained
Kiso Suzuki Violin Company
This is a blog dedicated to older Suzuki Guitars. Suzuki Guitars have been around since the early 1900's and have attracted a growing interest by players and collectors alike. Many guitar players own more than one guitar, yet a common story it seems is that the Suzuki guitar is the one played most often, or that stays with them when all others are sold. The company may be known by the generic label 'Suzuki', but there are actually three different Japanese companies that have manufactured guitars under the name of Suzuki during the 50's to the present time - but all having a common ancestry.- Product Registration Customer Service Repair and Restoration Report Counterfeits Serial Number FAQ Gibson Guitar.
- Suzuki KISO, SUZUKI VIOLIN CO., LTD. F-100 JAPAN Serial#: 29034 It doesn't have the 'lawsuit' Martin ripoff headstock logo, so I'm guessing later rather than earlier. EDIT: 1972 (It has a zero fret, which were popular in the 80s with trashy guitars to try to fix intonation issues).
In Suzuki's case, the company was separated into - the Suzuki Violin Company, changing to the Kiso Suzuki Violin Company and the Suzuki Violin Manufacturing Company came to be called the Nagoya Suzuki Violin Company. Kiso Suzuki went bankrupt in 1987 and the machines and materials were sold to ESP. Nagoya Suzuki stopped making guitars in 1989.
Kiso Suzuki Guitar Serial Numbers Lookup
Kiso-Suzuki was one company to manufacture guitars in the region of Kiso-prefecture. A company was started in Nagoya too - Suzuki Violin Company, Nagoya manufacturing about the same number of models as Kiso, but with different numbers.
Kiso Suzuki Guitar Serial Numbers Explained
Today, there is a company called 'Suzuki Musical Instrument CO.' and it has no relation to the other Suzuki companies, but was started by Manji Suzuki, whose guitars used to be labelled with the 'M Suzuki' label. Good guitars it seems.
Suzuki in Nagoya, Japan does not manufacture guitars any more,
All Suzuki's have had a fairly good-to-excellent reputation and some models are very collectable; one reason is the quality of wood and workmanship; there is also a history of copying from the venerable Martin company, (some story is getting passed around that the copies resulted in a lawsuit by Martin in the 1970's, but apparently is not true according to allexperts.com writer bilrux@aol.com.)
Also, I had a tour of the Martin factory a few years ago and asked the president, Chris Martin, who gave us the tour (super nice guy)about the lawsuit, and he said 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery', or words to that effect.
I've attempted to create some kind of order out of the chaos that exists regarding Suzuki model numbers and dates of manufacture, but the following list is only incomplete. I'm looking for any information re: the models of guitars that were manufactured by this company and the materials used.'
When this goal has been reached, it will be a wonderful day for all of those guitar players around the world who own a Suzuki guitar and have said to themselves, 'I REALLY like this guitar...what is the story behind it?' If you have any information to add to the Suzuki story unfolding here, please submit pictures and/or stories thru the relevant links at the top of the page. If you have any pictures of construction, repair, or modifications, e-mail the pics to me at suzukiguitars@gmail.com and I'll publish them. Just identify the model and describe the pic. Thanks!