Any Ukulele Musicians Out there? Vintage K. Yasuma & Co. Mahagony Saprano - Trade?

GusGus1102 · Dec 3, 2023

I've had this beautiful little solid mahagony (saprano?) K. Yasuma & Co. ukulele for a while, but have never strung it up. My Mom is the uke player. I prefer acoustic guitar. At any rate, this unit is in lovely condition for its age. There's precious little information online about the Yasuma instruments, but they are solid wood, built in Nagano, Japan, are often direct Martin copies, and are regarded as wonderful players. IT looks like it was built in the 40s/50s, but evidence seems to suggest it was probably the 60s/70s. There's no model stamp anywhere that I can see. The gold lettering on the headstock looks almost exactly like the vintage Martin saprano ukes. From what little fiddling I've done with it, the only thing I notice is that a few of the tuners turn a little too freely. I'd guess that easily correctable by turning the screws a bit to tighten the action. The posts themselves are solid and in good order.

Long shot, I know, but thought I'd see if maybe there's a trade out there for a decent double rifle hard case, current production .22lr/22wmr with adjustable trigger and rotary magazine, maybe a similar .17hmr, or....whatcha got? I know these fetch a pretty penny online, so not looking to give it away.

Local Loader · Dec 3, 2023

So there's a group out there that tracks makers of ukuleles and K.Yasuma & co. Only made them originally in the 60s & 70s. They also made other instruments from 1948 to 1982. I think they make newer instruments as well now but I'm not sure about that one, trying to read their web page is not easy. They became popular there after the Korean War as it made soldiers feel more at ease and at home. Hope this helps.

GusGus1102 · Dec 4, 2023

Local Loader said:
So there's a group out there that tracks makers of ukuleles and K.Yasuma & co. Only made them originally in the 60s & 70s. They also made other instruments from 1948 to 1982. I think they make newer instruments as well now but I'm not sure about that one, trying to read their web page is not easy. They became popular there after the Korean War as it made soldiers feel more at ease and at home. Hope this helps.

Interesting! Thanks for chiming in and contributing to the hunt for information. I know that Yasuma built furniture in Nagano before and after WWII, and then expanded into instruments along with other Japanese companies like Yamaha, etc. From what I can gather, you're right about the guitars being from the late 60s to 70s. Sounds like they were mostly for the Japanese market and UK Imports, but some were privately imported into the US. Unfortunately, they were such close copies of the Martins of the era that US Customs would often take a saw to the headstock to protect Martin & Co.

As for the early Ukes.....I still can't find anything online about when they were made. This unit, aesthetically and otherwise, sure looks older than 60s/70s. I'm basing some of that on units from my Mom's collection, which includes units that are pre-war - present. I've got an email into an "expert" for help identifying age/model/value, and will post his reply once it comes.

GusGus1102 · Dec 4, 2023

Local Loader said:
So there's a group out there that tracks makers of ukuleles and K.Yasuma & co. Only made them originally in the 60s & 70s. They also made other instruments from 1948 to 1982. I think they make newer instruments as well now but I'm not sure about that one, trying to read their web page is not easy. They became popular there after the Korean War as it made soldiers feel more at ease and at home. Hope this helps.

Okay, so here's the reply from the uke expert regarding the Yasuma.....

"Aloha Jim and Stu,

Yasuma Musical Instrument Company was established in 1950 in Nagoya by Kimihiko Yasuma. Yasuma made guitars, mandolins and ukuleles. The guitars most commonly seen are Martin style dreadnought acoustics and may be branded "K Yasuma & Co", Aanton or Angelica. They also made knockoffs of Martin tiples and ukuleles. In the 1970s Martin won a copyright infringment case against Yasuma and as a result many Yasuma instruments imported into the USA had to be destroyed. The company was quite successful, riding on the coattail of Martin in design and even appearance. Overall, they sound pretty good and values range between $300-$400. Some people want them for collectibility but overall the values of these are also determined by the values of the vintage Martin ukuleles as well. With the reissue Martins coming in around 2005, the vintage Martin market has gone "soft" since newer buyers opt to purchase a new uke with a warranty over a vintage or used uke without one so you'll see similar Martin Style 0 ukuleles selling for between $600-$800 ish - on the most part.

I hope this helps. These are not definitive prices and there's always something you can find below or above this range but on the most part the values listed above are what I've been seeing on this model in recent times.

all the best,
Shawn"

Local Loader · Dec 10, 2023

GusGus1102 said:
Interesting! Thanks for chiming in and contributing to the hunt for information. I know that Yasuma built furniture in Nagano before and after WWII, and then expanded into instruments along with other Japanese companies like Yamaha, etc. From what I can gather, you're right about the guitars being from the late 60s to 70s. Sounds like they were mostly for the Japanese market and UK Imports, but some were privately imported into the US. Unfortunately, they were such close copies of the Martins of the era that US Customs would often take a saw to the headstock to protect Martin & Co.

As for the early Ukes.....I still can't find anything online about when they were made. This unit, aesthetically and otherwise, sure looks older than 60s/70s. I'm basing some of that on units from my Mom's collection, which includes units that are pre-war - present. I've got an email into an "expert" for help identifying age/model/value, and will post his reply once it comes.

http://www.tikiking.com/uke_database.html this is the group I found and they have a rather large list of makers.
http://yasuma-guitar.com/ makers site, I just couldn't understand most of it.