Japanese Guitar History - The story of Matsumoku and Aria Pro II

In this video I am going past the history of Aria Pro II and Matsumoku, a vintage guitar brand and Japanese guitar factory with a bit of a legendary status on forums.

The story is a bit romanticized, I believe, but nevertheless interesting.

There's a bit of me playing an Aria Pro II PE 1500, the top of the line model in the late 70s/early 80s. I'd like to thank my dad for buying the guitar 10 years before I was born, and my brother Joost for doing the Japanese voiceovers!

Full demo of the Aria Pro II:    • Aria Pro II PE 1500 sound demo | no t...  
You can buy me a coffee if you want to support me: https://ko-fi.com/sandervisser
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:25 The 50s: Shiro Arai and the first acoustic guitars in Japan
1:59 The 60s: Electric guitars and manufacturer boom
3:40 Matsumoku
4:14 Sound demo
5:46 The 70s: Automation in the guitar industry
7:08 International expansion
7:34 Aria Pro II
8:27 Sound demo
10:36 Expansion to LA
11:35 Closing Matsumoku
12:06 Other Japanese factories
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I've drawn a lot of inspiration from the following websites:

Old Japan videos:
Olden Days:    • Видео  
Michael Rogge:    • Japan in the seventies (2) 70年代の日本  

Interview Shiro Arai: https://www.namm.org/library/oral-his...

Brands & Factories:
About Aria: http://ariaguitarsglobal.com/about-aria/
Greco wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco_g...
Matsumoku wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsumoku
More Matsumoku: http://matsumoku.net/site/arai_matsum...
Aria wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aria_(g...)
Tokai history: https://reverb.com/news/a-strat-by-an...
H. Noble / Nobuaki Hayashi: https://atlansiaguitars.com/About.php
MIJ Fender: https://wgsusa.com/blog/ultimate-word...
Matsumoku Catalog: https://www.vintagejapanguitars.com.b...