This guitar Kodama Kano
(Kanoh) number 20 is in excellent overall condition and features the full-size 650
mm scale, a solid spruce sound board with light bearclaw, and solid rosewood back/sides. It is constructed with an ebony fretboard, 7-fan bracing, and a 52mm nut.
Action is 4mm/3mm at 12th fret.
Kodama Kanoh (Kano)
Born in
1939. He studied under his father and started making guitars since he was
19years old. He established his own workshop in 1969. His interest and spirit
of inquiry makes him explore various type of guitars such like 19th century
romantic guitar, viuhela and baroque lute. He says the most important thing
for the guitar is its clarity.
During his
professional career the well-loved German classical guitarist Siegfried
Behrend played and
recorded with a Kodama Kanoh guitar. (He also owned a Weissgerber
and a Yamaha GC-30B).
Kodama Kanoh guitars have a distinctive beautiful sound. The sound of the
Kanoh guitar that Siegfried Behrend used to record some of his LPs is
just that: seductive and beautiful.
In Japan outrageously expensive and extravagant price for a fine handmade
guitar is quite rare. Even Yuichi Imai guitars which many college
professors of the classical guitar and professional classical guitarists
are using at the present have a retail price of only $10,000 in Japan. The
highest Sakurai Kohno model is also about $10,000. Yet a new Kodama Kanoh
guitar retails for 1,800,000 JPY – which is about 18,000 USD. The price of Kanoh
guitars can be verified: Please
search for "JSIMA Stringed Instrument Fair 2012" in Google. Then
click on the link for "Publications"; the information for
Kodama Kanoh is on page 10 or 11 of this Japanese publication which lists the
names and information of all the luthiers who participate in the annual
stringed instrument fair in 2012.
Some screen
shots are included in my pictures just for information.
You can also search for Kodama Kanoh in YouTube. There are a few sound samples
in youtube that were recorded with Kanoh guitars. Specifically, please
listen to the two music clips that were posted on youtube perhaps by
the owner of the classical store at which the two Kanoh guitars were
displayed (One is a 2012 Brazilian model and the other is a 2004 Indian
rosewood model).