For most of us, buying a guitar is a simple yet exciting experience. You go to a music store, spend hours playing every guitar in the building, make your best deal, and then go home and play it till your ears bleed!

For an artist the process is slightly different. Most artists require exacting specifications in playability, features and looks. This is where the guitar custom shop comes in and I thought it would be nice to spend a few moments telling you about perhaps one of the least known departments (and best kept secret) in the Pro Audio and Combo Division. Yamaha Guitar Development, also known as YGD, is located in Hollywood, California, and oversees all of the custom guitar design work for artists as well as guitar product development in the United States.

In fact, Yamaha’s first American signature model was designed at YGD for bass legend Billy Sheehan. Since then, YGD, in collaboration with the design team from Yamaha Japan, has developed several Signature model guitars and basses for legends Ty Tabor, Frank Gambale, Mike Stern, John Patitucci, John Myung, Nathan East, and Michael Anthony to name a few.

From humble beginnings in 1989, YGD has evolved into a guitar design tour de force, creating fabulous custom guitars that could easily be considered works of art as well as instruments.

Ken Dapron, Director of Yamaha Guitar Development, and his staff have built custom guitars for an overwhelming numbers of artists and have recently built guitars for Meegs Rascon (Coal Chamber), Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck (Orgy), Mike DeWolf and Phil Lipscomb (Taproot), Yogi Lonich (BuckCherry), Mike Sarkisyan (SpineShank), and Troy Van Leeuwen (A Perfect Circle).

Done well, custom guitar designing and building truly reflects the musical and individual persona of the artist. Our YGD staff is dedicated to making our artists feel as though their instruments are an extension of who they are and what they want to say.

Best regards,

Richard D. Young
General Manager
Pro Audio and Combo Division
Yamaha Corporation of America