Tony Yamamoto OMY Paulownia Demo

Luthier Tony Yamamoto builds a stunningly lightweight steel-string using paulownia wood.

Tony Yamamoto is a San Francisco Bay Area luthier known for his willingness to experiment with unusual designs. Specializing in multiscale, baritone, and 12-string guitars, Yamamoto has become a go-to builder for players looking for custom guitars that leave tradition behind. For the OMY Paulownia, Yamamoto chose a relatively standard design that uses his approximately grand-concert-size OMY body dimensions, a short 24.9-inch scale, and simple appointments. What makes the guitar unusual is the paulownia wood used for the top, back, and sides. A fast-growing wood native to several regions in Asia, paulownia is extremely lightweight, and while it’s uncommon to see it used as a guitar wood, it has been used for instruments such as the Chinese pipa. Yamamoto considers this guitar to be a prototype, but it exhibits many traits that are desirable in a fingerstyle guitar: as well as being very responsive, it has a great dynamic range, a balanced sound, and a pleasant, well-rounded overall tone.

SPECS: Grand concert body with 13-fret neck. Solid paulownia top, back, and sides. Bolt-on neck. Ebony fingerboard and bridge. 24.9-inch scale. 1¾-inch nut width. Open-geared Gotoh tuning machines. yamamotoguitar.com

Related Fine Lutherie Posts

Preston Thompson D-EIA A great rosewood dreadnought with a few custom touches. Read More

Preston Thompson D-GA An understated dreadnought built with granadillo and Adirondack spruce. Read More

Preston Thompson 0000-SBA A custom guitar built with “shipwreck” Brazilian rosewood. Read More

Preston Thompson D-EIA A great style-28 dreadnought made with Indian rosewood and Adirondack spruce. Read More

Maegen Wells A-Style Mandolin and 15-Inch Archtop Guitar Luthier Maegen Wells discusses two of her instruments in the Peghead Nation video studio. Read More

Huss and Dalton Custom FS An elegant fingerstyle machine built with an Italian spruce top and sapele back and sides. Read More

Bruce Sexauer FT-00-WRX SBAIC A walnut and spruce flattop built to be given away at the 2017 Santa Barbara Acoustic Instrument Celebration. Read More

1982 Lloyd Baggs Classical Read More

Iseman Weissenborn Mike Witcher demonstrates a custom Weissenborn-style guitar. Read More

Froggy Bottom Model K The custom Froggy Bottom Model K acoustic guitar is a beautiful cutaway small-jumbo built with Indian rosewood and Adirondack spruce. Read More