Custom Heritage

Yamaha might be one of the biggest names in the musical instrument world, but it is a company that tends to plough its own path – almost, it seems, avoiding the fickle world of musical fad and fashion by design. As we report, for example, Yamaha’s only current artist signature electric guitar model is the 1611MS Mike Stern, a guitar that was conceived back in the mid-90s and that, aside from a relatively recent refresh, has stayed exactly the same.

It’s not that Yamaha doesn’t do the artist thing. There have been a great many over the years – Ty Tabor, Frank Gambale, Sammy Hagar, Wes Borland and Troy Van Leeuwen to name a few – but as Ken Dapron, the founder of Yamaha’s LA’s custom shop, or Yamaha Guitar Development (YGD) as it was originally known, comments, “A lot of signature models