Torakusu Yamaha started out repairing reed organs in Hamamatsu, Japan, in 1887, and by 1900 the company he founded was building pianos as well — the beginning of what's now the world's largest musical instrument manufacturer by most measures. On the electric side, Yamaha's own guitar lines (Pacifica, Revstar) sit alongside a portfolio that includes Steinberg, Ampeg and Bösendorfer, and its 1983 DX7 synthesizer was the first commercially successful digital synth, shaping the sound of a decade of pop music. Guitars are only one part of a genuinely enormous instrument catalogue, but it's the part we follow — new Pacifica and Revstar releases mostly. Here's what we've written.
Fender triggers an industry-wide legal war, hitting 17 major guitar brands with cease-and-desist letters over the iconic Stratocaster body shape.
