{"id":143152,"date":"2024-01-07T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-07T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=143152"},"modified":"2024-01-06T11:20:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-06T19:20:20","slug":"great-acoustics-john-denvers-luxurious-1978-yamaha-l-53","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/great-acoustics-john-denvers-luxurious-1978-yamaha-l-53\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Acoustics: John Denver\u2019s Luxurious 1978 Yamaha L-53"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This lavishly appointed Yamaha L-53 was custom-made for John Denver in 1977. Having previously played several stock Yamaha guitars, <a href=\"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/video-lesson-learn-to-play-like-john-denver\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Denver<\/a> ordered a matching pair of six- and 12-string instruments during a tour of Japan, and they were delivered sometime in 1978. During this period, Yamaha\u2019s L-Series (\u201cL\u201d stood for \u201cluxury\u201d) was the company\u2019s high-end line of guitars, available only as special orders.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"764\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/john-denver-yamaha-back.jpg?resize=764%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"A close-up of the ornate back of John Denver's Yamaha L-53 acoustic guitar.\" class=\"wp-image-143154\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/john-denver-yamaha-back.jpg?resize=764%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 764w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/john-denver-yamaha-back.jpg?resize=373%2C500&amp;ssl=1 373w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/john-denver-yamaha-back.jpg?resize=768%2C1029&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/john-denver-yamaha-back.jpg?resize=224%2C300&amp;ssl=1 224w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/john-denver-yamaha-back.jpg?w=900&amp;ssl=1 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 764px) 100vw, 764px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Crafting a set of guitars for one of the era\u2019s biggest stars was certainly a coup for Yamaha. Built by a small team of craftsmen in the company\u2019s custom shop, the guitar was designed by Terrumi Nakamoto, who was also in charge of building instruments for Paul Simon and John Lennon. According to Yamaha historian Mark Kasulen, the instrument features a top made from rare ezo spruce (a species found only on the Japanese island of Hokkaido). The guitar\u2019s back and sides are made of extraordinarily dark Brazilian rosewood, its fingerboard and bridge are ebony, and the instrument\u2019s elaborate five-piece neck alternates strips of mahogany and ebony.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The guitar\u2019s abalone purfling, multi-ring rosette, and large block-style fingerboard inlay are by no means subtle, and the back and headstock are truly breathtaking. Featuring Yamaha\u2019s distinctive V-shape, the headstock is covered almost entirely in abalone. The back\u2019s three-piece design is beautifully executed; a darker piece of rosewood was used for the center panel and abalone strips match the body\u2019s purfling.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"The Garden Song\" width=\"1290\" height=\"968\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D3FkaN0HQgs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Denver used his Yamaha L-53 for this 1979 performance of \u201cGarden Song\u201d on <em>The Muppet Show.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Denver used the L-53 extensively in concert and on TV (it\u2019s featured on the cover of the popular album Denver made with the Muppets, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/48IjtMj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A Christmas Together<\/a><\/em>), retiring it in the early 1980s after it developed some cracks. According to Fine Guitar Consultants\u2019 Richard Glick (who recently inspected and appraised the instrument), Denver returned the guitar to Yamaha for repair or exchange, and it is unknown how it changed owners from that point on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This article was first published in the <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/collections\/digital-archive-bundles\/products\/digital-archive-2003\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>November 2003 issue<\/em> <em>of<\/em> Acoustic Guitar magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Denver used this ornate, custom Yamaha extensively in concert and on TV (and on his album cover with the Muppets).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":143155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"Denver used this ornate, custom Yamaha extensively in concert and on TV (and on his album cover with the Muppets!).","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1146],"tags":[524,1939],"ppma_author":[1567],"class_list":["post-143152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vintage-and-collectible-guitars","tag-great-acoustics","tag-november-2003"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/john-denver-yamaha.jpg?fit=900%2C370&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1567,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"teja-gerken","display_name":"Teja Gerken","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/teja.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/teja.jpg"},"user_url":"http:\/\/www.tejagerken.com\/","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":"Teja Gerken is a fingerstyle guitarist and was Gear Editor for <i>Acoustic Guitar<\/i> from 1998 through 2013."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143152"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143192,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143152\/revisions\/143192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143152"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=143152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}