1980s Suzuki Nagoya Insignia SI335 Dreadnought Guitar

Apparently these Japanese-made Suzuki guitars are sort-of a thing. I can sort-of see why, though -- it's an all-ply, dread-sized, practical instrument that's held-up well and sounds good. The neck is like an electric from the time, too, and very fast -- 1 5/8" nut width and quick, slim, C-shaped back profile. It's a bit like playing a less-clumsy late-'60s Gibson neck. I think the tone on this suits more of a modern, strummy flatpicked style compared to my more old-fashioned thumping, though.

This one was a bit dirty and has some scuffs and light scratches but is otherwise in good shape. It took a lot of cleaning to get a grimy film from off the back of the neck. It has a good neck angle, didn't need a reset, and needed only a glorified setup -- a fret level/dress and adjustments to the saddle and nut -- to get it bang-on.

Specs are: 25 1/8" scale, 16" lower bout, 11 3/4" upper bout, 4 13/16" side depth at the endblock, 1 5/8" nut width, 1 5/16" string spacing at the nut, 2 1/16" spacing at the bridge, and 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret. The strings seem to be coated 54w-12 gauges with stiffer (42w-24w) middles.

Woods are: ply spruce top, ply nato/mahogany back sides, nato/mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard and bridge. The bridge is black-stained/painted.

It comes with an old chipboard case in decent health and the guitar appears to be all-original save replacement, ivoroid bridge pins.

The sealed tuners work well.