1972 Kasuga KF820 000-Size Flattop Guitar

The Japanese-made Kasuga guitars I've played have mostly been hearty, practical, good-sounding acoustics from the '70s. This is one of them! They're basically built along the lines of '70s Yamaha acoustics with thin, ply bodies and lighter bracing. That gives them more warmth than you'd normally expect of a ply guitar and so, ya know, they're enjoyable to play rather than just "ho-hum." Still, unlike a good solid top, the high-end register isn't going to be as rich or full and so these guitars are best used for chordal backup or fingerpicking behind singing.

I bought this guitar from a friend's estate and I'd done some work on it before -- shaving the bridge, compensating and adjusting the saddle, and an old setup -- but this time around I did extra to make it play on-the-dot.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, new strings, cleaning, and better setup.

Setup notes: action is bang-on at 3/32" bass and 1/16" treble, strung with 52w-12 gauges (though 54w-12 would be fine). The neck is straight and the saddle is height-adjustable so dialing-in the action is easy. The truss rod works.

Scale length: 24 5/8"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 7/16"

String spacing at bridge: 2 3/16"

Body length: 19 3/8"

Lower bout width: 15 1/4"

Waist width: 9 1/8"

Upper bout width: 11 3/4"

Side depth at endpin: 4 1/8"

Top wood: thin ply spruce

Back/sides wood: ply rosewood

Neck wood: mahogany-family

Bracing type: x-braced

Fretboard: rosewood, plastic nut

Bridge: rosewood, adjustable saddle (plastic in steel sleeve)

Neck feel: mild-medium C-shape, ~12" board radius

Condition notes: there's finish chip-out along the binding at the treble-lower-bout-top, a ding in the top right below the bridge (small), and average usewear and a normal amount of finish weather-cracks throughout. Overall it looks pretty good, though. Everything on it appears to be original, too.