Caparison Guitars
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Industry | Musical instrument |
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Founded | 1995 |
Founder | Itaru Kanno |
Headquarters | Japan |
Area served | Asia, Europe, North America |
Key people | Itaru Kanno, Gabriel Ösztreicher |
Products | Electric guitars |
Owner | George and Gabriel Ösztreicher [1] |
Parent | Caparison Guitar Co. Ltd., Cardiff[2] |
Website | caparisonguitars.com |
Caparison Guitars is a Japanese-origin manufacturer of high end, hand made, boutique electric guitars. The company is headquartered in Japan and is a subsidiary of "Caparison Guitar Company Ltd.", based in the United Kingdom.[2]
History[]
The company was established in 1995 with the former Jackson/Charvel Japan design division. The Charvel designers created the CDS Series, CDS II Series and Questar Series while the Jackson designed contributed with the Doug Aldrich, Soloist Special, Dinky AXE and Falcon models. Caparison was owned by Kyowa Shokai Ltd, a company that made contracts with factories to produce guitars for them (like Hoshino Gakki).
In May 2011 Kyowa Shokai was declared bankrupt, however Caparison resumed production in September 2011 under the ownership of the Caparison Guitar Company Ltd., a limited company in Cardiff, United Kingdom.[3][2] The company retained Itaru Kanno (菅野到) as lead designer and the instruments continue being manufactured together with Iida Corporation in Nagoya, Japan.
Guitars[]
One of the company's best selling guitars is their "Horus" model. This guitar features a 27-fret neck with unique clock inlays that shows a different time for each fret position (1 o'clock on the first fret, 3 o'clock on the third, 5 o'clock on the fifth fret, etc.). TAT Special (Through and Through), and Orbit models also feature 27-fret necks.
Their Dellinger models also feature these clock inlays on the fretboard, however, these guitars feature 24-fret necks. Other Caparison Guitar models are the Angelus (including the ACE signature models), Susanoh, Michael Romeo Signature Dellinger Prominence MJR, Joel Stroetzel Signature Dellinger-JSM and Mattias IA Elkundh Signature Apple Horn 8. The Orbit is also a notable guitar due to its unusual take on the standard 'Flying V' shape; the Orbit has an added a curve at the left of the neck joint and an elongated upper 'horn'.
Caparison design their own humbucking, single coil, and dual-rail humbucking pickups, which are produced by Gotoh Pick Ups[4] located in Nagano, Japan. The dual-rail humbucking pickup fits into the footprint of standard single coil pickup. Caparison also design their own fixed bridge (produced by Gotoh Gut Co., ltd.[5]).
Notable artists past and present[]
- The Iron Maidens's Courtney Cox (musician)
- Motörhead's Phil Campbell
- Freak Kitchen's Mattias "IA" Eklundh
- Symphony X's Michael Romeo
- Killswitch Engage's Joel Stroetzel
- Killswitch Engage, Times of Grace's Adam Dutkiewicz
- I Killed The Prom Queen, Ex-Bring Me the Horizon's Jona Weinhofen
- Queensrÿche's Parker Lundgren
- Jeff "Mantas" Dunn of VENOM and now VENOM Inc.
- Ex-Anthrax's Dan Spitz
- Gackt
- Iron Maiden, Lionheart, Praying Mantis' Dennis Stratton
- Seikima-II, Face To Ace's Ace Shimizu
- Yukihiro "Chachamaru" Fujimura
- Christopher Amott formerly of Arch Enemy, Armageddon
- The Eric Jason Brock Band, Three Across, ex-Sweet Cheetah's Eric Jason Brock
- At The Gates, The Haunted's Anders Björler
- Evergrey's Tom S. Englund and Henrik Danhage
- Ola Frenning (ex-Soilwork)
- Harem Scarem's Harry Hess
- Narnia's Carl Johan Grimmark
- The Absence's Peter Joseph
- King Diamond's Andy LaRocque
- Harem Scarem's Pete Lesperance
- Dragonland's Nicklas Magnusson
- Danger Danger's Rob Marcello
- Amaranthe, Dragonland, Nightrage's Olof Mörck
- Death, Obituary, Testament's James Murphy
- Blood Stain Child's Ryu
- Periphery's Jake Bowen and Mark Holcomb
- Last Chance To Dance's
- I Killed The Prom Queen's Kevin Cameron
- Soilwork's Peter Wichers
- Onslaught's Jeff Williams
- Sabaton, Nocturnal Rites' Chris Rörland
- Protest The Hero's Tim Millar
- Sweet's Tony O'Hora
- Mors Principium Est's Andhe Chandler
- TRC's Ben Taylor Dingwall
- Fireland's Rafael Castillo
- Threat Signal's Matt Perrin[6]
- Dance Hall☆Epic’s Anita Safukichi
- ShikaShikaShika’s Ariko Nanetsu
- Holland’s Rya Esetaki
- DanceYŪKĪ’s Yukina Dotakei
- 1837CODES’ Sumeru Garyohetasu
References[]
- ^ "Musical Instrument Professional "New UK owners for Caparison"". Archived from the original on 2012-03-10. Retrieved 2013-03-02.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "Caparison Guitar Co. Ltd - Company Profile - Endole". suite.endole.co.uk.
- ^ "CAPARISON GUITAR CO. LTD - Overview (free company information from Companies House)". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk.
- ^ "エレキギター,ベースのピックアップ 周辺関連パーツ GOTOH PICKUPS(株式会社 ゴトー)". www.gotoh-pickups.jp.
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Featured Artists". Caparison Guitars.
External links[]
- Guitar manufacturing companies
- Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Japan