Caparison guitars
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| Industry | Musical instruments |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1995 |
| Founder | Itaru Kanno |
| Headquarters | Japan |
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Area served
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Europe, Japan, North America, Russia, Australia, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia |
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Key people
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Itaru Kanno, Gabriel Ösztreicher |
| Products | Electric guitars |
| Owner | George and Gabriel Ösztreicher |
| Parent | Caparison Guitar Company Ltd. |
| Website | http://www.caparisonguitars.com |
Caparison Guitars is a Japan-based manufacturer of high end, hand made, boutique electric guitars.
The Caparison Guitar company was established in 1995 with the former Jackson/Charvel Japan design division, the designers at Charvel created the CDS Series, CDS II Series and Questar Series and the designers at Jackson created the Doug Aldrich Model, Soloist Special, Dinky AXE and Falcon. 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 Caparison Guitar Company Ltd., a limited company in the UK. The company retained Itaru Kanno (菅野到?) as lead designer and the instruments continue to manufactured together with Iida Corporation in Nagoya, Japan.
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), Brocken FX 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-M3 MJR, Joel Stroetzel Signature JSM and Mattias IA Elkundh Signature Apple Horn. 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 had a line of guitars intended to perform better with low tunings, as well as with standard tunings, called the "HGS" (Heavy Gauge Strings) series. The bridge of these guitars was mounted 3 mm farther back on the face in order to provide better intonation when using heavier gauge strings for lower tunings. This feature later evolved into the composite M3, WM, AM and M3B bodies which feature in the Dellinger, Angelus, Horus and JSM models, and provide excellent tuning stability, even at very low tunings.
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Wikipedia