The Yamato 12 was picked up from someone when I did a bit of work at Tamworth local radio in it's initial licencing stages. It only cost me forty quid. It had to be restrung left-handed, but the general awfulness of the machineheads and the resultant intonation problems mean it's a bit of a beast to play.

It made several contributions to "Depigeonholeisation", most notably the intro of "Stranger In The Mirror". It would have made more if it wasn't for its general untunability (some machineheads actually require tuning with pliers) and intonation problems.

Despite its general cussedness, I'm lead to believe that some Yamatos of the 70's can be decent guitars with a little work, so I'm thinking of taking it to a Luthier to see if it can be fixed up. It's not too bad a guitar for forty quid, really...