Caparison Guitars

Caparison Guitars is a Japan-based manufacturer of custom shop electric guitars.

History

The Caparison Guitar company was established in 1995 by former Jackson/Charvel Japan designer Itaru Kanno and is owned by Kyowa Shokai , a Company that makes contracts with factories to produce guitars for them (like Hoshino Gakki ). The company's main design office is based in Tokyo, Japan and the guitars themselves are designed by Caparison Design and manufactured in Nagoya, Japan together with Lida Gakki, which has been a OEM manufacturer in the past.

Guitars

The company's best selling guitar is the "Horus" model. This guitar features a 27 fret neck with clock inlays that change time for each fret position (1 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 5 o'clock, etc.) Caparison Dellinger and TAT models also feature these clock inlays on the fretboard, however, these guitars feature 24 fret necks. Other Caparison Guitar models are the 7 String Dellinger, Angelus, FKV, Venus and Apple Horn. Caparison currently has a Dellinger bass guitar in production. Another notable Caparison guitar, is the Orbit. Recognisable for its strange take on the standard 'Flying V' shape, added a curve at the left of the neck joint, and the signature Caparison 27-fret neck.

Caparison also has a line of guitars intended to perform better with low tunings, as well as with standard tunings, called the "HGS" series. The bridge of these guitars is mounted 3mm farther back on the face in an effort to provide better intonation when using higher gauge strings for lower tunings.

Caparison/Lida makes its own humbucking as well as single coil guitar pickups. The company also produces a dual rail humbucking pickup that fits into the footprint of standard single coil pickup (However the back of many Caparison pickups have the GOTOH MIJ stamped to the bottom plate so Not all may be made in house as originally drafted). Another common feature on Caparison Guitars is the use of "Push/Push" volume and tone potentiometers. These special "pots" are used to activate coil splitting and pickup selecting functions on certain models.

Caparison is considered to be an up and coming company, and the best known one besides the other big Japanese makes. Since 2006, Caparison Design has updated the quality standard of there instruments, using even higher quality parts, they are considered to be one of the highest quality instruments on the market.

Itaru Kanno personally applies the hand painted finish to and sets up every Caparison Guitar at the Caparison Guitars Design shop, apart from the Lida factory, where they also apply custom features like Hardware and/or painting . Since they are highly customized instruments, Caparison produces only about forty guitars per month. For years, Caparison Guitars were only available in Japan. However, Caparison now has distributors in the USA, Denmark and Australia, more to come.

Notable Users

* Christopher Amott (Arch Enemy, Armageddon) - Signature Dellinger, TAT
* Anders Björler (At The Gates, The Haunted) - Custom signature Angelus
* Adam Dutkiewicz (Killswitch Engage) - Pete Lesperance Signature Model (PLM-3)
* Joel Stroetzel (Killswitch Engage) - Dellinger Model, Angelus Model
* Mattias "IA" Eklundh - Signature model, Apple Horn
* Peter Joseph (The Absence) - Standard and custom Horus and Angelus
* Andy LaRocque (King Diamond) - Custom Horus
* James Murphy (Death, Obituary, Testament) - Standard Dellinger and Angelus
* Michael Romeo (Symphony X) - Custom Dellinger II
* Rune Stigart (Mnemic) - Standard Dellinger
* Mircea Gabriel Eftemie (Mnemic) - Standard Dellinger
* Ryu (Blood Stain Child) - Custom Dellinger-HGS
* Jona Weinhofen (Bleeding Through, I Killed The Prom Queen) - TAT II
* Peter Wichers (ex-Soilwork) - Custom Angelus
* Ola Frenning (ex-Soilwork) - Custom Angelus
* Tom S. Englund and Henrik Danhage (Evergrey) - Custom Horus models
* Gackt (GacktJOB) - Custom model Marcury, Custom model Venus
* Yukihiro "Chachamaru" Fujimura (GacktJOB) - Custom Horus
* Philip Vernon of Last Chance To Dance - Dellinger II HGS
* Jesse,the Infernal of ChthoniC
*Max Kayajanian (Call of Thousands)
* Jeff Williams of Onslaught - Dellinger Bass
* Andy Rosser-Davies of Onslaught - Dellinger HGS-SE
* Rob Marcello of Danger Danger - Dellinger and Horus models

External links

* [http://www.kyowashokai.co.jp/caparison.html Official Caparison Guitars Websites]
* [http://www.MySpace.com/CaparisonGuitars Official site at MySpace.com]
* [http://guitarsatbmusic.com.au//forum/viewforum.php?f=14 Official Caparison Guitars Forum]
* [http://www.caparisonforum.com/forum/ CaparisonForum.Com *a community dedicated to Caparison Guitars*]
* [http://www.guitarsmadeinjapan.fr/ Information on MiJ guitars, french private site]
* [http://www.guitarsatbmusic.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4899&sid=e8609ea0ef0e3b6220d454082f43051a Caparison/Lida factory tour]