Masaru Kohno (1926-1998) was arguably Japan’s finest luthier of his day. Although Kohno began building guitars in 1948, but it wasn’t until he went to Spain in 1959, and spent six months observing Arcangel Fernandez work that he able to establish a successful workshop. In 1967, Masaru Kohno won a gold medal for guitar making at Liege Concours National de Guitares, (a competition judged by Ignacio Fleta, Robert Bouchet, Joaquin Rodrigo, and Alirio Diaz) beating out 31 other makers. Daniel Friederich won the silver medal. Top players of Kohno guitars include Julian Bream, Oscar Ghiglia, Sharon Isbin and Shinichi Fukuda, among others. This beautiful 1990 Professional R Model offers the articulation, power, evenness of tone, and ease of play for which Masaru Kohno’s guitars are known. Other than a tiny string burn under the bridge, and a slight scratch, the guitar is in excellent, original condition. The owner writes he bought this guitar new in 1990 through the guitar professor at UW-Madison from a dealer in Chicago. At the time, “I didn’t even know about things such as 660 vs 650mm scale lengths. I have smallish hands, but the action is so good on this instrument that that more than compensates for the longer scale.”