Yamaha’s Guitar’s 60th Anniversary Celebration- A Magical Evening of Music

Community News, Entertainment — By Larry Goldman on February 1, 2026 at 5:00 pm

By Larry Goldman

Many of the biggest stars in music history have chosen Yamaha guitars as their instruments of choice, whether it be in recording sessions, or in live performances. Artists such as John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Jimmy Page are among the many musicians and performers, that have utilized the well-crafted instruments.

As part of atmosphere of the 2026 NAMM show, Yamaha hosted a private event at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California, celebrating their legendary guitars and the evening was nothing short of magical.

Yamaha USA’s President Tom Sumner opened the evening with remarks on some magical moments in history during the 60 years of Yamaha guitars on January 20th at the locale in Anaheim, California.

He recounted many moments in Yamaha’s guitar history-from Woodstock- to John Denver with the Yamaha 12 string, to Lenny Kravitz learning how to play with his Yamaha guitar, and many more moments in Yamaha’s storied history. He got the evening started mentioning that perhaps there would be some magical moments that evening on that very stage. And his words proved to be prophetic.

The opening performance was an acoustic guitar at first a solo act by Ethan Ridings later joined by vocalist Caelyn Carsten, a soulful singer that had the flair of country/folk. Ethan played a newly unveiled FG9 60th Anniversary Edition guitar. Ethan made the guitar sing. He studied jazz in Atlanta where he got his music degree, but his professional career, post school, has been a wide variety of popular styles from funky dance music to stylistic vocal accompaniment with his electric guitar, rather sophisticated, popular acoustic country-influenced guitar. Then for the last couple songs, Caelyn returned to the stage and the vibe became more powerful- country gospel-flavored, with a pop/folk seasoning. It was a great start to a fun evening of guitar-edged music.

Nathan East joined Ethan for a little Q & A before the evening transitioned into the Yamaha Design Engineers’ Panel and afterwards came the final two musical performance sets.

The second music performance set was a terrific blues and rock set by Chris Buck and Cardinal Black, a Welsh Band. The lead vocalist, Tom Hollister, had a vocal style reminiscent of a combination of Michael McDonald and Ray Charles, impressing the audience with his rich- timbered vocal approach. Chris, with his high-pitched voice, provided some nicely-flavored background harmony. The band had the synergy that comes with performing on several stages together.

Chris Buck’s guitar playing screamed and rocked the house. This talented guitarist debuted his new signature guitar, the Yamaha RS02CB Revstar with a Honey Gold finish, custom P-90 pickups, and a wraparound bridge. It is a specialized, high-performance, chambered instrument modeled after his personal, modified Revsta and established a great, new generation melodic sound, as well as forceful great strumming ability for those rocky rhythmic parts driving Cardinal Black’s songs. Occasionally featured providing keyboard backup and some tasty solos was touring member, Michael Blanchfield.

Cardinal Black’s story began 16 years ago. Long before the sold-out shows and social media acclaim, Buck, frontman Tom Hollister, and drummer Adam Roberts were just three friends from Wales, gigging under the name TH3.They played weddings, pubs, funerals, and several gigs to pay the bills. Then they paused. After the world was on lockdown for Covid, they re-emerged and changed their name to Cardinal Black. The young, fresh band is poised to make waves in the music industry.

Rounding off the evening’s performances was Italian Jazz guitarist, Matteo Mancuso whose incredible technical brilliance and unique finger style phrasing brought the evening to a climax. Bassist Vincent Garcia, a Yamaha artist also joined Matteo along with drummer Gianluca Pellerito to form a power trio. Matteo has been tearing up the internet with his style of guitar playing and interpretation of jazz classics and other related improvisations. He has invented his own approach to music with a wonderful touch and rhythmic underpinning.

It should be noted that two very popular excellent bassists, Nathan East and Billy Sheehan, who are long time Yamaha artists, MCed the show and took a few minutes between sets to ask the three guitarists featured during the evening a couple relevant questions to bring their story to the appreciative audience. The House of Blues was packed by musicians and admirers of these three Yamaha guitar artists and they were rewarded by excellence all evening long. It was truly an evening of magic, with a spotlight on the history of Yamaha guitars. Happy 60th Anniversary Yamaha Guitars!!!

All photos by Larry Goldman.

Larry G. Goldman is a performer, arranger, bassist and writer/contributor. He is based in Los Angeles and has a substantial body of work.

Tags: Entertainment, Larry Goldman. Yamaha, Music, NAMM, Nathan East. Billy Sheehan, The Scoop LA