K. Yairi nylon-strung classical guitar

Steve Hackett owns a K. Yairi nylon-strung classical acoustic guitar (the exact model of which is unclear), which dates back to around 1973.

It was bought new from the Ivan Mairants Musicentre specialist guitar shop near Oxford Street in 1974. He was attracted to this guitar for its projection and "almost pianistic" kind of sound - and also went on to say it was seemingly the loudest acoustic available in the shop at the time. He tried a Kohno guitar which was outside his financial range, so went with the K. Yairi classical which was slightly cheaper. To this day it remains one of his preferred guitars for occasional studio work. Examples include "Hairless Heart" on The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974) and "Blood On The Rooftops" on Wind And Wuthering (1976).

This guitar has often been referred to as simply a Yairi classical one, but looking at the label inside it is more specifically one manufactured by K. Yairi guitars. Three Japanese luthiers under the Yairi surname were known for guitars: Sadao Yairi and son Hiroshi Yairi who made guitars under the S. Yairi brand, and Kazuo Yairi (nephew of Sadao) who made guitars under his own brand K. Yairi.