[Alan Brinton]

I don’t now, Lowboy. They are so hard to compare. Current Yamahas and Suzukis have settled into time tested designs that work very well. The materials are solid and durable. The reeds of these Italians seem to me to be superior and of higher quality; and more experimental design was going on, some of it pretty ingenious, which is more comparable to the early Japanese developments, especially with Suzuki Melodions, during the 1960s and early 70s. The gasket materials of almost all of the Yamahas (and Tokai Gakkis) and Suzukis, from the beginning, have been much more durable with few leakage issues, with the exception of the 1961 Tokai Gakki PC-1, which is more like the Italian models.