Deviser: Nagano’s Best-Kept Secret Since 1977

Deviser guitars all come from one company in Matsumoto, Nagano, the maker behind Headway, Bacchus and Momose. If you are into Japanese guitars, you have run into those names, and here is the part a lot of people miss: they are all the same company, and that company is Deviser.

Deviser guitars are made in-house from start to finish, using Japanese tonewoods you will not see anywhere else, and stays traditional at heart without ever being quite like anybody else. This page is the hub: a quick tour of every brand, with the deep dives living on their own pages.

Prefer to watch? This article is based on my own video below.

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History in Brief: From a Burned-Down Workshop to a Guitar House

The story begins with Yasuo Momose, a furniture craftsman turned guitar builder who joined Fujigen in 1964. His work caught the eye of Kei Yatsuzuka, later Deviser’s chairman, and in 1977 they founded Headway in Matsumoto, chasing the highest-quality acoustic guitars in Japan. Then, in 1983, the factory burned down, taking the jigs, machines and wood with it. Japan was deep in its metal boom, so the company rebuilt as an electric-guitar factory instead.

In 1991 the sales division split off from manufacturing, and Deviser was born, with the arrangement that still holds today: Deviser handles product planning and wholesale, and the Aska factory handles domestic production. Bacchus launched in 1994, acoustic production restarted in 1999 after a letter from a single devoted customer, and Momose followed in 2002. Aska was set up as the dedicated custom shop in 2004.

Year	Milestone
1977	Headway founded in Matsumoto; the HD-115 developed from a Martin D-28
1983	Factory fire; the company rebuilds as an electric-guitar maker
1991	Sales splits from manufacturing; Deviser is founded
1994	Bacchus launched
1999	Headway acoustic production restarts
2002	Momose Custom Craft Guitars launched
2004	Aska established as the in-house custom shop
2015	Yasuo Momose named a Master Craftsman of Shinshu
2024	Yasuo Momose passes away, aged 80

What Makes Deviser Guitars Special: The Aska Factory

You cannot talk about Deviser without the Aska factory, its own workshop, led by master builder Satoru Yatsuzuka. This is not just an OEM shop: it also builds the Japan-made lines for overseas boutique names like James Tyler and Sadowsky, which tells you the level involved. Yatsuzuka learned to build under Yasuo Momose himself, doing the woodwork on roughly the first thousand Momose instruments before becoming Aska’s factory manager in 2004.

The other throughline is the wood. More than almost any other maker, Deviser guitars are built with Japanese species, sakura (cherry), tochi (horse chestnut), sen, keyaki and even akamatsu (red pine), finished to suit the material. It is about as made-in-Japan as guitar building gets.

The Deviser Brands, One by One

Here is the whole family. The big three each have a full deep-dive of their own; follow the links for lineups, prices and buying advice.

Headway: The Acoustic Brand It All Grew From

Headway is Deviser’s acoustic brand and, at times, has been called the best in Japan. The signature HD-115 dreadnought was created by taking a Martin D-28 apart and studying it for a year, and the brand’s obsessions with body voicing and rock-solid necks run from a ¥36,000 first guitar all the way to five-figure Custom Shop builds.

Go deeper: the full Headway Overview.

Bacchus: The Value Electric & Bass Brand

Bacchus is the electric-guitar and bass brand that punches above its price, starting around ¥40,000 with real hands-on build quality. It was one of the earliest brands in the world to put roasted maple on entry-level guitars, and the lineup climbs from the China-made Universe series to Japan-made flagships.

Go deeper: the full Bacchus Overview.

Momose: The Handmade Brand Built From Japanese Woods

Momose is the handmade electric brand, named after senior master builder Yasuo Momose and built at the Aska factory. It takes traditional Strat and Tele designs and runs them through genuine Japanese woodworking, most famously the limited models in sakura, tochi and other Japanese species you will not find on anyone else’s electrics.

Go deeper: the full Momose Overview.

Seventy Seven: The Semi-Hollow & Full-Hollow Brand

Seventy Seven Guitars is the semi-hollow and full-hollow brand, built on the acoustic know-how developed at Headway. It chases a full, warm voice that suits jazz and blues, and the current lineup runs as a Japan Tune-up series, which makes it very strong on value and well respected by professionals.

STR Guitars: The Full Custom-Order Brand

STR Guitars is the full custom-order guitar and bass brand, run by Aska master builder Satoru Yatsuzuka. It is made to order, with guaranteed quality and a boutique design language, and it is the clearest showcase of Deviser’s hand craftsmanship, from the same builder whose work James Tyler signed off on.

Rosetta: F-Hole Semi-Hollows in Wild Materials

Rosetta grew out of the Deviser Special Specification series (2005-2007) and was restarted in 2021 for the company’s 30th anniversary. The f-hole semi-hollow construction keeps it light and comfortable, and recent models use materials you will not find anywhere else: tops surfaced with washi (traditional Japanese paper), Karuizawa-bori engraving, and jindai tamo, Japanese ash buried underground for centuries by volcanic eruptions before being dug back out.

JRP: Guitars From Japanese Red Pine

JRP stands for Japan Red Pine, and it is exactly that. Deviser leads the whole project itself, turning akamatsu (Japanese red pine) that had to be felled because of pine-bark-beetle damage, from trees in its own home ground of Matsumoto, into guitars unlike anything else out there.

Sakura Ukulele: A Cherry-Wood Ukulele Brand

SAKURA UKULELE is exactly what it sounds like, a ukulele brand built around cherry wood, set up in spring 2023. A nice detail: the very first cherry-wood instrument Deviser ever made was a ukulele, not a guitar, and the logo that looks like a ukulele at a glance is actually the word “sakura” written in Japanese hiragana.

The Deviser Special Showcase

Deviser also runs the Deviser Special Showcase, an event that brings every brand together in one place, and it is where the limited, gorgeous-timber Momose builds and the Custom Shop Headways show up. It used to be held at the head office, but since the pandemic in 2020 the exhibited models have been published on a dedicated website instead. If you are overseas, you can buy the pieces through dealers.

The Deviser Brands at a Glance

Brand	What it is
Headway	Acoustic guitars; the brand it all grew from
Bacchus	Value-focused electric guitars and basses, from ¥40,000
Momose	Handmade electrics built from Japanese woods
Seventy Seven	Semi-hollow and full-hollow guitars for jazz and blues
STR	Full custom-order guitars and basses by Satoru Yatsuzuka
Rosetta	F-hole semi-hollows in washi, jindai tamo and other rare materials
JRP	Guitars made from Japanese red pine (akamatsu)
Sakura Ukulele	Ukuleles built around Japanese cherry wood

Buying a Deviser Guitar

Because Deviser guitars span so many brands and price points, where you buy depends on what you are after. Inside Japan the full range is stocked; overseas, the reliable routes are Japanese retailers that ship internationally, Ishibashi Music and Ikebe among them, plus Reverb and eBay for used pieces and authorized dealers for the limited Showcase builds. For prices, lineups and model-by-model buying advice, the individual brand overviews are the place to go: Headway, Bacchus and Momose.

Final Thoughts

What makes Deviser guitars worth knowing is the range packed into one workshop: an honest first acoustic, a value electric with roasted maple, a handmade Strat cut from Japanese cherry, a custom bass good enough to carry an American boutique badge, even a ukulele. The next time you see a Deviser guitar in a shop, whatever the brand on the headstock, you should be able to tell which line it came from and why it is built the way it is.

Deviser Guitars FAQ

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