| Tak Matsumoto |
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B'z lead guitarist and composer |
| Background information |
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| Origin |
Japan |
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| Genres |
Rock, Hard Rock, Pop Rock, Blues, Jazz, Dance, Adult Rock, Metal |
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| Years |
1988–Present |
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| Labels |
BMG Japan (1988-1995)
Vermillion Records (1995-Present)
House of Strings (2004-Present) |
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Tak Matsumoto (松本孝弘) is a Japanese guitarist, composer, producer, and songwriter best known as one of the two members of B'z. He was born March 27, 1961 in Toyonaka, Osaka. With over two decades spent at the top of the Japanese music scene as its foremost guitarist, he is widely recognized and associated with guitar music in his home country and regularly tops polls in the Japanese music community as the country's greatest guitar ambassador. In addition to his many releases as B'z, he has also had a successful solo career in addition to working with musicians from all over the world.
General
Taks style is influenced by many famous artist from all around the world. His jazz education and devotion for blues helped him create his very own brand of music, now known as "Kansai Blues". During 1980 he was working for the TM-Network as a session musician and his musical career began to grow. The starting solo careers in Japan enables Tak to make his move and release his first solo hit "Thousand Wave". After this episode he started his own band "B'z". In 2004 he formed the Tak Matsumoto Groud (TMG).
In November 2004 Tak Matsumoto established his own Label "House of Strings", a label for guitarist and all kind of string-artists. Earlier that year he founded the Tak Matsumoto Group.
Career
Tak's career started at the moment he entered High School and buying his first Gibson guitar. At that moment he went from listening to playing by practising for ten hours a day. For a while he kept impressing his teachers before becoming a session musician. After some session- and solo-work Takahiro decided to found a band. This project of him was come to flower as B'z. One as the most well-known Japanese Rock-Bands.
Solo Carrer
His time as a session musician was during the 1980s in collaboration with the TM-Network and Mari Hamada. This effort was to bloom into his outstanding solo-career that started with the emerging of many solo-artist all through japan in the mid and late 80's. During his session-musician time he was quite unhappy because all projects he worked on didn't have enough guitars in them. "Thousand Wave" and one of his finest work "99" with Tetsuya Komuro was his step-stone into a bright solo-career, but this also showed him that it still wasn't what he was looking for.
Even while performing with B'z Tak was never tired of trying out new solo projects. In 2002 he wrote and contributed two songs for Misa's album "Kiss the Sky". Misa had discovered his solo work and asked Tak to work with her. Busy as he is he had a concert with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra at Suntory Hall and later on recorded those songs under his own label to release them as the first House of Strings CD.
In 2010 after the B'z "Ain't no Magic" Tour he had some sessions with famous guitar-artist Larry Carlton.
This collaboration work started in 2007, when Rick Gembar suggested to Larry Carlton to join Matsumoto. Both guitarists got together and it nearly took a year to get started. In 2008 Takahiro has already written some songs which he showed to Larry.
B'z
In the late 1980s Matsumoto decided to start his own band and started looking out for a vocalist. After receiving a demo-tape from a session musician named Koshi Inaba he set up a meeting recorded rendition of "Let it be" by the Beatles. During this session the amp blew. This doomed meeting was to bloom into B'z because even of that small incident Tak knew that he found his vocalist. The musical style of B'z is a various combination of many styled, mostly influenced by Taks love for Blues, Jazz and Classic while Koshi brings in the Rock'n'Roll.
Tak Matsumoto Group
All during 2004 Tak was working on his TMG project. Together with Eric Martin on Vocal, Jack Blades on Bass and Brian Tichy on drums, Tak Matsumoto kept on following his very on brilliant brand of music. Tak produced the album and wrote the songs while Eric Martin and Jack Blade wrote the lyrics. It lead up to "Oh Japan ~ Our Time Is Now ~". The recording was held in Taks studio in LA and therefore he went back and forth to record this album. After a couple of months, on June 23th the album was released, it mixed rock and oriental sounds and topped the chart on the first week.
Discography
Singles
Albums
Thousand Wave (1988)
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| Thousand Wave
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| Touch Operation
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| SPAIN
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| "99"
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| So Long
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| Vampire Hunter "D"
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| Play It So Loud
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| Teaser
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| Take Five
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| No Way Out
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Wanna Go Home (1992)
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| Wanna Go Home
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| 99
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| Long Distance Call
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| Love Ya (Interlude)
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| Air Port
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| Life II
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| '88~Love Story
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| Love Ya
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| #1090 ~Thousand Dreams~
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| Jammin' of The Guitar
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| Speed
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| Wanna Go Home (Reprise)
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Thousand Wave Plus (1996)
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| Thousand Wave
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| Touch Operation
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| SPAIN
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| "99"
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| So Long
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| Vampire Hunter "D"
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| Play It So Loud
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| Teaser
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| Take Five
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| No Way Out
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| '88~Love Story
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| Love Ya
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DRAGON FROM THE WEST (2002)
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| SACRED FIELD
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| FIGHTING BULL
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| DRAGON FROM THE WEST
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| NOTTEKE
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| Riverside Blues
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| Trinity
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Hana (2002)
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| Koi Uta
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| #1090 Sen Mu Ichiya
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| Hana
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| Machi
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| Midousuji BLUE
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| Shu ~Asayake~
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| Little Wing
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| Romeo & Juliet
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| hallelujah
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| ENGAGED
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| You Know....
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| 2011
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House Of Strings (2004)
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| WHITE CHRISTMAS
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| Itsuka no Merry Christmas
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| sasanqua~Fuyuu no Yuu
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| Koi Uta
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| #1090
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| Hana
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| Ai no Mama ni...
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| BLUE
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| BLACK JACK
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| SACRED FIELD~RED SUN~GO FURTHER
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| Theme from ULTRAMAN
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| Strings Of My Soul
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| LOVE PHANTOM
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| HOLY NIGHT
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Theatre Of Strings (2005)
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| My Favorite Things
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| Over the Rainbow
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| New Cinema Paradise
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| Moon River
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| The Godfather (Waltz~Love Theme)
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| Enter the Dragon Theme
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| Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
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| Mission Impossible Theme
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| Top Gun Anthem
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| Scarborough Fair Canticle
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| Emmanuelle Theme
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| When You Wish Upon A Star
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| The Magnificent Four
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Strings Of My Soul (2012)
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| #1090 Sen Mu Ichiya
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| The Moment
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| Live Life
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| TRINITY
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| BLUE
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| Hana
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| Koi Uta
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| sasanqua~Fuyu no Hi
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| THE WINGS
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| SUKIYAKI featuring LARRY CARLTON
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| MY FAVORITE THINGS
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| Romeo & Juliet
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| 99
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Untitled 2014
Solo Album (2014)
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| To Be Announced
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Collaborations
Rock'n Roll Standard Club (1996)
—ROCK STANDARDS ALBUM—
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| I GOT THE FIRE
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| FOOL FOR YOUR LOVING
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| CAUSE WE'VE ENDED AS LOVERS
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| INTO THE ARENA
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| ROCK AND ROLL, HOOCHIE KOO
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| MOVE OVER
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| LIFE FOR THE TAKING
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| SUNSET
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| WISHING WELL
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| COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
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| MISTREATED
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TAKE YOUR PICK (2010)
—STUDIO ALBUM WITH LARRY CARLTON—
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| JAZZY BULLETS
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| Nite Crawler 2010
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| THE WAY WE WERE
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| Islands of Japan
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| Neon Blue
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| Tokyo Night
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| hotalu
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| East West Stroll
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| Easy Mystery
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| ao
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| Take Your Pick
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| A girl from China
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Live Tours
| Logo
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Tour
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Notes
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Home Video
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Rock'n Roll Standard
Club Band Tour
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Tak's first solo tour outside of B'z. The tour came in support of Tak's solo album, Rock'n Roll Standard Club, on which he provided his own take on a number of rock classics by the likes of Whitesnake, Led Zeppelin, the Michael Schenker Group, Rick Derringer, and Deep Purple. The live tour consisted of songs not included on the album itself, with further classics such as "Mama Kin" by Aerosmith and "Back in Black" by AC/DC also being covered. B'z support members Takanobu Masuda and Kaichi Kurose joined Tak for the tour on keyboards and drums, respectively.
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TV Documentary
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TMG LIVE TOUR
"Dodge The Bullet"
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The sole live tour by TMG, Tak Matsumoto Group, an international rock supergroup consisting of Tak alongside members of fellow rock acts Mr. Big's Eric Martin and Night Ranger's Jack Blades. The tour saw the group touring for a month and a half in the summer of 2004 during Tak's break from B'z duties, with the setlist consisting mostly of songs from the group's only album, TMG I. Notably, the encore also included covers of two classic numbers by Night Ranger and Mr. Big.
Concurrent Events: SUMMER SONIC 04
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Tak Matsumoto & Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra Special Collaboration 2004:
"Hana"
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A special groundbreaking three-night engagement between Tak Matsumoto and the world-famous Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. The sold-out shows featured Tak playing guitar affront a full orchestra as they performed orchestral arrangements of Tak's compositions both of the solo and B'z varieties. The arrangements were later recorded and released on Tak's solo album of the same year, House Of Strings.
Concurrent Events: THURSDAY LIVE at hills Bread Factory "WEST COAST NIGHT vol.2", THURSDAY LIVE at hills Bread Factory "OOM NIGHT", 12th Seigaku Alumni Festival: Tak Matsumoto Live Concert
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TV Documentary
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Larry Carlton & Tak Matsumoto LIVE 2010
"TAKE YOUR PICK"
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The tour for Tak's collaboration with American jazz legend Larry Carlton in support of their joint album TAKE YOUR PICK. The tour held Japanese dates from June to September, followed by two dates in Taiwan and Hong Kong later in October. Many of the performances were held with two per day at select venues. All songs from the joint album were played during the setlist, followed by an encore consisting of Larry's well-regarded classic "Room 335" and Tak's most well-known solo effort "#1090 ~Thousand Dreams~".
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Tak Matsumoto
Solo Live Tour 2014
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Tour in support of Tak's as-yet-untitled 2014 solo album. It is the first true solo tour by Tak. The tour is set to span one month, from May to June, and again sees Tak playing double shows for many of the venues as he did in 2010.
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Guitars
Not just that his first guitar ever was a Gibson, he also had the privilege of becoming the first japanese signature artist for Gibson. After being introduced by Steve Vai, a long term and good friend of Matsumoto, he got his first Signature Model in 1999. He sure made up for that Honor by snatching the most signature models made by Gibson. Until now he has a total of seven. While most of the Gibson Signature models are only available in Japan, Epiphone took up the effort to produce the models for the US market.
TODO: List of other guitars Tak owns/plays.
Hardware
Over the years Tak Matsumoto has collected and received many different Hardware-Setups for his Live-Concerts and recordings.
Commonly known are his Signature Guitars which he plays during Live-Gyms since 1999. In 2013 Dunlop has awarded him his own Dunlop-Cry-Baby as a Signature Model named Tak Cry Baby.
