NGD: Yamaha SG1820

NorthernPaul

Thats a gorgeous guitar,HNGD

Bigsby

Dominic said:

The fact is that the Tokai, Yamaha, Greco premium products of the 70s and 80s was miles ahead of the contemporary American equivalents but the American machine seemed to make the slander stick like shit to a blanket .

As I remember it, that attitude didn't last long in the UK, where USA-made guitars were getting a poor reputation for QC, following the corporate take-overs in the 60s, whilst Japanese quality just seemed to get better and better. Awhile back I saw a TV show called something like 'British rock in the 80s', (largely made up of TOTP clips), and counted six Yamaha SGs against zero Gibson SGs. That's pretty much how I recalled things.

Sounds like @grayn got a great deal there - I had similar luck in 2017 when Guitarguitar blew a few out at half price. Grabbed a Goldtop 1802, my second Yamaha after owning an SG700 in the 80s.



Overall, I'd say it's noticeably better quality than any Gibson I've ever owned - but to be fair to Gibson, this is more like a Custom shop model than Gibson USA, with low volume 'hand assembled' production, and a signed certificate of authenticity in the case. But these have RRPs closer to Gibson USA than Custom shop, so it's still a fair comparison. 

Incidentally, amongst the changes Yamaha listed for the 1820/1802 models was a smaller headstock, to improve balance. That puzzled me, as I don't recall my 700 having any tendency to neck-dive, and would've thought the heavy SG body would be enough to provide balance, but I gather from this thread that some didn't. Clears up that little mystery for me.