Our perception of Japanese guitars has evolved slowly. At one point, they were cheap toys, at other times imperfect copies, then startling innovations. Perspective encircles the truth. So, how should we perceive the Yamaha SA-15?
Japan became interested in guitars in the early 1920s, as some musicians there began to perform what we’d today call “classical guitar.” Segovia toured the country in ’29, and in the early ’30s, the “ry k ka” style of folk music fused untempered Japanese folk music with Western tempered scales, frequently accompanied by classical-style guitar and making use of other Western instruments. A few years later, Hoshino and others began building acoustic guitars.
Yamaha guitars have always been something of an outlier among Japanese guitar makers, though having said that, we need to keep in mind that moving stylus of perception! Yamaha – today a conglomerate that makes everything from motorcycles and golf carts to archery and audio gear; Torakusu Yamaha founded it in 1887 as Nippon Gakki Company, Ltd. and made reed organs in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture (Gakki signifies “musical instrument”). In 1900, they expanded into upright pianos.
Given Japan’s history with guitars, it’s no surprise that when Yamaha began making them circa 1946, they were classicals hand-made in Hamamatsu (Dynamic Guitars), some of which are today highly respected and collectible, especially in Japan. In 1966, Yamaha entered factory production of steel-stringed acoustic (FG) and solidbody electrics (S, SG), then in ’71, moved primary guitar production to a factory in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where it continued until 2008, when production shifted to China.
Japan’s interest in electric guitars was slow to develop; primary impulses came from the Ventures’ 1962 tour, the Beatles’ ’66 tour, and ’71 tours by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Grand Funk Railroad, and other top groups, all playing expensive American electric guitars. You can pretty much track the evolution of guitar design around these points.
There is scant information on the earliest Yamaha solidbody electrics, with the SG-2 and 3 usually being considered the first (oddly, there was no SG-1). Also, many sources refer to solids from ’66 as being the S Series, the prefix changing to SG in ’67; there may be mysteries yet to uncover. In any case, the SG-2 and 3 were shaped like a Strat with pointed horns – surprisingly serious. Early SGs have a professional feel, with a good heft to the body and a fast, modern neck profile not typically associated with “cheap” ’60s guitars; these are not Teiscos.
The SG-2 and 3 were followed by the better-known SG-5 and 7, with extended treble-cutaway horns known popularly in Japan as the “Blue Jeans” models.
In ’67, Yamaha introduced its first hollowbody electrics, the dot-neck SA-30 and SA-50, with split-parallelogram fretboard inlays. These were clever takes on the double-cut Gibson ES-330 thinline hollowbodies. Other Japanese makers had already been making down-sized “copies” by this time, and the SAs were very similar in appearance, but with a “point” on the cutaway horns and a rounded, sort of Woody Woodpecker headstock shape. They were equipped with a large vibrato tailpiece with an in-body spring system, two pickups that looked much like mini humbuckers but were actually single-coils, and controls including three-way pickup selector on the horn of the upper treble bout, and controls for Volume, Tone, and Balance mounted near the sound hole. These guitars were offered in sunburst, black, and cherry finishes. Early versions were given Gibsonesque elevated pickguards.
The SA-20, a 12-string version identical except for its solid tailpiece, debuted in late ’68, the same year Yamaha introduced the second-generation SA models, the 15 and 15D, which were very similar in concept but capitalized on the popularity of the “Blue Jeans” solidbodies.
Looking at them today, one realizes that from an aesthetic perspective, the SA models were a near-perfect design. The upper horn is shorter and rounded into an exaggerated Tele hump, while the extended lower horn is more than a bit reflective of a Mosrite. The Gibson pickguard has been replaced by a distorted teardrop hosting the three-way and the Volume and Tone controls. The twin f-shaped sound holes are compressed into one hybrid catseye. The line of the upper horn continues through the pickguard and lower bout, while the catseye sweeps just into the lower horn; the lines cross in an elegant X pattern. Inspiration may have come from a Gibson, but this guitar takes the form to a whole other place – Japan.
The SA-15 seen here has a mahogany neck with frets inlaid directly into it, with a painted-on fingerboard and pearl dot inlays. The SA-15D had a rosewood fretboard with binding, pearl thumbnail inlays, and fancier checkerboard binding. Both were available in sunburst, black, and maroon – sunburst being the most common, black and maroon much less so. Like the SGs, they have a remarkably professional feel. And the single-coils have pretty decent output and tone.
All SA Series thinlines were gone by ’69 and Yamaha would not return to hollowbodies until the mid ’70s. SA models were never exported to the U.S. (though they have elaborate jack plates with information in English) and the 15 models lasted less than a year. Rare birds? Probably.
There’s a misperception that Japanese companies in the ’60s made guitars by the millions, and that they were just cheap “toys.” Instruments like this demonstrate that to fully understand the reality, you have to get to the end of the song.
This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2016 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
