
YAMAHA SL1000 the late 70's
SL-1000 is in the second grade of the early SL series. It is easy to distinguish the early type and the late type, but it’s impossible to identify producing year exactly.
Three-piece maple top with opaque black finish is different from two-piece top with sunburst finish of SL-1200. The neck material is mahogany on both.
The early and the late SL series look different at a glance because their finish are different, the former is lacquer and the latter is urethane. So the early SL has dignity of vintage.
YAMAHA continues to adapt the over-binding fret on all models from very early period. It is probably because YAMAHA has been keeping the practicability of guitar as musical instrument in their mind.
Here I’d say some point which are generally observable in YAMAHA guitars.
At first, the set neck is stable. I have hardly observed neck warp, wavy fingerboard. They must be evidences of strict standard of YAMAHA for material and bonding agent.
The next, tuners are excellent. It is astonishing that stability with smooth movement in constant torque and no torque difference in each tuners in spite of 40 years of usage.
Still more, weather resistance of the parts is on high level. Hardware except for pickup cover has rust less than the other companies’ guitars. The escutcheons also are hard to be broken by aging.
YAMAHA might be inferior to small companies at the point of fine woodwork and skill for making imitations, but they has a belief as professional instrument company, and their guitars naturally make us feel it. 4.35kg(includes strings). (Updated 2016.8.28)
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