Yamaha SL-380 — The Entry-Level Model of the Early Studio Lord Series

The 1970s were truly the age of the guitar.
Many boys played guitar back then — I’d estimate that about 10 to 20 percent of all boys owned one.
Among them, acoustic guitars were far more common than electrics.

There weren’t many part-time jobs for students in those days,
so the grade of one’s guitar often reflected the wealth of the family.
Most kids had instruments in the ¥30,000–¥50,000 range,
while models over ¥60,000 were typically found only in well-off households.

My first guitar, given to me by my father around 1975,
was a Greco EG-380 — the cheapest Les Paul model that Greco offered.
It had a bolt-on neck and a semi-hollow construction,
which made it sound more like a semi-acoustic than a solid Les Paul.

This Yamaha, priced about the same at the time,
also had a bolt-on neck, but featured a carved maple top,
producing a much more authentic Les Paul tone.
Back then, I didn’t care much about construction or materials —
only about how the guitar looked.
From that perspective, choosing the Greco made sense.
Still, in hindsight, for playing rock,
this Yamaha would have been the better instrument.

Early SL models were finished in what looks like lacquer today,
though it was likely polyurethane.
Time has mellowed the finish beautifully, giving it a vintage charm.

The three-piece maple top, rich with curly grain,
rests on a two-layer agathis body.
Agathis, a member of the Araucariaceae family of conifers,
is sometimes called one of the oldest trees on Earth.
It spread worldwide during the Jurassic period
and now grows mainly in the Southern Hemisphere,
particularly Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
New Zealand’s famous kauri trees belong to the same genus.

Agathis was often used for budget guitars of this era.
Whether it truly sounds inferior to mahogany, I can’t say —
this is the only guitar I own with an agathis back.
At the very least, this one sounds surprisingly good.

(Updated August 28, 2016)