SL-700C is on the second grade of the Later SL series.  YAMAHA applied mahogany to this model.

As you see, the SL series is not complete copy of Les Paul.  Shape of the headstock and rod cover are definitely different from original Les Paul.  Still more, it gives us impression of stout body  and wide neck.  So it doesn’t give us the feeling of original Les Paul much.

Then in the middle of lawsuit problem, YAMAHA should be aware of it.  Perhaps they observed small companies which mainly produced imitation models as scout in order to avoid to be sued.  It might be slick but YAMAHA had to behave from ethical viewpoint as big company.

YAMAHA might insist that they produced original guitars which simply looked like originals.  But guitar market didn’t seem to have welcomed them.  People didn’t look for halfway imitations.  I think that it resulted in newly production of complete copy model series.

3-piece hard maple top with many freckles, 1 piece mahogany back, striped ebony for fingerboard but hardly observable stripes, position mark inlays are pearloid cells different from pearl oyster inlay of SL-800S.  4.55kg(includes strings). (Updated 2016.8.28)