N(J)GD: ‘97 YAMAHA SG2000 RI

[RobB]

 

 

I need to experiment with lighting. The first pic is pretty close to the true color. Looks sorta, “clown-bursty”, but yellow/red are much nicer in person. Looks like a vintage guitar.

Edited July 18, 2024 by RobB

[stedge]

Great guitar.  Have fun with it!

 

[RobB]

This my second SG2000. I had a black one in the mid-aughts that actually got me laid after a show in SF, no lie! The guitar was way hotter than me, apparently. That guitar was at LEAST 10lbs, with a neck that tapered from humongous to ginormous. 

This ‘97 is a hair under 9lbs. Still weighty, but more like an LP Custom weight. The neck is a medium carve, clean with no dings/divots. Frets are perfect. It plays great! I actually had to RAISE the action (for once). 

The Yamaha pickup-splitting tone pots (push/push, thank gawd) have always been my favorite feature of SG guitars. The humbuckers actually sound great split, and it’s easy to set up a bright rhythm sound, hit the pickup selector and get a great lead tone. The tone pot taper is really usable, tons of fun dialing in sounds. It’s a generally bright guitar, but it sounds heavy and deadly thru high-gain amps.

Edited July 20, 2024 by RobB

[velorush]

That BINDING tho! 💞

[The Shark]

Bought a SG-3000 just a few months ago.  Got a lighter one as well.  Great guitars.  Congrats!

[ARM OF HAMER]

                                                Those are a fine guitar.....................I had 2 1978 Yamaha SG2000 guitars back in the day, one was pretty light as these go the other was 9.5 Lbs. these days, I have the Yamaha Weddington Custom as my sole Yamaha Guitar and it is also a great one. Congrats on acquiring yours, great top on it as well, mine were both plain. 

[RobB]

1 hour ago, ARM OF HAMER said:

                                                Those are a fine guitar.....................I had 2 1978 Yamaha SG2000 guitars back in the day, one was pretty light as these go the other was 9.5 Lbs. these days, I have the Yamaha Weddington Custom as my sole Yamaha Guitar and it is also a great one. Congrats on acquiring yours, great top on it as well, mine were both plain. 

Weddington Customs are sweet guitars. They are relatively rare, and yours is one of the nicest I’ve seen. 
 

Pickguardplanet.com actually sells SG2000 pickguards. I’ve put in an order for 2 b/w/b

[ARM OF HAMER]

30 minutes ago, RobB said:

Weddington Customs are sweet guitars. They are relatively rare, and yours is one of the nicest I’ve seen. 
 

Pickguardplanet.com actually sells SG2000 pickguards. I’ve put in an order for 2 b/w/b

                        Thank you for that..................regarding the Weddington. I had white Pearl Metallic SG-3000 and a very rare SG-2500. I wish i would have kept the 2500 I sold, that to another Yamaha collector.................it went all the way from Minnesota to Australia! 

[DaveH]

On 7/8/2024 at 6:19 PM, RobB said:

I had a black one in the mid-aughts that actually got me laid after a show in SF, no lie!

That right there is an oxymoron if I ever heard one... What the hell were you thinking, getting rid of an axe that picks up pussy for you??

[RobB]

8 minutes ago, DaveH said:

That right there is an oxymoron if I ever heard one... What the hell were you thinking, getting rid of an axe that picks up pussy for you??

Because it was brutally heavy and had a neck like a tree limb. 
 

And, additionally, I am an idiot. 

[RobB]

On 7/9/2024 at 2:19 PM, ARM OF HAMER said:

I had white Pearl Metallic SG-3000 and a very rare SG-2500.

The 3000 is the SG model with all the crazy abalone purfling and brass pickup rings. What distinguishes the 2500? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one. 

Edited July 11, 2024 by RobB

[The Shark]

[RobB]

Oof.
 

Yep. Thassa 3000, raht chere. 

[ARM OF HAMER]

8 hours ago, The Shark said:

                                                   Yep I had one  like that but the finish was white metallic....................I certainly realize that guitar finishes can darken with age, but it was not a new guitar.............it was from the original run. Supposedly it was Custom Made and once owned by Rik Emmett which I was never able to confirm. Rick was a big Yamaha Guitar endorser he had a Yamaha SG Doubleneck and a Weddington Custom also. I saw Triumph several times and he wasn't playing either of those guitars, he was playing a modified Framus "Jan Akkerman"............the Focus guitarist. The finish on the SG-3000 looked like this guitar I owned for a short time a "Custom Made" SA-2200 model made for EWF guitarist Sheldon Reynolds. Both the SG-3000 and the SA-2200 were sold to a collector in Japan.  

[ARM OF HAMER]

                                          Here is my SG-2500...................sold to a guy in Australia who had a huge collection of Yamaha SG models. This one was heavy but is sounded great.............."Spinex" Pickups. It had as you can see some of the infamous Yamaha "Finish Fog" or "Finish Blush".

[ARM OF HAMER]

                                   Emmett's  Doubleneck Yamaha SG. 

[princeofdarkness56]

On 7/9/2024 at 6:55 PM, RobB said:

Because it was brutally heavy and had a neck like a tree limb. 
 

And, additionally, I am an idiot. 

To be clear here, you are talking about the guitar and not the girl you picked up right ? 

[DaveH]

53 minutes ago, princeofdarkness56 said:

To be clear here, you are talking about the guitar and not the girl you picked up right ? 

He didn't pick the girl up... The guitar did. Remember?

[The Shark]

2 hours ago, ARM OF HAMER said:

                                                   Yep I had one  like that but the finish was white metallic....................I certainly realize that guitar finishes can darken with age, but it was not a new guitar.............it was from the original run. Supposedly it was Custom Made and once owned by Rik Emmett which I was never able to confirm. Rick was a big Yamaha Guitar endorser he had a Yamaha SG Doubleneck and a Weddington Custom also. I saw Triumph several times and he wasn't playing either of those guitars, he was playing a modified Framus "Jan Akkerman"............the Focus guitarist. The finish on the SG-3000 looked like this guitar I owned for a short time a "Custom Made" SA-2200 model made for EWF guitarist Sheldon Reynolds. Both the SG-3000 and the SA-2200 were sold to a collector in Japan.  

I had a Jan Akkerman Framus.  Bought it in Lakeland Florida.  It belonged to the Baptist Church.  They also had a pawn shop next to the church.  Somebody pawned it and never came back.  So, they had it on a stand for worship musicians.  Got it for $300.  All stock.  Pickups sucked (as Rik figured out), but it was gorgeous.  I only have a polaroid of it.  I'll dig it up and screen shoot it.  Sold it to Mac Yasuda for $1,000 and one of his books!  That was '89.

My SG-3000 is a 1990.  It looks like it was never played.  Cool guitars.

[RobB]

3 hours ago, princeofdarkness56 said:

To be clear here, you are talking about the guitar and not the girl you picked up right ? 

Bottom-heavy, with a heaving prow like a mid-century steamship. Just lak ah laks ‘em!

Edited July 11, 2024 by RobB

[RobB]

3 hours ago, ARM OF HAMER said:

                                          Here is my SG-2500...................sold to a guy in Australia who had a huge collection of Yamaha SG models. This one was heavy but is sounded great.............."Spinex" Pickups. It had as you can see some of the infamous Yamaha "Finish Fog" or "Finish Blush".

Looks like the same specs as a 2000. Maybe, “2500”, was a finish code or some such?

[ARM OF HAMER]

2 hours ago, RobB said:

Looks like the same specs as a 2000. Maybe, “2500”, was a finish code or some such?

                              Not sure it did have many of the same features as the SG-2000 you can see. It was supposed to be a Japan only issued guitar, not available in the states. I did buy it from a guy that bought it off a guitar site in Japan, he was in the USA and had it on Ebay. The pickups were "Spinex" which were supposed to be some sort of material used in "Aerospace Technology" incorporated into these pickups. To be honest they didn't sound noticeably different to my ears from the pickups in either of my stock Yamaha SG-2000 guitars. Marketing gimmick? Who knows.

[RobB]

Thanks for the info. That black cherry-burst seems rather rare. Makes sense the 2500s were not for import.
 

Seems Hamer isn’t the only mfg with finishing issues. It can get very humid in Japan. Can be a crapshoot for lacquer outcomes. 

[The Shark]

22 hours ago, RobB said:

Looks like the same specs as a 2000. Maybe, “2500”, was a finish code or some such?

I think the 2500 had gold hardware.

[Brooks]

Always dug the look of those