OffsetGuitars.com

I realized there wasn't one of these for the non-offset variety of the SG, and I'm totally in love with them lately, so I figured I'd start one.

I don't know exactly when I first became aware of these. Probably watching youtube footage old Skids and Siouxsie and the Banshees shows almost a decade ago. My experiences with Yamaha products has always been good, and my Yamaha SL is a fantastic instrument. Seems only natural to explore Yamaha's evolution of the idea with the SG.

So many great players too:

McGeoch


Adamson


Bill Nelson


I just love it. I got really into the Les Paul-ish thing lately, and between the double cutaways, the coil splitting options, and the general Japanese flair of it, I'm just totally smitten.

Anyone else love/own these? I know eggwheat will join in (hopefully I can save up to buy his....)

They're certainly way up there on the cool scale. I've never had the chance to play one, I've only seen them in pictures and for 20 years I've silently lusted, watching their values slowly rise on ebay.

Someday.

For a more modern player: Bill Kelliher from Mastodon.

Massive fan, purely because of the guy below. I've had quite a few and the SG1000 I use now actually belonged to John McGeoch..

I told the story a while back but Johnny Marr and John Frusciante amongst others attempted to buy his guitar from me.. I know Johnny Marr has been buying them up.

My only tip is always get one between 1976-and 81...those 5 years the quality was very high. The bodies got thinner in the early 80's but I have had couple of good one's circa 1984-5...the last ones they made were rubbish in comparison.

They are really great guitars...considering the price you can get a '77 SG1000 for over a '77 Les Paul...it really is a no brainer. Super cool looking too in my eyes.

I'm glad you posted that photo. I found it last night on Tumblr and it's awesome. He looks like someone out of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or something.

But seriously. Just look at these things. Gorgeous:




Also found some awesome catalogue scans here...
http://brochures.yokochou.com/en_index.html#YAMAHA_GTR

Nice to see the appreciation bumping up for these. Sadly, with guys like Marr and Frusciante buying them up, I feel like the prices will start to rise before long. Still, around a grand or a little more for one is a pretty fair price if you ask me, especially compared to said 70s Les Pauls that by and large seem to have a very spotty reputation.

Andy Partridge!

Close. That's an Ibanez Artist. I once asked him about that guitar when he was operating the XTC twitter, and he said he vastly preferred it to Yamahas and Gibsons.

stevejamsecono wrote:Close. That's an Ibanez Artist. I once asked him about that guitar when he was operating the XTC twitter, and he said he vastly preferred it to Yamahas and Gibsons.

DOH!!!

Maggieo wrote:DOH!!!

No shame! Those are good ones too. I had an AR50 for awhile but my weakling shoulders weren't ready for it.

stevejamsecono wrote:

Maggieo wrote:DOH!!!

No shame! Those are good ones too. I had an AR50 for awhile but my weakling shoulders weren't ready for it.

I can't do heavy guitars at all.

Well, for you we have... the Yamaha 1000/2000S series! In the mid-80s they apparently did some where the bodies were way thinner? Not many photos of them, but they do exist!

Maggieo wrote:Andy Partridge!

I was gonna point out that that's an Ibanez Artist but somebody already did, so instead I'll applaud you for knowing who Andy Partridge is

I have a black Yamaha SG200 from 1984 - it's essentially the very basic bottom of the line version with no carved top or binding or anything, but superb build quality and great tone and playability nonetheless. I guess it's like the "les paul studio" of Yamaha SGs.

There is definitely something sexy about completely symmetrical guitars like this and the old Epiphone Wilshires'. It's almost equally appealing to me as an offset design.

As an aside, how heavy are these guitars? They look really thick for a solid body.

Supposedly the 2000/300o's are super heavy, and thicker than the 1000's. They also had a brass sustain block in them because... well... the 70s. I haven't encountered one in the wild yet, so I can't say for sure.

I love the shape of these. I have a beautiful Yamaha SG800. Which is basically a 500 or 1000 in JP only colors (mines an awesome metallic blue) It's the guitar in this pic (not my pics, but my guitar): http://profile.ultimate-guitar.com/Doog ... ar/943381/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So I bought it for too much, loved the sound of the pickups in split coil.. but the pickups & changed out the pickups, put some cool ivoroid knobs on it etc. neck is slim and fast and my back crumpled from the ~10-12 LB weight.
When I bought it I was thinking heavy would be ok for me, but well I'm old and it's not. Like and idiot I bought without trying it out, and I actually thought at the time it would be SG weight. I love the shape/color so much though I keep debating on hollowing it out, but people say that does not really lose that much weight and not to bother. So for now it's sitting in storage, which is a shame and I think I need to sell it.