NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

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NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by stevejamsecono » Tue Jun 06, 2017 3:01 pm

Well, anyone who's been on this forum for long enough knows how I feel about these. I've been jonesing after one since about 2009, and repeated exposure to the music of The Skids, SLF, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Big Country, etc. etc. etc. has finally led us here.

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Traveling all the way from Tokyo Japan in 3 (!!) days in one of the apparently rare hard cases for these guys.
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I was originally going to remove this sticker until I read the delightful text on it. Never was much of a Bridgestone tires fan, but come on.
Now to the good stuff:
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Damn.

Anyway. I bought an Orville Junior recently in another "been wanting one of these forever" bouts, and found it not to my liking. Luckily for me I found a friend of a friend locally who was really into it and got most of my money back, and immediately sunk it into this guy. The seller was fantastic to deal with, and the price was excellent. Not only that, it's one of the slightly lighter ones, so it's not the boat anchor that most of these seem to have the reputation of being. So much the better.

On initial play, I'm really startled that more people don't talk about how good these pickups sound and how well the push/push coil-tapping works. If there's one thing I've missed in my Studio Lord it's the ability to get a sharper, thinner sound closer to what my Fenders do. With a mere push, you get a nice option between "thin" and "thick" on both pickups, and both sounds are incredibly usable. There isn't a lot of volume loss, and it sounds awesome. Doesn't sound exactly like a Strat or Tele obviously, but for what I do it gets the job done, and it finally explains some of the moments on stuff like "Christine" and "Happy House" by the Banshees that McGeoch was on. Glorious.

Needless to say, we're still in honeymoon phase, but boy oh boy am I in love with this thing from first touch.
Last edited by stevejamsecono on Tue Jun 06, 2017 4:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
And you find out life isn't like that
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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by Oig » Tue Jun 06, 2017 3:57 pm

Dude! That's gorgeous :? :? :?

Congrats!

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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by Yeatzee » Tue Jun 06, 2017 4:02 pm

Love the inlays!

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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by budda12ax7 » Tue Jun 06, 2017 4:36 pm

That is really nice...congratulations.

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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by stevejamsecono » Tue Jun 06, 2017 4:59 pm

Yeatzee wrote:Love the inlays!
Me too man. I don't know how they came up with 'em, but they look great.

Also, hilariously, the thing has like... 9s and is set up for super shred right now. I've been doing 11s with "slightly high" action for a little while now, and with the current setup it makes me feel like I'm much more talented.
And you find out life isn't like that
It's so hard to understand
Why the world is your oyster but your future's a clam

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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by Fiddy » Tue Jun 06, 2017 6:14 pm

Oh yeah. 8)

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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by Ursa Minor » Tue Jun 06, 2017 6:33 pm

Nice! Long time coming! Those are the best NGDs!
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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by marqueemoon » Tue Jun 06, 2017 8:31 pm

That looks great.

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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by eskmsaul » Tue Jun 06, 2017 10:11 pm

Such a cool guitar. I love these and the Ibanez Artists.

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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by shadowplay » Tue Jun 06, 2017 11:59 pm

A very wise buy, looks immaculate and you are 100% correct about the pickups and the tapping.

D
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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by eggwheat » Wed Jun 07, 2017 12:42 am

Awesome. Crazy value for money too for such a high end guitars.

Being a total Mcgeoch fanboy I read an interview where he said he used 9's..so I tried them on my two SG1000's and discovered I really liked them, they give that kind of light shimmery tone.

McGeoch was a player with an effortlessly light touch, delicate and super accurate with a crazy elastic flow.

Being positively ham-fisted in comparison I often shake my fist up at the clouds when trying to master a Mcgeoch part.

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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by dezb1 » Wed Jun 07, 2017 12:51 am

Nice! I bought mine a coupe of years ago excellent guitars the coil splits are a thing of beauty. I also got the original Yamaha case with mine but it's beat to hell it's done it's job though as the guitar is in near mint condition.

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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by andy_tchp » Wed Jun 07, 2017 1:48 am

stevejamsecono wrote:Also, hilariously, the thing has like... 9s and is set up for super shred right now. I've been doing 11s with "slightly high" action for a little while now, and with the current setup it makes me feel like I'm much more talented.
Had the same experience with my SG50 :D That .009-.042" set never left that guitar (still on it when I sold it). The SG50 lacked the coil-splitting option unfortunately, else it might've been a keeper.
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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by stevejamsecono » Wed Jun 07, 2017 4:28 am

eggwheat wrote:Awesome. Crazy value for money too for such a high end guitars.

Being a total Mcgeoch fanboy I read an interview where he said he used 9's..so I tried them on my two SG1000's and discovered I really liked them, they give that kind of light shimmery tone.

McGeoch was a player with an effortlessly light touch, delicate and super accurate with a crazy elastic flow.

Being positively ham-fisted in comparison I often shake my fist up at the clouds when trying to master a Mcgeoch part.
It's quite interesting, and to be honest, having been playing those 11s for so long it just felt like I was training on a planet with super gravity and then coming back to Earth. Pretty cool.
shadowplay wrote:A very wise buy, looks immaculate and you are 100% correct about the pickups and the tapping.

D
Only problem with wise buys is inevitably I'll want another one :fp:
And you find out life isn't like that
It's so hard to understand
Why the world is your oyster but your future's a clam

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Re: NGD: 1980 Yamaha SG1000 - At long last

Post by Maggieo » Wed Jun 07, 2017 8:25 am

shadowplay wrote:A very wise buy, looks immaculate and you are 100% correct about the pickups and the tapping.

D
Allow me to second that and add my congratulations. I love the Yamaha SGs.
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