Is it me, or are these Yamaha SG prices getting a bit silly?

Sassafras

His sales hype is truly cringe-worthy. He's used every cliche known to  man.

Sassafras

Great news!
He's accepted my offer of £6449

bignorm

I saw a bunch of these suddenly appeared a few years back and wondered if China had started knocking copies out coz suddenly they were for sale everywhere. 
I quite like the looks of the Yammy but Ive tried a few different models over the years and never got on with them at all.
The necks are way too chunky and the overall weight is ridiculous to play comfortably for more than a few minutes. 
Sound wise they're a bit meh, way too polite and sterile.
I remember trying a used SG1000 in a shop and then picking up a scruffy Yamaki lester copy straight afterwards, which p!ssed all over the yammy in feel, playability and character at a fraction of the price, so I bought that one instead. 

57Deluxe

this is the same spec as that which Sanatana used minus the motif and I don't think there are that many around. The SG was made more whole as a range at beginning of 80s and this version with its Mexican Aberlone inlays and binding became the more showy SG3000 with added coil taps.

++

You have to ask - would you prefer to play this SG and a Boogie Mk I or a PRS and a Dumble??

Bridgehouse

Sassafras said:

Great news!
He's accepted my offer of £64.49

FTFY

BloodEagle

This guy has been buying up and then trying to inflate the prices of SGs for years - annyoing because you can no longer find a decent one for the 'right' price. As stated previously, and having dealt with him in the past, he's a slippery customer.

SteveRobinson

Luckily there is plenty of other guitars to buy at more reasonable prices.

Bridgehouse

Well, turns out I'm not missing anything.

They are just silly prices. Excellent. As you were.

impmann

I sold my SG2000 for £650 in 1999 (ish) and I thought I was doing well. They are great, great guitars but ultimately a little limited in standard form. They lack dynamics - the pickups are a bit all or nothing and the coil taps were... well, lets be kind and say they were 'functional'. The big issue was the weight - mine was a whopper, a proper shoulder sloper even with a 3inch wide soft leather strap. Following my back problems, it was just impossible to play - and it gave me a dead leg after a while of playing it sitting down.

I've since played one fitted with EMGs (yes really) and a Kahler trem - that was a lot better sounding but still weighed the same as an aircraft carrier. I played a lightweight one that @sweepy had - when I say lightweight, it didn't quite need a counterbalance FLT licence to operate it, but again, that was a great guitar.

However, I really don't want another one. There are other options out there that are cheaper (or at least similar money) that aren't so darned heavy. 

jeztone2

But couldn't you say the same of 70's Fenders. I mean I'm 47. I played a lot of 70's Strats when they were secondhand. All were underwhelming. I was offered a 76 Tele Custom 10 years ago & I managed to push the edge of 2 credit cards in the neck pocket join.

Is is there a certain racism is the way value is added to a badly made American guitar, but not a "well made for its time" Japanese Guitar? I mean go an open up Guitarist mag in the 1980's. Lots of pro's used Yamaha SG's, Ibanez Roadstars, Schecters. Albums were made with these things. 

Im being devils advocate here. But my SG1000 is as well made as my Les Paul & slightly more versatile. But I didn't blow £6K on it. 

Bridgehouse

70s Fenders are a whole different discussion - but the SG priced at 3 times that of an equivalent 70s fender seems a bit mad to me?

fields5069

DefaultM said:

I don't understand buying a guitar for its sustain. I've never been playing and thought that my guitars aren't holding notes for long enough. How long are you trying to hold a note for that you need to buy a specific guitar to do it?

If a guitar has tone for days, how do I know unless it can sustain for days?

ICBM

Bridgehouse said:

70s Fenders are a whole different discussion - but the SG priced at 3 times that of an equivalent 70s fender seems a bit mad to me?

Sounds about right to me given the relative quality.

Because a 70s Fender should actually be worth about £250...

Jack_

I'll have chips and maho please, love.

Bridgehouse

ICBM said:

Bridgehouse said:

70s Fenders are a whole different discussion - but the SG priced at 3 times that of an equivalent 70s fender seems a bit mad to me?

Sounds about right to me given the relative quality.

Because a 70s Fender should actually be worth about £250...

Lol - point taken

impmann

jeztone2 said:

But couldn't you say the same of 70's Fenders. I mean I'm 47. I played a lot of 70's Strats when they were secondhand. All were underwhelming. I was offered a 76 Tele Custom 10 years ago & I managed to push the edge of 2 credit cards in the neck pocket join.

Is is there a certain racism is the way value is added to a badly made American guitar, but not a "well made for its time" Japanese Guitar? I mean go an open up Guitarist mag in the 1980's. Lots of pro's used Yamaha SG's, Ibanez Roadstars, Schecters. Albums were made with these things. 

Im being devils advocate here. But my SG1000 is as well made as my Les Paul & slightly more versatile. But I didn't blow £6K on it. 

I certainly would say that about late 70s Fenders - I haven't played one I've liked and I'm a similar age to you. There must *be* some good ones, but all I've played have been... ok at best.

Its not racism towards Jap guitars - I actually prefer Jap Fenders to US ones in general. I'd far rather own/play a 1980 Ibanez than a 1980s US Fender - as did many pros. Sadly a lot of the 80s were blighted by locking trems. And a lot of these are now dreadfully worn out making them as desireable as a secondhand Doner Kebab.

I'm not slagging the build quality off - far from it the Yammy was beautifully made and I haven't played a bad one. However, I never found mine to be 'versatile' with the standard pickups - as I said earlier, I found they lacked dynamics but then again, I prefer lower wind humbuckers so thats probably my problem not the guitar's!

WezV

fields5069 said:

DefaultM said:

I don't understand buying a guitar for its sustain. I've never been playing and thought that my guitars aren't holding notes for long enough. How long are you trying to hold a note for that you need to buy a specific guitar to do it?

If a guitar has tone for days, how do I know unless it can sustain for days?

Its not just about the length of time the string is moving for -   the whole life of the note is affected

Very simply speaking, you can achieve "sustain" two ways. 

1) improve the efficiency of the string so it looses less energy and sustains for longer.   This is what you get from heavy guitars and very solid materials.  Its the theory many were building to in the 80's.     The attack is often quite fast,and direct. The note reaches its peak quickly with very little initial decay and stays near that peak for a long time.

2) feed energy back into the string to keep it vibrating.  Stand in front of a speaker, use a sustainer... or build a very light and resonant guitar.  more string energy is passed to the body, filtered, and  returned to the string.   The attack can be slower with more "bloom", the note drops from its peak more noticeably.   The sustain will be more complex, the note will change character more noticeably as it continues

richardhomer

jeztone2 said:

But couldn't you say the same of 70's Fenders. I mean I'm 47. I played a lot of 70's Strats when they were secondhand. All were underwhelming. I was offered a 76 Tele Custom 10 years ago & I managed to push the edge of 2 credit cards in the neck pocket join.

Is is there a certain racism is the way value is added to a badly made American guitar, but not a "well made for its time" Japanese Guitar? I mean go an open up Guitarist mag in the 1980's. Lots of pro's used Yamaha SG's, Ibanez Roadstars, Schecters. Albums were made with these things. 

Im being devils advocate here. But my SG1000 is as well made as my Les Paul & slightly more versatile. But I didn't blow £6K on it. 

Schecters were all Amercan made up until the move to Dallas when some parts were sourced from Godin in Canada.

They bring buttons now - so I think the issue is more 'not Gibson or Fender' than 'Japanese'.

Titch

Is this the same guy who has about a dozen Yamaha guitars on Gumtree in Northumberland?

impmann

Titch said:

Is this the same guy who has about a dozen Yamaha guitars on Gumtree in Northumberland?

The same