My Mystery Yamaha SG
My Mystery Yamaha SG
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I bought a Yamaha SG-esque guitar from a local classifieds listing.
No serial number, no model name.
Can anyone help me identify it?
Based on the info I've found out, and my observations, there is a likelihood it was a custom order for an artist. I would love to find out who it was made for.
If you have any ideas, leads, or thoughts, please respond on whatever forum or social media thread brought you here. Thank you!
-- April 2025
Background
Background
I contacted the seller of a local classified ad. It turns out, it was an older guy listing the guitar on behalf of his musician son, who moved overseas many years ago and left a lot of his possessions into his father's care back in the U.S.
This guitar had been sitting in a case since then, and the son (I'll call him "Sam") finally instructed his father to go ahead and sell it for him.
I asked to get in touch with Sam directly to ask more questions about the guitar's origins and background. Here is what he said:
"This guitar is a bit of a mystery. It's certainly a prototype or custom piece, as it seems to be a hybrid between an SG and a Revstar and displays characteristics of both. My assumption is that it was made at YGD in California...
"I swapped one of my older Jazzmaster reissues for this with a friend in NYC. My friend was in a pretty big group back then and used to tour a bunch. My best guess is that it is from the late 90s or early 00s. Possibly could be a YASLA project as well.
"Don't know much more regarding its provenance."
I got the feeling Sam didn't want to identify his unnamed friend who sounded like could be a candidate for an artist Yamaha would make a custom or prototype piece for. So I didn't push it. I didn't want to pressure him to, perhaps he was reluctant to sell to someone who only wanted to flip the guitar for a profit based on the guitar's association with a professional musician.
To make a long story short, I did end up buying that guitar several months later after seeing them gradually drop the price over time until I just had to go check it out in person.
Once I got to test it, it felt like a real Yamaha to me (I own a handful already), sounded great, and played fantastically so I was happy to run to the bank to grab some cash and take it home with me.
Do I have a real Yamaha of unknown origin, or a really good fake?
(My opinion: is there even a real market for fake Yamahas? Maybe back in the day with vintage SG's in their prime. To me, this guitar is too intentionally different from a real SG to convince me someone actually tried to make a fake).
---
Did you email Yamaha to ask about the guitar?
Yes, I tried emailing Yamaha customer support to ask if they could identify it tell me if they thought it was a fake.
They said they couldn't find a current employee who could identify it, and said they said that their "best guess...is that the guitar is likely a prototype or a custom piece."
But I'm not sure if the rep even asked the right departments (they said they asked "Guitar Marketing" and "Yamaha Japan", even though I clearly asked about it's potential U.S. origin. I think the rep might be a Japanese employee, as the email was somewhat unnaturally worded in some places as well.
It's also possible that no current employees at YGD in California from 20-25 years ago are still there today to remember or identify it.
Update, July 2025
First, I cold messaged someone who worked at the Yamaha Custom shop in the 2000's.
He responded, "This was not made be me or in the USA during my 12 years with Yamaha RD. It does have all the construction points of a prototype built in the Yamaha Japan RD shop. No doubt a beautiful instrument."
However, I then sent him a photo of the hard case, that says "Made in U.S.A." and he conceded that it was a USA G&G case that they would use at that time for custom guitars they made at Yamaha USA. He didn't respond to me after that, and I didn't want to bother him further, so he just might not remember it.
Then, I emailed Seymour Duncan, and they gave an excellent response.
"Looking at these labels, these pickups were built in early 2003 and were marked for OEM sale. We're not typically able to tell which OEM pickups were sent to, but in this case I can see in our records at least the Bridge pickup was spec'd by Yamaha... our OEM partners can request pickups with non standard options when ordering in large quantities, in this case our '59 model Bridge comes stock with no logo, long mounting legs, and the vintage braided lead, so it was spec'd by Yamaha for a logo'd, short leg baseplate and the 4c lead wire. It looks like these were shipped to Yamaha in the US, but I don't know if they could have been sent out of the country by Yamaha themselves though."
So, signs are pointing to this guitar being made in 2003 at Yamaha USA.
Observations
Observations
Specs
Specs
Body: SG type, but asymmetrical/offset horns like a Revstar but with deeper-angled cuts
Body thickness: measured same as Revstar (1 5/8")
Weight: 8lbs 12 oz
Headstock logo: similar to some 2000's production models (such as RGX520FZ or RGX820)
Serial number: none
Tuners: Gotoh standard non-locking
Neck thickness: very similar to SG1820, which is 20.5mm (1st fret) / 25.0 mm (12th fret).
Frets: Medium jumbo
Fret markers: dot inlays akin to SG1802 (not 1820)
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Pickups: Seymour Duncan '59s (SH-1)
Bridge/Tailpiece: unknown, possibly proprietary
Control knobs: appear to be identical to SG1820's "Speed Knobs"
Hard Case: Yamaha "Made in U.S.A."
My theory is that this guitar was made in the early to mid-2000's and is a custom or prototype that preceded the Yamaha SG1820, which was introduced in 2010, and still in production and sold today (except in the U.S.).
(Update: see note above that Seymour Duncan confirmed the pickups were custom ordered by the Yamaha USA Custom Shop in 2003).
The body shape with offset horns is reminiscent of the Revstar as well, which were first introduced in 2015, as it has offset horns, albeit with deeper angled cuts than a Revstar.
See: Yamaha SG1820 Specs
See: Yamaha Revstar
What follows are photos with my longer-form journaling of my observations as I inspected the guitar.
Hard Case
Came with a nice, premium, Yamaha-branded hard case. Signs of definite use on the exterior. A little worn, but not thrashed.
But the inside is quite clean and nice.
The interior logo badge is branded "Yamaha Made in U.S.A.".
If that's true, this aligns with the previous owner's assumption that the guitar was made by Yamaha Guitar Development (YGD) or Yamaha Artist Services Los Angeles (YASLA) creation, not made in Japan.
Headstock
The top of black headstock (see below) comes to sharp points, whereas normal SG's are a slightly different outline and come to rounded points.
Logo: Tuning fork emblem followed by YAMAHA text.
No Yamaha SG, as far as I know, has ever had that particular logo configuration on the headstock.
But you know what has?
Some Yamaha guitar models from the early to mid 2000's, the same time period that the previous owner thinks this SG was made.
I can see that the headstock logo looks similar to that of my 2005 RGX520FZ (Dark Translucent Red), as shown above...
...and my 2002 RGX820Z (Deep Blue Burst), below. Although the headstock logos on these were not embossed like the SG's is.
The back of the headstock has no serial number or anything written at all.
Gotoh Tuners (non-locking)
Don't look the same as currently made Gotoh tuners.
Hopefully someone can identify model and era of these based on the picture...
Neck
It's a thicker neck, like a Yamaha SG would have. I've never had the pleasure of laying hands on a vintage or modern Yamaha SG, so I have no baseline to compare to.
The neck shape feels almost identical to my RGX520FZ, which, coincidentally, is from the same era that this SG might be from, and also happens to be like the exact same red color (see photo).
Neck thickness:
RGX520FZ neck specs are 21.5 mm (1st fret) / 24.0 mm (12th fret).
SG1820 neck specs are 20.5mm (1st fret) / 25.0 mm (12th fret).
I'm willing to bet this SG gets very close to or matches that of an SG1820.
Neck width: I don't have calipers, but using a fret gauge measuring tool the best I can and converting inches to mm I get:
42.9 mm (nut) and 52.4 mm (12th fret), which basically matches...
SG1820 listed specs of 43 mm (nut) and 52.6 mm (12th fret).
The neck finish on this SG feels like the same finish that's on my RGX520FZ (gloss polyurethane), but is a bit smoother. My RGX520FZ can feel a bit too grippy sometimes when making transitions up or down the neck.
The back of the neck is pristine - not a scratch, dent, or nick to be found. I notice a little bit of clouding at the top and bottom back of the neck where the guitar was resting on the contact points with the hard case all these years.
Fretboard
The nut is white as opposed to the SG1820's cream-colored nut and does seem like it could be a replacement.
Rosewood fingerboard.
Frets appear to be medium-jumbo.
Fret inlays are dot markers, which is obviously not like most SG's or the SG1820, though some models have had them (SG1500 being a vintage example).
However, the SG1820's companion model, the P90s-equipped SG1802, has dot inlay fret markers. See below.
Body
First, the shape - asymmetrical horns! It makes the guitar body visually appear more elongated than it really is, although I think the"hips" where the outline comes inward actually might come up a tad higher than the SG1820. Maybe a slightly sharper "point" it comes to in the hips too.
The offset horns were used in the Revstar, but with less steep angled cuts.
An RSP02T in Crisp Gold, as a reference for comparison.
The bottom half of an SG1820 and vintage/classic SG bodies are definitely slightly more circular and wider.
An SG1820 in Brown Sunburst, as a reference for comparison.
Body finish is the same gloss polyurethane from what I can tell.
The cream binding is well done and extends up and around the headstock.
The binding is nice and tidy (left). You can see how much messier the binding lines are on my RGX520FZ (right).
Body Thickness & Weight
I'm measuring the body thickness at 1 5/8", the same as my Revstar Professional and RGX520FZ. Seems like a standard body thickness for many Yamaha guitars.
I've read Yamaha SG1820 and vintage SG bodies measure at a full 2" thick.
I don't have a legitimate scale to weigh it on, but using a couple workaround methods I'm roughly measuring this SG to be around 8 lbs 12 oz (3.97 kg).
Again, a full pound lighter than what SG1820's and vintage SG's usually weigh, as I read they are usually in the high 9lb range.
Pickups
Two black, uncovered Seymour Duncans. I've seen online that Chinese fakes of SD pickups have become really difficult to spot. So the skeptic in me panics that this is where I find out that I bought some incredible "Nah-maha" guitar.
Time to look inside...
Neck pickup: Seymour Duncan "SH1N"
Bridge pickup: Seymour Duncan "SH1B"
What we seem to have here is a set of Seymour Duncan '59 Model (SH-1) pickups.
Using online forum help posts like this one, I think these are authentic. But, perhaps I'm seeing what I want to see and these could be fakes...?
Real or fake, what I do know is that after setting up, plugging in, and playing away...I love the way they sound! Pure, vintage classic rock tones.
Control Cavities
Neck pickup cavity:
Bridge pickup cavity:
I was hoping to find words or writings of any kind that might be clues to the guitar's origin, but...nothing.
Electronics are what I understand least about guitars, but everything seems to be very cleanly and professionally done.
Pickup selector cavity:
Control knobs back cavity:
CONTROLS
The control knobs look like bonafide Yamaha ones.
They appear identical to the black and white Speed Knobs found on the SG1820:
Bridge and Tailpiece
I can't find anything else online that looks quite like this so I'm going to assume that the bridge and tailpiece are proprietary. There is a precedent for Yamaha doing that with some models.
I was so excited to play it when I was setting it up, I forgot to try to remove and look on the underside of it to see if there were any labels or markings indicating a brand.
The saddles are interesting. I notice the 6th and 5th string saddles are inverted from the other four, presumably so that the "ridge" where the string comes over the saddle can be a longer scale and create the distance needed to intonate properly on those two lower strings.
It's possible the bridge and tailpiece are something no longer in production. I couldn't find any old third-party bridges that look like exactly this though.
The closest thing I could to this bridge visually is a Schaller bridge made in the 1960's.
Tailpiece is fastened in from the back via some Allen screws.
Final thoughts
Final thoughts
So there you go - despite having a body shape and thickness that is Revstar-like, this guitar feels to me like a predecessor to the SG1820. The overall aesthetic is obviously derived from the classic Yamaha SG look, and it has the exact same pickups, pick guard, and control knobs as the SG1820.
But who was it made for?
Yamaha does make custom guitars to order for artists, but Yamaha also likes to place prototypes into the hands of touring or session musicians for their feedback and thoughts.
I've tried scouring the web to find any artist or musician I can pictured with this guitar, but I've had no luck. Maybe it's just a prototype that leaked out when an employee no longer wanted it for themselves.
I might never find out more about this guitar's origins.
But what I do know is I've added an awesome guitar to my arsenal, and it sounds and plays like a true Yamaha to me!
Yamaha SG Prototype
Yamaha SG1820
Yamaha Revstar RSP02T
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