1968 Yamaha SG-12A Electric 12-String Guitar

Ah, yes, the venerable Flying Samurai model -- but this time as a 12-string! Can it get any more '60s, Tokyo surf-band-cool than this beautiful beast? Per its serial it dates to 1968 and it's in a most-excellent metallic blue nitro finish with a slightly-mint-looking pickguard.

My friend Todd bought this one and I went through it -- the major work being a level/dress of the frets and swapping-out the 3-way switch for a fresh one. The harder work, though, involved "locking" the saddles in place (they're roller saddles) and then non-obviously grinding some extra compensation into them to get it to play more in-tune up the neck -- and then all of the other fussy little setup details. With these, just like on Jazzmasters and Jaguars, the foam under the pickups turns to hard gunk and needs swapping for new foam.

One neat thing -- the wiring for the knobs is volume, tone, and "balancer." The "balancer" seems to change the way the bridge "humbucker" (two singles put together) sounds in some capacity or another. I like it best wide-open, though.

Feel-wise this has a comfy, soft V profile with a thinner depth and a 12" board radius as I recall. Tone-wise, it's got a definite early Jaguar sort-of sound -- a bit on the aggressive side and with a nice, mids-high punch and jangle to it. It loves the bright switch on a Fender amp, of course!