[quote=”joegee27″]I have a Yamaha hollow body electric guitar that was purchased around 1970. I would like to find out the model type, and what the value of the guitar might be. The Guitar has a serial number of 2186. I have posted a picture of it below. I’m hoping someone can tell me the model by looking at the photo. Thanks for your help.
[URL=http://img213.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img11149hd.jpg]http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/7268/img11149hd.th.jpg%5B/URL%5D%5B/quote%5D
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I’m doing a restoration on a Yamaha SA30… where can you find the serial number of the SA 30?

Gentlemen, I just bought a SA 50 off E-bay. $280 US with shipping. Stripped Maple sunburst, missing the bridge and pick guard other wise in very good condition. Needs a new nut and strings, but what used guitar doesn’t. I have not found a model designation, yet, it could be an earlier SA5 or a SA50 or one of the “B” variants, which were based on color. A good picture of the bridge can be seen at .

http://www.bass-guitar-museum.com/bass-14657-Rarissima-YAMAHA-SA-50-stile-335-1968

The forth picture. Oh, if you read the e-bay review, it does not have a through neck, just stiff longitudinal reinforcement in order to support the trim.

Thanks 1bassleft,,,I have at last found enough images to make a nice copy and i have a brand new rolla bridge to suit and its very close[in fact i would say a little better]…..I will post some pics once all put back together….

An eBayer has written a review on the SA50 here:
http://reviews.ebay.com/Yamaha-SA-50-Electric-Spanish-Super-Axe_W0QQugidZ10000000003171037

There isn’t a real close-up of the bridge, but you could contact the member and ask for one to be emailed to you. If you don’t have an eBay account, I could try him on your behalf.

Hi all,
I also have one of these beautiful machines.. But without its bridge….I am using a bridge out of old Maton arch_top we had laying around for the time being…… I am chasing a good close pick of the roller bridge set up.It would be very handy if one of you guys could post a good pick…Please…otherwise will have to have a guess
I bought mine whilst working in a music store.The customer wanted to straight trade for an acoustic bass we had.Essentially it cost me $500 australian.

Thanks to revho and denis for those posts. Always nice to see the info build up 🙂

about the SA-50

I was looking to find the same information about my similar guitar and found it on this blog!
Somebody was enquiring about the price or value. I might have an answer,
when I brought it in to get the wires redone, ( it had been in its case since 1972 and hadn’t been played, -the internals were pretty rusty ) and the luthier estimated it to be worth ~ $2000 CDN, back in the year 2000.

I also checked an online guitar sales site that seems to be based in Japan, they had three SA-50 models, each was selling for ~ 207, 000 YEN, which works to just over $1900 Canadian which is almost the same in U.S. dollars now.
So i’m guessing if its in mint shape, you should be able to get about that much if you are looking to sell it.

[quote=”dwillis”]I have the same guitar. Mine was purchased in 1966 by my father in law. It was never played and put away in a hard case until I received it. Needless to say it’s in mint condition. I’m taking it to a vintage guitar dealer this weekend to see if I can get more information on it. I’ll let you know what I find out.[/quote]

Dwillis – did you have any luck with your dealer?
If you want to sell this guitar, let me know.

[quote=”joegee27″]I have a Yamaha hollow body electric guitar that was purchased around 1970. I would like to find out the model type, and what the value of the guitar might be. The Guitar has a serial number of 2186. I have posted a picture of it below. I’m hoping someone can tell me the model by looking at the photo. Thanks for your help.
[URL=http://img213.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img11149hd.jpg]http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/7268/img11149hd.th.jpg%5B/URL%5D%5B/quote%5D

Joegee27 – what you have there is a Yamaha SA-50. These were made from 1967 to 1972. They have two humbucker pickups, and a quite innovative roller trem system. Have a look at the Yamaha database link (may be easier to tranlate this page with Babelfish). I have a cherry red one and I love the sound I get from it through my Laney LC30.

http://www.yamaha.co.jp/product/guitar/eg/database/sa/01/sa-50.html

Thanks, dwillis. It’d be very useful if you could come back with updated info 🙂

I have the same guitar. Mine was purchased in 1966 by my father in law. It was never played and put away in a hard case until I received it. Needless to say it’s in mint condition. I’m taking it to a vintage guitar dealer this weekend to see if I can get more information on it. I’ll let you know what I find out.

It looks similar to, but better specced than, the SA30 (See this eBay auction: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-YAMAHA-SA-30-Semi-Acoustic-Rare-60s-Classic_W0QQitemZ7418483368QQcategoryZ33049QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

The guitarist in my old band had something like the SA30, which he bought for about (IIRC) £120 back in the 90s. A nice guitar; more country twang than jazzy ES style. It’ll be interesting to see what that eBay auction pans out to. People now reconize the quality of 70s Nippon Gakki and pay well, but the semis have yet to catch on. Try a search engine with the phrase “Yamaha SA30” then try “SA50” etc and see if a pic comes up of one that matches yours.

Not seen one of those before – it’s a nice looking guitar.

You say it’s from approx 1970 – so it’s good to see that the trem arm is still present and correct.