THE SO-CALLED LAWSUIT-era copy guitars made in Japan during the 1970s and ’80s have developed a cult following in recent years, seducing today’s guitarists for their ability to often surpass the quality of the American-made originals from the same period. But the most successful and acclaimed Japanese guitar of the late ’70s wasn’t a direct copy of anything. Instead, the Yamaha SG-2000 was a creative and original design — a “Les Paul killer” that proved to be an able assassin in the hands of a long line of big-name players, starting with none other than Carlos Santana.
Flashback, if you will, to the mid ’70s, when American-made electric
