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SOLD
1983 Yamaha AE-1200
Legendary Full Hollow, L5 Lawsuit Clone
Seeing the commercial success of their virgin full hollow bodies AE-11 / AE-12 and AE-18, Yamaha spent 2 years developing this state of the luthier's art full hollow body guitar at a time when Gibson and Fender were taking legal action against the Japanese guitar makers because they were 'too damned good'. Their endless effort and obsession to perfection resulted in releasing their flagship hollow body AE-1200 and AE-2000 in 1978. Specifically, AE-1200 seemingly took over the same DNA of AE-12 with renovation done at the headstock / inlay / tailpiece and fretboard timber upgraded from rosewood to ebony. This best seller has long run till 1989, at which time AE-1500 took its honorable place in the realm of Yamaha hollow body.
This is one of the best jazz guitars you will ever find and is not as well known as a lot of others because of its rarity. Hollowbody guitars are known to be the peak of the luthiers art and skill and the AE1200 is the peak of that art in this period of Japanese artistry which includes the Yamaha SG and SA series, now widely known as classics. The AE 1200 has spruce body / maple side and back with ebony fretboard, and from the serial numbers and other date codes was made in 1983. This guitar also has Grover imperial tuners for stability of tuning and push-push pots for both pickups to give any combination of neck-bridge Alnico humbucker and single coil sounds. It is incredibly versatile and an absolute dream to play. The spruce body is now responsive to picking technique and finger vibrato on the ebony neck and the well balanced pickups are crisp and warm - this is an absolute delight.
This is one of the best jazz guitars you will ever find and is not as well known as a lot of others because of its rarity. Hollowbody guitars are known to be the peak of the luthiers art and skill and the AE1200 is the peak of that art in this period of Japanese artistry which includes the Yamaha SG and SA series, now widely known as classics. The AE 1200 has spruce body / maple side and back with ebony fretboard, and from the serial numbers and other date codes was made in 1983. This guitar also has Grover imperial tuners for stability of tuning and push-push pots for both pickups to give any combination of neck-bridge Alnico humbucker and single coil sounds. It is incredibly versatile and an absolute dream to play. The spruce body is now responsive to picking technique and finger vibrato on the ebony neck and the well balanced pickups are crisp and warm - this is an absolute delight.
This guitar is 30 years old with some body wear on the top of the body, including thin cracks at the back of the neck and the front body parallel to 6th string. This does not impair its playability - the action is low for a guitar of this type yet it is resonant and toneful. When new these guitars sold for 120,000 Yen. (Dating hint: pickup stamped 58.x.x meaning Japanese Showa calendar year 58 = Showa staring year 1925 + 58 = 1983). Please note Bigsby tremolo + Luxury tuners replaced the original parts. A brand new gig bag comes along with this guitar.
