Yamaha SC-800

Yamaha SC-800
Serial No. 002139





The Yamaha SC-800 was made by Yamaha Japan from 1977 to 1980. The body is alder, the neck is hard maple and the fretboard is striped ebony.

It has Yamaha-made Single Coil Rail pickups in a standard strat configuration.
The neck pick-up is connected to a DPST toggle switch that can switch this pick-up ON and OFF. The middle and bridge pick-ups are each connected to DPDT switches. This allows the independent switching of the middle and the bridge pick-ups ON-OFF-ON, putting them in and out of phase.



I like the capability to turn off all pick-ups as it enables me to take a short break without needing to turn the amp off. It's like having a guitar cable with a circuit-breaker.

The hardware are all chrome-plated. The bridge is the fixed hardtail type with a tele-like string-thru-the-body arrangement for maximum sustain.







I like the fact that theYamaha SC-800 guitar has characteristics of both the strat and the tele.

The body is strat shaped and the pick-up positions are like those of a strat but the hardtail string-thru is like those of a tele. Having no trem mechanism means it has less cavities in the body than a strat and in this regard is more like a tele.

The flexible switching capabilities enable one to switch the pick-ups to any of the 5 strat positions. The neck and the bridge pick-ups can be switched like in a tele. Out-of-phase pick-up combinations are also possible for even more tonal variety!

Beautiful and possibly rare. They just don't make them like they used to!