Even without it’s motorcycles and consumer electronic products, Yamaha would still be the largest company in the musical instrument industry, thanks to it’s lines of keyboards, band instruments, and sound equipment, as well as guitars.

The Japanese conglomerate traces it’s roots to a pedal-driven reed organ invented by Torakusa Yamaha in 1887. The company he founded, Nippon Gakki, began making guitars in 1946. The first Yamaha guitars to arrive in America, in 1964, were classicals.

Three years later, the first steel-string flat-tops debuted. In a nod to the music of the times, the line was called FG for Folk Guitar. In the era of copy guitars, Yamahas were easily distinguishable by the subtle V-shape at the top of the headstock.

The first FG model numbers were in the 100s, and through the 1970s, the numbers got higher and higher as an apparent indication of Yamaha’s success. The FG-612S was one of the top models of the early 1980s, featuring a solid top (designated by the S in the model name), along with a bound fingerboard and peghead.