Yamaha was founded in Japan in 1887 as a piano company, and after WWII it branched out into guitars, as well as motorcycles and electronics. The company got a relatively late start in the solidbody market in 1964, but within a few years Yamaha made an unforgettable impression with models such as this 1967 SG-5A.

The Flying Samurai, as this body style is affectionately called, doesn’t appear to be particularly airworthy. The upper part of the body is a reverse image of Rickenbacker’s “cresting wave” shape, while the lower bass bout sems to be pulling against the rest of the body. The headstock appears to have come from a different designer, but it does provide straight string-pull in a most economical and minimalist way. The SG-5A’s three single-coil pickups did not generate the level of power or sustain that players would expect from a samurai, and it did not cause fear in the hearts of Western guitarmakers.

But in the era of “copy” imports, it represented a new wave of original designs from Japanese makers.