In the 1970s, Yamaha joined other Japanese makers in copying American designs, but in the case of this SG-60T from 1973, they picked an unlikely model.

The body did feature a routed “lip” around the top edge that was known as the “German carve”, in part because it had been introduced in America on Rickenbacker guitars designed by German-born luthier Roger Rossmeisl.

However, the Yamaha SG 60T (T for tremolo; it was also available with tremolo) did not copy the Rickenbacker so much as the cheap National and Supro guitars made in the early 1960s by the Chicago-based Valco company. National had gone out of the business in 1967, unable to compete with inexpensive Japanese imports; perhaps Yamaha somehow thought the National/Supro designs still viable.

While the SG 60T did not raise Yamaha to the level of Fender or Gibson, it was part of a second wave of Yamaha solidbodies that sported better tuners and more powerful humbucking pickups, and it served notice that Yamaha might soon be a formidable player in the solidbody market.