🎸 Vintage Yamaha F-230 12-String – Red Label Legend from Nippon Gakki w/ Baggs Pickup

If guitars could talk, this one would tell stories that smell like old wood, vinyl records, and the golden age of folk rock. This is a Yamaha F-230 12-String, built in the legendary Nippon Gakki factory in Japan sometime between late 1967 and mid-1972, as marked by its coveted Red Label.

No serial number? No problem. The label alone tells us it’s the real deal—and trust us, the tone confirms it.

🎼 Tone That Time Built

This guitar has lived—and it shows. Not just in the scuffs and dings that give it the perfect amount of mojo, but in the rich, open, seasoned tone that only comes from decades of playing. And yes, it sounds amazing unplugged—but then you plug it in...

Enter the LR Baggs Lyric Pickup. This isn’t just a pickup—it’s a specially designed microphone that captures every ounce of warmth, resonance, and harmonic shimmer this old beauty has to give. Mounted beneath the bridge, it hears what your ears hear and more — only louder.

🔧 Condition: Vintage, Not Fragile

• Neck: Straight as a preacher on Sunday morning. Truss rod is adjustable with room to work.

• Frets: Above average, showing wear but no buzzing—plenty of life left.

• Body: A slight belly (as you'd expect from a 50+ year old 12-string), but the bracing is solid, the bridge is tight, and the neck joint is rock solid.

• Cosmetics: Dings, dents, love taps. Nothing structural. Everything honest. My wife would call it "PATINA!"

• Electronics: LR Baggs Lyric installed and working beautifully.

🎯 Why You Want This Guitar

• You want that vintage tone—open, complex, full of soul.

• You want a real-deal Red Label Yamaha, not a reissue.

• You want a 12-string that won't fall apart if you look at it wrong.

• You want something that sounds killer both acoustically and amplified.

This guitar isn’t a museum piece—it’s a player’s vintage guitar. Built to last, built to sing, already broken in, and ready for the next 50 years.

Strum a few chords on this guitar and you'll see why Red Label Yamahas are getting hard to find and even harder to put down.